"The same point comes through in the postmortem documentary on [[Enron]] called, appropriately enough, The Smartest Guys in the Room. During the company’s ascendency, it was a brash and brilliant former [[McKinsey]] consultant named [[Jeff Skilling]] who was [[Enron]]’s CEO. "Skilling developed a performance review system for [[Enron]] that consisted of **grading employees annually and summarily firing the bottom 15 percent**. In other words, no matter what your absolute level of performance, if you were weak, relative to others, you got fired. Inside [[Enron]], this practice was known as “rank-and-yank.” Skilling considered it one of the most important strategies his company had. **But ultimately, it may have contributed to a work environment that rewarded deception and discouraged integrity**." --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[incentives]], [[performance-management]], [[management]], [[teaching-anecdotes]], [[whistleblowers]], [[resilience]] **Source** -- [[20241030 - B - Grit]]