RE: How to combat ordinal ranking of employees

[Rip Stauffer <rstauffer@bluefirepartners.com>]

Robert Camp said, "The sad truth is that rankings are 'necessary' for the
current business
environment."

I have to ask, in what sense are we using the word "necessary?" As in
"mandatory," or as in "required?" 

Rankings may be mandatory in organizations, but they are certainly not
required--neither for organizations nor for the environment. Organizations
with no ranking (or appraisals, for that matter) seem to be very productive;
see Coens and Jenkins' "Abolishing Performance Appraisals" for some case
studies of actual successful organizations that have abolished appraisal.
Ranking is a process that produces only harm. It does not produce better
business results, either short-term or long-term; managers only "feel" that
it does because they know no other way.

It is a sad truth indeed that rankings are mandated in most organizations.
It is much more tragic that we have enculturated that mandate to the point
where we see it as something necessary, or a fundamental requirement for
business.

Best regards to all,

Rip

Rip Stauffer, Senior Consultant
BlueFire Partners
1300 Fifth St. Towers, 150 So. Fifth St.
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-344-1027
rstauffer@bluefirepartners.com