Carol,
The example of rating scale and instructions I typed came from a 13 page
booklet we created last year. What does your question mean--"where were
the employees in this process?" They were everywhere.
They were represented by first-line managers on the team, and by the
employees to whom the draft was given for evaluation before it was
circulated to our 85 managers for application to performance appraisals.
We'll be happy and excited to change these criteria in the future. Perhaps
everyone in the 700 plus employees could become a miracle worker. That's
not the case now. We are making progress. We are accelerating the
periods between alterations to such scales in order to reflect a
continuously changing work population. We will, I think, continuously
improve, even to the point of eliminating scales and appraisals
altogether.
When I was in college and fresh out, I wanted to change the world
according to what I believed was best in my heart of hearts. I never took
into account that the speed of transition was not within my complete
control--or any control--short of violent revolution, with its companion
dislocation. While I still have the spore of apostasy growing like a
mushroom in the dark, I have confronted my own reality. It may be
different from yours or anyone else's.
That reality is that you can't force change on others, even when you are
certain you are in the right, that what people do now is any of the
following: wrong, bad, destructive, inefficient, wasteful. It takes
education and time. Spirit of the idea is so very different from letter
of the idea, to paraphrase the cliche.
Thank you for responding to my posting. I'd be happy to FAX the 13 pages
to you if you have any interest.
Best regards,
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com