The Mid-Year Check In conversation is led by the team member, and is a discussion focused on how that team member assesses their progress against their annual goals and development plan. 

Through discussion, the manager/coach and team member agree whether the team member is on-track for the year.  We use this as an opportunity to identify any needed course corrections if the team member is struggling, and to provide any necessary coaching to help them get back on track.  The manager/coach helps the team members reflect on their learnings to date, and determine if any additional resources are required. The two also align on the key focus areas for the back half of the year.   

Then, the Year-End Recap is the close of a cycle in the annual Contribution Management process. The team member and manager/coach align on the annual contribution level for the team member. The team member prepares for the conversation by reviewing a number of thought-starter questions to help them structure the discussion they want to have with their  manager/coach.  What progress has been made against the agreed goals?  What has been their greatest learning this year?   What would they do differently in future? And more....  We recommend that the team member completes and provides their brief write-up in advance so the manager/coach can prepare great questions to further explore the input from the team member and, of course, provide feedback where needed.  What made this the greatest learning for the person? How might they apply this learning moving forward? At the end of this discussion, the manager/coach captures the key points of the conversation on a Year-End Recap Summary sheet.   (See Dialogue vs Documentation image)

Dialogue vs. Documentation 

We are all about the dialogue and not the paper!

At the heart of Contribution Management is deep, meaningful conversation. Therefore we recommend skinny-ing down the paperwork as much as possible. We make great use of one pager summary sheets for mid-year and year-end conversations. 

Are You "Doing Great"?

Instead of force-ranking people and/or applying a bell-shaped curve, we use a simple 4-level descriptive scale, focused on "Doing Great." This reduces concern about categorization and enables great focus on the conversation.

• Above & Beyond
• Doing Great
• Not Quite On Pace
• Critical Contribution Gap

We expect everyone to be "Doing Great." If we find an individual is off-track, we believe it's important to have the conversation to provide the opportunity to course correct. 

If it's worth doing, it's worth getting started

It took us three years to get the hang of this.  (Really!)  We had debated when and how to implement the process, and gave ourselves the permission to simply get started and build our capability over time.  Rather than getting it perfect, we figured out how to begin, and launched it with a three-year timeline.  Starting it cemented our whole team’s commitment to the process, and the longer timeline created a more comfortable environment to try something new and develop capability together.

To get it kicked off, we focused in on the Year-End Recap (as it was coming up), and on how to build the capacity of everyone to have a great conversation.

Changing mindsets

Traditional performance management very much puts the manager in control. So it can be a real challenge for managers to accept and embrace a true, two-way conversation vs. control. It requires shifting into a coaching role, and using inquiry skills to create the space for reflection and learning. For example, when hearing from a team member about their accomplishments, a coach might ask, “What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?” And, “Why are you proud of that achievement?” This creates the space to pause and reflect in a learning environment as well as focus the conversation on the most significant contributions. It also invites the team member to step forward into a more conversational space. (See Are You “Doing Great” image)

What really excites us about contribution management is that it’s a two-way conversation that works for everybody in the company, in all roles at all levels.  It’s for a frontline team member in manufacturing or distribution just as much as it’s for a director in sales or R&D.  It’s for me as CEO with our board of directors.  It underscores development and is fundamentally pretty simple.  But what isn’t simple is changing mindsets.  It takes time to get everyone on board to the idea of a two-way conversation that puts the individual team member much more in the driver’s seat.  Especially for managers!  It’s a really big shift.

So…to create the conditions for success, we needed to build the confidence and conversational capacity of team members, and the coaching and inquiry skills of managers. 

Take baby steps

The first step was to change the vocabulary and set a new context for the organization.  “Contribution” evokes different feelings and relationships than “performance”.  We tweaked our documentation to better align with the concept of contribution, and introduced it through group sessions across the organization.  We had separate sessions for managers to help reinforce the two-way conversation. 

The next baby step was to practice.  Team members wrote their own year-end recap, and managers prepared for the conversation.  Was our first time around perfect and consistent across the organization?  No.  But people began to use the word contribution, and that was a good start.

Six months later, the next baby step was to introduce the Mid-Year Check In.  We continued to train people, and asked each individual to consider with their manager/coach, “How am I doing? Am I on track (or not) with what I set out to accomplish?”  Baby steps continued over the next two years, with a strong focus on building coaching capability.

Impact in Motion

It took us the three years we allowed ourselves to fully implement Contribution Management.  In our almost 95-year-old company, it was worth the wait.  Conversations are more meaningful.  People are stretching, growing, and trying new things.  We are filling many of our open positions with internal candidates who’ve actively developed themselves (in some cases into roles they might never have considered before). 

And, importantly, people no longer stress out over the annual process.  When the next Contribution cycle rolls around, no worries.  It’s an opportunity to discuss growth and development.  We’ve begun to hear “uplifting” and “enjoyable” to describe the process.  What a shift!  This dynamic alone contributes to a culture of engagement and effectiveness.  And we haven’t skipped a beat in growing our business, which is of course a key point.  It’s an expanding circle of success.

Contribution management is a framework that unleashes talent, inspires personal development, and helps drive business growth.  So…if you’re considering what to do with your performance management system, we hope you’ll toss it.  And join us on the journey to develop better ways for people + company growth.

We believe companies flourish when they care deeply for people.  Our people practices have helped us to grow by double digits for over 20 years, and we want to explore these practices with you. These field guides are meant to inspire and inform people who share our passion for using business as a force for good in the world.  We look forward to your thoughts and ideas on ways we can create more opportunities for people, partners and communities to thrive.