So, having been tasked by my team to write a blog rounding up the year my first instinct was to rush off and look at our numbers and put some fantastic facts about RRM and what a great year it's been.  Then, my attention got caught in one of the Scrooge/A Christmas Carole/Muppet films that was on TV.  And, because I am me, I ended up thinking how great it was at showing the good and bad of performance management.  (Sorry, Kaz, the roundup will have to wait till the new year!).

Admit it, if you're still doing appraisals, you start by looking at the past.  What have you done this year?  Have you achieved targets?  and, if you have competencies - "How" have you achieved targets?  Dear old scrooge had a hard time with this; while everyone else was oozing goodwill to all men, he was building his pot of gold on the back of other people's misfortunes.

Next of course, what are you doing now?  What could you be doing better?  What's getting in the way?  How are you perceived by your colleagues?  I love the fact that Scrooge's nephew insists on seeing the good in him when everyone else is pointing out what an old misery he is.  I also love that he begins to see the error of his ways when given feedback on his performance.

And finally, plans for the future.  What's next?  New targets, development needs, performance goals, support for the changes that need to occur.  Scrooge is shown a future where nothing good comes out of his current approach.  If you don't change what you're doing, how will you change the future?  We have lots of performance sayings around that and my favourite is "do what you've always done, get what you've always got".

Now the lovely thing at the end of the films is that we see Scrooge undergo an epiphany and instantly change his ways.  Of course, in reality that takes time.  I love it that many books nowadays have epilogues; a commentary about what happened next.  I wonder if Scrooge maintained his new performance, or whether he slipped back into his old ways.  Faced with new targets did he instantly forget himself or did he maintain his new approach?

So, at the risk of asking for acres of feedback about how performance reviews don't work - following your review, what's the one thing you're changing for you're future (and I don't mean what you're New Year's Resolution!! - they never work).