74. When Trust Is a Punishment

IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO:

· Employee A performs excellently in his or her duties.

· Employee B has mediocre performance in the same roles.

We trust employee A more and when an important task arises, where we can’t fail, we assign it to him because we intuit that employee B won’t be able to measure up.

It’s logical, isn’t it?

· Why would we trust B if his performance isn’t up to par?

· How can you not trust A if its performance is excellent?

The reality is that this pattern, if repeated, leads to some possible endings:

· Employee A begins to fail at his duties.

· Employee B continues with his mediocre level of performance.

If we let the pattern continue:

· Employee A resigns.

· Culture is poisoned.

This pattern is explained by the TPS (Toyota Production System) as one of its 3 M’s. Specifically, MURI or overload.

How do we get out of this pattern?

· With clear, consensual and visible objectives for everyone in the team.

· Clearly with respect to the levels of performance acceptable by the culture.

· Incentivizing above-average returns and discouraging below-average returns.

· But above all:

· Measuring and making visible the performance of each team member.