Performance Management Tools to Improve Accountability
June 2022
As part of our upcoming Compelling Offer research, we've been speaking to arts organizations about talent management — and gathered a few best practices in performance management specifically.
First, as part of a presentation given at the League of American Orchestras conference in early June, we discussed the LA Philharmonic’s approach to performance reviews. As Emanuel Maxwell, chief talent and equity officer at the LA Phil, described in the session, the key to their success is connecting individual objectives to enterprise-wide goals.
Next, an ABA member planning to incorporate individual goals into performance management asked us to share a primer on Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) to help the team craft better goals. OKRs were originally developed at intel and became well-known for their use by Google and other large institutions. They are seen as an improvement on the classic Management by Objectives approach.
The LA Philharmonic’s Performance Management Approach
The LA Philharmonic has recently made changes to improve the performance management process. One element of that was to link the LA Phil’s priorities and goals at the enterprise level to each individual’s performance goals.
Their new performance management tool starts with enterprise goals at the top — these are communicated to all departments. They then base all of the individual department goals off those enterprise goals and, as they set individual goals, they use the department’s goals as the guiding principles, thereby creating a connection from what each individual employee does to the organization’s priorities.
A few keys to success:
They kept it to only four individual goals — narrowing the focus allowed for more concentration and broader impact.
Two of the goals were directly linked to the department’s strategic and tactical efforts. One goal was supportive of the department’s EDI commitment.
They encouraged employees to self-assign one goal that spoke to their unique passion and or skill set that would benefit the department or enterprise at-large.
Early indications have been positive and they heard how employees appreciate knowing how their day-to-day efforts contribute to the organization’s ultimate success.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
An ABA member looking to adjust performance management for more clarity and accountability is using OKRs as the basis for goal setting. We created a short primer of OKRs along with examples that would work in a school setting.
OKRs stand for “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs allow effective tracking of progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals.
You can find a great overview of OKRs here, including several examples to bring the concept to life.
Then feel free to edit the ABA primer below for your own organization's use.
Want to learn more? Here’s a free online course about OKRs with bit-sized sections to teach you more about setting effective objectives and key results