The Preventive Performance Review

One of the most loathed supervisory activities in a traditional organization is the performance review.  In the worst case the reviews aren't conducted at all; or perhaps the worst case is actually a review that is performed on a superficial and one-sided level thereby giving completely wrong and ineffective feedback.  On the other extreme are organizations that recognize the value of continual feedback and development, sometimes to the point where a formal review is no longer necessary.

In a traditional organization the review, if conducted at all, looks backwards, evaluates, and attempts to take sometimes punitive post-even corrective action.  More innovative organizations use the "review" to focus forward, identify warning signs and developmental needs, and correct issues before they happen.

That's what's also happening in some cities as they take a more pro-active and innovative approach to reducing crime.

At least 30 cities are expected to announce Monday that they are joining an unorthodox crime-fighting program that relies on persuasion, rather than arrests, to cut down on criminal behavior.  Under the project, law-enforcement officials and prosecutors in the cities identify individuals operating in violent-crime areas who haven't yet committed serious violent crimes, and build cases against them, including undercover operations and surveillance.


In effect potential future problems are being identified before they actually become a problem.  Then a style of performance review happens.  A peer-based, or perhaps "360 degree review" to use the parlance of some organizations.

The culmination is a "call in" when the case is presented to the would-be suspect in front of law enforcement, community leaders, ex-offenders and friends and family.  "The prosecutor talks to them and lets them know: 'we could arrest you now but we won't because the drug dealing stops today, the violence stops today,'" said Jeremy Travis, president of John Jay. "If you continue, you now know the consequences and you've seen the case against you but we don't want to send you to prison."


A different path forward is presented and alternatives and support systems created.

A deeper root cause analysis would go even further, focusing on why an environment exists that creates a propensity for offenders in the first place.  Just as more innovative organizations attempt to understand why poor performers were hired or transitioned to that level of performance.  A large majority of performance problems are not the result of the people, but of the systems and processes and methods that surround and support those people.