Slide 10
Slide 10 text
Demotivator: Ranking
• Forces an absolute ordering of engineer performance,
with the “top” (~20%) rewarded, the “middle” (~70%)
ignored and the “bottom” (~10%) terminated
• Also known as “top grading” (Amazon), “stack
ranking” (Microsoft), “rank-and-yank” (GE), “ranking-
and-rating” (Intel) and — most gallingly — “individual
dignity entitlement” (Motorola)
• A team, organization or company tautologically cannot
have more than a set percentage of top performers!
• Self-fulfilling prophesy: if one has more than the set
percentage of top performers, the lower-ranked top
performers will do you the favor of leaving!