It turns out that - collective teams - without bullying - perform best.
How do I know? Well..... I was reading the Evonomics blog. Which is you don't read it - you REALLY should. Anyway - there was an article about how Stacked Ranking is bad. Really really really bad. In fact, this article describes it as a "destructive employee practice." http://evonomics.com/why-stacked-ranking-is-the-destructive-employer-practice/
They aren't the only ones writing about this - Google "what is stacked ranking employees" and pretty much every article is about why this practice is toxic.
The article from Evonomics is great though - as it cites an old study - involving stacked ranking of hens. A farmer was trying to create super hens. So he took his best layers (his alpha hens) and put them in a shed together, bred them and tried to get even better hens. What he got, was psychotic hens that were so busy trying to kill each other that they didn't have much time to lay eggs.
It turns out the alpha hens - were also bullying hens. Now, I realize that most of you have not kept chickens before - but some chickens are bullies. They use violence and aggression to get food and whatever they want.
The good news is that once the regular hen house no longer had these bullying alpha hens, the remaining hens became very very happy and became excellent egg layers.
What the farmer found out is that bullying is stressful and stressful hens - don't lay eggs. He also found that the hens he thought were his alphas - weren't really his alphas. They just appeared to be better because - often they took credit for another hens work. And yes - hens will do that.
The big lesson about why stacked ranking doesn't work? Teams made of competitive alphas - are teams made up of aggressive individuals who don't really care about the others as long as they are on top.
The really good news for those of us interested in creating happier more cohesive work groups is that teams constructed to function as a collective are the ones that enhance the qualities of the individuals within it and allow those individuals to prosper. The individual isn't lost in a collective team. They thrive as individuals.
Another lesson is that getting rid of your super chickens - who are also your super bullies - helps improve performance.
If you want to learn about how to stop bullying in the workplace - take one of my many classes and invite me to your company to do a presentation. https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/
How do I know? Well..... I was reading the Evonomics blog. Which is you don't read it - you REALLY should. Anyway - there was an article about how Stacked Ranking is bad. Really really really bad. In fact, this article describes it as a "destructive employee practice." http://evonomics.com/why-stacked-ranking-is-the-destructive-employer-practice/
They aren't the only ones writing about this - Google "what is stacked ranking employees" and pretty much every article is about why this practice is toxic.
The article from Evonomics is great though - as it cites an old study - involving stacked ranking of hens. A farmer was trying to create super hens. So he took his best layers (his alpha hens) and put them in a shed together, bred them and tried to get even better hens. What he got, was psychotic hens that were so busy trying to kill each other that they didn't have much time to lay eggs.
It turns out the alpha hens - were also bullying hens. Now, I realize that most of you have not kept chickens before - but some chickens are bullies. They use violence and aggression to get food and whatever they want.
The good news is that once the regular hen house no longer had these bullying alpha hens, the remaining hens became very very happy and became excellent egg layers.
What the farmer found out is that bullying is stressful and stressful hens - don't lay eggs. He also found that the hens he thought were his alphas - weren't really his alphas. They just appeared to be better because - often they took credit for another hens work. And yes - hens will do that.
The big lesson about why stacked ranking doesn't work? Teams made of competitive alphas - are teams made up of aggressive individuals who don't really care about the others as long as they are on top.
The really good news for those of us interested in creating happier more cohesive work groups is that teams constructed to function as a collective are the ones that enhance the qualities of the individuals within it and allow those individuals to prosper. The individual isn't lost in a collective team. They thrive as individuals.
Another lesson is that getting rid of your super chickens - who are also your super bullies - helps improve performance.
If you want to learn about how to stop bullying in the workplace - take one of my many classes and invite me to your company to do a presentation. https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/
No comments:
Post a Comment