The science of performance reviews has dramatically improved in the last few years. The best companies have moved from ineffective annual reviews to frequent check-ins where employees receive direct feedback against specific goals and company values. In the new model, employees knows when they’re succeeding or failing. Good performers get promoted early and often, poor performers get terminated quickly. Companies that have adopted the new model outperform their outdated peers.
Voting is the equivalent of ineffective annual reviews. We hire politicians without specific goals, rarely check-in to how they’re doing and then two years later spend 20 minutes on our way to the polls deciding whether to fire or re-hire them. That’s assuming we even vote.
Best Practices for Politics
Let’s embrace the idea we should manage politicians like an executive manages their direct reports. Let’s acknowledge we have not only the power but the responsibility to give feedback, hire the best leaders and fire poor performers. Once we accept that, we can learn from business best practices and adopt them to politics. Best practices call for choosing goals and values to measure politicians against and a way to frequently check-in to provide feedback. A tool like this can be created through a combination of social media platforms, political donations and open government data. Let’s get to it.