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> This management style is described in "Behind Closed Doors" by Johanna
> Rothman and Esther Derby. While the book didn't describe skills grids,
> skills matrix/matrices, or skills charts, the protagonist, a
> senior-level manager, must have kept some personal scorecard to keep
> his staff straight. My colleague got me hooked on Pragmatic Press
> (www.pragprog.com) materials. Bless his agile soul.
I've never read it. I guess I was doing something right. ;-)
> So I take it the grids were made available for everyone to see. Did
> they also know how they ranked on the grid, or were they able to build
> a case with you to say that they can perform at the next level, so
> they should earn the badge?
I didn't rank anyone on the grid, just kept a list of skills and
experience (didn't even label them as "strengths"). You need to keep a
zero-competitive or zero-weighting approach for anything public unless
you're in a cutthroat corporate structure.
No, my approach is to keep appraisal private and knowledge public. It
should be no secret that Bob knows DITA, for example, but it should
never be known publicly in writing that Jack needs to work on his
project management skills.
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