Stoke the fire, feed the fire or use it as an Incinerator

I did not believe there was a difference between the three. All you really do in either of the scenarios is put stuff in the fire place. It is either the iron or dry logs or just stuff that burns. I put anything and everything from candy wrappers to, wet twigs, dust, dirt, leaves that followed my wet shoes, etc. What’s the big deal I thought? But when I got a big fire place in my house I realized the difference. During my annual cleaning I heard about it from the chimney cleaner. All the soot had layered the chimney.

I thought this is just like people! Treat people the way they deserve they deliver! Treat them like the average person and get mediocrity. It is not rocket science! It is all about how u feed and stoke their passions.

One of the companies I worked for had a very interesting and robust people management system. Every single person started as an average (un-judged) to give the individual room to grow, when it came time to measure and evaluate the individual had plenty of time to prove him or herself. When they proved to be different and better they moved up, when they lost ground they moved off.

It was not unusual to see people who had gone up to slide and yet be rewarded for their potential (the JIT princicple, wait for my next essay) and people who slide to ride the wave again. After all ‘A bird in hand is worth two in the bush’.