Matthew Woods

Father of four wonderful children and a huge Cleveland sports fan

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@Browns @JoelBitonio Thank you @JoelBitonio for all of your hard work and sacrifices and for representing Cleveland so well. You will be missed tremendously!!

[Simons @Simon_Ingari]

"Why does our top performer get the worst reviews?" the boss asked.

I was reviewing their annual performance data.

"Show me," I said.

She pulled up the ratings.
Diana: 2.8 out of 5.
Below average on "collaboration."
Low marks for "team player."

"What's her actual performance?" I asked.

"Exceeded every target.
Landed our biggest client.
Trained three new hires."

"So why the low scores?"

"Her peer reviews are dragging her down."

I scanned the comments.
"Too direct."
"Challenges ideas too much."
"Not supportive enough."

"Let me talk to Diana," I said.

"I used to give honest feedback," Diana told me.
"Said our pricing model was broken.
Got dinged for 'negativity.'"

"What happened with the pricing?"

"They finally fixed it six months later.
After we lost two major accounts."

"What else?"

"I questioned why we needed
eleven approvals for a simple contract change.
Manager said I wasn't being collaborative."

"Are you still giving feedback?"

"No. I learned my lesson.
Now I smile. Nod. Say everything's great.
My reviews are improving."

"But nothing's actually improving?"

"We're making the same mistakes.
Just with better vibes." She chuckled.

I went back to the boss.

"Your review system doesn't measure performance," I said.
"It measures compliance."

"That's not true."

"When was the last time someone
got promoted for challenging bad ideas?"

Silence.

"When did someone get rewarded for preventing a mistake?"

More silence.

"You've trained your best people to stay quiet.
And your mediocre people to stay nice."

A few months later, they redesigned the system.

Added a category: "Constructive Challenge."
Points for identifying problems early.
Rewards for preventing costly mistakes.

Diana got promoted.

"What changed?" I asked the boss.

"We stopped confusing agreement with alignment.
Stopped mistaking silence for harmony."

"And?"

"Turns out our 'difficult' people
were our most valuable.
They actually cared enough to speak up."

Here's the truth about performance reviews:

Most companies don't reward performance.
They reward performance theater.

The person who says the meeting was great
beats the person who says it wasted an hour.

The person who agrees with bad ideas
beats the person who prevents disasters.

You think you're measuring contribution.
You're measuring conformity.

And your best people?
They've already figured out the game.

They're just deciding whether to play it
or find somewhere that values truth over comfort.

[Millard South Tennis @MSPatriotTennis]

Come out and support our JV players in their final tournament of the year: the Metro Conference Championship! The Patriots will be hosting pool play against Bellevue West, Omaha Bryan, and Omaha Marian starting at 9:00am. The weather looks great! #NextPoint @MSHSactivities

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@anammostarac That is a real wild correlation. You could simply said look at the kind of music on the charts and came to the same conclusion.

[Cleveland Sports Talk @CLEsportsTalk]

Bring back The Chief Wahoo!!!

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@MikeNellis You would think someone so strongly connected to the biggest landslide loss would keep their thoughts to themselves since the so obviously provided so much thought before the election to the losing candidate. But here we are. I think this says more about your qualifications

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@patrickwebb How much was it going to cost to pay off student loans? I'm beginning to consider applying for dual citizenship.

[Jerry Jeudy⁴ @jerryjeudy]

#ProBowlVote +@jerryjeudy

#ProBowlVote +@jerryjeudy

#ProBowlVote +@jerryjeudy

[Cleveland Browns @Browns]

it's the last chance to VOTE our guys to the Pro Bowl Games! all you have to do is hit that repost button!

#ProBowlVote | @Flash_Garrett | @denzelward | @jerryjeudy | @JoelBitonio

[Carly Teller @carlyteller]

Merry Christmas Eve Eve 🎄 Today is the final day for Pro Bowl voting!

1 repost = 1 #ProBowlVote for Wyatt Teller

[Jerry Jeudy⁴ @jerryjeudy]

1 Retweet = 1 Probowl Vote
#ProBowlVote + @jerryjeudy

I appreciate the love and support 💯.

[Brutus Wayne™ @BuckeyeBat]

“I cant believe after Indiana scored, went for 2 and onside kicked, that OSU scored from the 1. Classless” - Indiana fans & beat writers.

Indiana:

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

It's funny how the the Dept of Ed / Nelnet can tell the credit bureaus my loans total $85664 but tell me when I call the self service line for Sloan Servicing that my loans are paid in full. It's even funnier that none of these companies or departments have tags.

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@BarackObama @KingJames Then you should have voted for her in the primary first. Thank you for providing evidence that you believe the rest of the country is full of sheep. What a great articulation of evidence that she is worthy of consideration.

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

Has anyone been successful in changing their @verizon home plus internet DNS servers? My ONT won't route PlayStation traffic correctly and keeps timing out on multiple game servers.

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@foofighters @WUTangKids Do you own the rights to "My Hero"?

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@AGAndrewBailey Please tell me you are going after all the bogus bankruptcy filings next. We can't saddle Americans with that debt either!

[Mostly Peaceful Memes @MostlyPeaceful]

“How can you support a convicted felon”

[McNeil @REFLOG18]

Kansas City Royals: Tied franchise record for most wins thru 50 games set all the way back in 1976.

Also Royals: 1.5 games behind Cleveland

[Matthew Woods @matfuwu]

@Rob_Shenanigans @Browns You must have really enjoyed that playoff game against the Texans too much.