A New Book about Climate Change

Screenshot

As we ponder how to deal with the climate crisis, one of the most important realizations is that we are not alone. The challenges are huge, and it will require all of us to deal with them together.

The good news is that many people are thinking of creative ways to move toward sustainability. In a new book, Facing the Climate Crisis Together: Voices for Advocacy and Action, we hear from 33 climate champions and their work for a sustainable planet.

We need to realize that every step toward healing the planet matters. Some actions have great impact, some reach large audiences, and some are valiant attempts that may not seem like much but enable us to carry on with integrity. We need to keep at it daily, doing our part. We are all struggling with the climate monster that has been created. The great news is that we can face it together, in small but strong communities of advocates and activists around the world.

This book includes voices of people like you and me—what inspired us, what we feel passionate about as we face the climate future.

The stories give hope and renewed energy for climate action. We plant seeds of change, not knowing the outcome but hoping that what grows will improve the world. We put the seeds in the ground at a favorable place, water them, maybe solicit help for their care, and pray for a harvest we can share with others. The Earth is powerful, always renewing, always active to sustain life. We can be that way too.

The voices in this book encourage us never to give up. As we listen to others who are active in their communities, we see glimmers of hope. As climate activists, we are engaged in the most important efforts of our time. We rally with others as we pursue our vision for a better world.Continue reading→

Ranking Employees By Performance – A Seriously Flawed Common Practice

Another noggin’ floggin’ by Kimberly M. Wiefling, M.S.

One of the most distasteful duties I’ve performed as a project leader was to rank the people on my team, from best to worst performing, during an annual appraisal process. This is akin to ranking the usefulness of different kinds of music – it’s highly dependent on the music’s intended purpose, and subject to the taste of the person judging the music.

This so-called “forced stack ranking” is something I resisted at first, but regrettably I caved in and did what was asked of me. Afterwards I went home and took a shower to wash the stench of the whole experience off me. This was many years ago, before I developed the courage to overturn such unproductive practices, as I did later in my career when I championed abolishing performance appraisals at one company. (Don’t worry, it wasn’t a free-for-all. We replaced evaluations with respectful two-way dialogues every quarter between managers and employees to mutually assess results and align future actions with company goals.)

Simplistically, forced ranking works like this:

Make a list of people in a team, department or organization.
Place the names in order of perceived performance, from highest to lowest.
Turn this ranking into some kind of “grade”, which is shared with the employee:

Reward the top performers by using this ranking as a basis of distributing raises or bonuses.
Punish, humiliate, sanction, or fire the bottom 5 – 10%, presumably to make room for more top performers.

I’m sure you can already begin to imagine some of the hazards of this system and the negative impact on individual and team performance. Please don’t misunderstand me. It’s not that I think that objective performance evaluation is impossible, or that performance management is evil. As a scientist I understand that the relative contributions of individual employees can be measured objectively, but it’s often very difficult, time-consuming and expensive to do so accurately. As a professional familiar with neuroscience and the psychology of human behavior, I’ve learned that our ability to judge the performance of other people is flawed – tainted by perceptual biases beyond our control, and often beyond our awareness. But it’s my role as a leader that causes me the greatest concern regarding this widespread practice. As a leader my job is to optimize the results of a team, not merely select top-performing individuals. If you stack ranked the best musicians in the world and had them play together you wouldn’t get the best band. If you stack ranked the best politicians in the world and built a team of them you would not get the best government. And stack ranking the best individual performers won’t give you the best team.Continue reading→

How To Incorporate Sustainability At Your Next Business Event

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Infographic created by: FIRST

We Can Help You:

Lead your business more effectively.
Develop products more predictably.
Manage projects with greater ease.
Increase your professional effectiveness.

Pricing Information & Our Promise to You

"We only bill where we add value. Our invoices carry this message: If you are not completely satisfied with anything that you have been billed for, simply circle the amount of the charge, write a brief explanation of your concern, and subtract it from your payment. Our goal is your complete delight with our services, and we appreciate your valuable feedback."

- Kimberly M. Wiefling, M.S., Founder