Most companies measure everything except the thing that actually predicts future performance. Companies that I work with often say they want creative employees, yet they go and build review systems that only measure what already happened in the past like quotas hit, tickets closed, deadlines met. Its like driving only by looking in the rear view mirror and wondering why it is close to impossible to get anywhere.

Creativity, by definition, doesn't show up on last quarter's scorecard.

The issue is that your staff learns fast: the safest performance review score come from repeating what worked last time, not trying something new. So they do that. Over and over again. It’s safe. It’s not creative.

So what can we do? The fix isn’t about removing accountability, it’s about expanding what counts as a good outcome – it’s about including well-reasoned attempts that didn’t land.

How can we possibly do that? You’re in luck. Here are three methods I use to help companies break through the rut of a lifeless........

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