In mathematics, a Gaussian function, often simply referred to as a Gaussian, is a function of the form:

for arbitrary real constants, and it is named after the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. --  Wikipedia

For a long time executives, managers, and human resources professionals saw the above definition and thought to themselves: "Perfect for mapping our employees. I've got top performers, average performers, and low performers." The next logical step was to learn a bit more about Gaussian functions and statistics, and then assign prescriptive outcomes to number of standard deviations, sigmas, from the mean. One sigma higher equals raise. One sigma lower equals performance improvement plan. Two sigmas higher is promotion. Two sigmas lower is termination. It's all very tidy, and can be calculated using spreadsheets, annual performance reviews, KPIs, OKRs, and HRIT management systems.

It turns out this is all wrong, horribly wrong. And we're finally waking up. Humans are messy and unpredictable. Human tribes, and yes, workplaces, are collections of these messy and unpredictable, emotional, biological, sentient, beings. Thus, they are unbelievably messy and unpredictable. Treating them as constants in a mathematical function is the worst form of Human Resource Management.

Management and Leadership

It turns out that a human tribe can be united by a single person towards a purpose, a vision. This is Leadership. To make progress towards that purpose, the tribe needs help managing all the messiness and unpredictability, including collaborating with other tribes. This is Management.

Inside a team, there are subgroupings and individuals. In great teams there are synergistic effects, think of it as 1 + 1 = 3. Synergy, complementary skills, and culture are necessary factors for creating a high-performance team. In a world where 1 + 1 = 3 or 1 + 1 + 1 = 10, mathematics is not applicable. In this world there is no place for bell curves. Asking or incentivizing managers to rate their teams on the curve destroys great teams, and is a suboptimal management and HR practice.

Shout it from a Mountain Top

Adobe, Accenture, IBM, GE, Juniper, Deloitte, Cigna. By early 2015, around 30 large companies had cast aside performance ratings and forced rankings. A good start.

I know there are many articles and blog posts on this subject. So why write another one? Because I believe this topic needs to be shouted from a mountain top. Along with the related topic of eliminating fixed length period, such as annual, performance reviews. It's high time we start treating people like human beings, and show them that we value both their individuality and contribution to the team dynamic. It's time for the enlightenment of HR!

References

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/kill-bell-why-we-must-let-curve-pass-unlamented-simanta-mohanty

https://hbr.org/2015/09/why-more-and-more-companies-are-ditching-performance-ratings

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/bwbeta/yahoos_latest_hr_disaster_ranking_workers_on_a_curve/