What if you could replace performance evaluations with four simple questions?

Jena MacGregor:

Everyone loves to hate performance evaluations, and with good reason: Research has shown them to be ineffective, unreliable and unsatisfactory for seemingly everyone involved. They consume way too much time, leave most workers deflated and feel increasingly out of step with reality. A once-a-year, backwards-looking conversation with the boss hardly fits our forward-looking, instantly updated world. Yet despite all that frustration, many companies do little to change them, thinking there are few alternatives.
 
 That hasn’t been the case at Deloitte. The new issue of the Harvard Business Review, released Tuesday, unveils a detailed look at the professional services firm’s total redesign of its performance management program. It’s an overhaul the company first started rolling out nine months ago.

Is the Banking Industry Living on Borrowed Time?

Jim Marous:

Based on this research, carried out for a new book called Bye Bye Banks?, written by James Haycock, and co-authored by technology reporter Shane Richmond, despite the fact that banks are spending billions of dollars on digital transformation and innovation activities, changing the entrenched culture within these organizations is very difficult. The extensive qualitative and quantitative research for the book stems from discussions with 110 senior managers, directors, C-Level executives, CEOs and Presidents within the retail banking sector.
 
 “The financial services playing field has been changed irreversibly in recent years by a new generation of companies and leaders who have torn the rulebook to pieces, adopting new technology, introducing new working practices, and serving customers whose lives are increasingly orientated around their mobile phones”, says the research. Thanks to the expansiveness of the web and the accessibility of the smartphone, digital disruption is happening all around us, breaking dominant business models in retail, entertainment, travel and telecommunications.

Eaux Claires 2015: “You made the right decision”

Eau Claires 2015 Sufjan Stevens Panorama

Eaux Claires 2015 from Jim Zellmer.

A can’t miss. Fantastic weather, star gazing and geography provided by God (Michael Perry suggested vespers and hymns late Saturday evening) and a winning playlist orchestrated by Justin Vernon.

Vernon and his crew ran a fun and well organized festival. Rather impressive in its first year.

The video highlights and many images were captured on my iPhone 6. Not too bad.

Words that floated in the air:

“Hello festival people”.

“Water. Baptism. Absolution.”

www.eauxclaires.com

@eauxclaireswi

A variety of links.