Work Life
Performance Review Coming Up? Take These Lessons from Squid Game
And Try Not to Get Eliminated
- for Keith -
While watching Squid Game, I couldn’t help but draw some parallels between the drama I was watching play out on screen and the annual managerial ceremony that is performance reviews, which for most of us in the corporate game, is happening right now.
Of course Squid Game and performance reviews aren’t the same thing: One is an emotionally traumatic series of humiliating and terrifying events that subjects desperate adults to a secretive and brutal ritual and exploits human psychology to motivate engagement towards mysterious and ever-changing goals and a cash incentive. The other is a show on Netflix.
Despite differences at the surface, at their core they are both games, and if you’re looking at your next review wondering how you’re going to make it through another year there are certainly enough practical lessons to draw from the Netflix hit to justify the 8 hours you spent binging it.
Bonus: Along the way, I’ll share some pearls from the years I’ve spent alongside the HR teams that design these games. After all, my job in training is essentially to teach the skills to win the game, and, when I’m lucky, the game itself.
