4-Choice Rankings Work
On some issues you just gotta pick a side. There is a severe dereliction of duty underway in England's presently world-class school system. For it shall not be a global benchmark much longer.
Hardened extreme ideological vengeance about to betray those in need and shackle any potential achievers.
Birthing a withering play on the Blair mantra,"tough on education, tough on the causes of education". Where for instance teaching unions insist young pupils are no longer tested on times tables. While their members must be able to WFH at least a day a week.
One significant manifestation of this educational self-harm is in the abandonment of the watchdog's 'one-word' assessment grade for schools.
As the chart above shows, a superb nine out of ten schools presently rate well. Vastly better than when introduced.
This quartet merits our Sales consideration;
Inadequate :: Requires Improvement :: Good :: Outstanding.
There's so much to admire about this framework. Not least the quantified raising of performance it undoubtedly produced.
Opponents of the simple scale wail that a kind of Goodhart Law takes hold. Where the measure becomes the target, so ceases to be useful as everything bends towards it. This is unashamedly the deceitful moan of those who expect to work with neither responsibility nor accountability, whilst revealing the cruel disdain they actually have for the learning of children.
They also cite the tragic, yet in policy terms wholly misleading, case of one headmistress involving a downgrade. Yet as Julia Hartley-Brewer observed;
"I'm sorry someone felt they were under so much pressure they took their life, that's awful, but I don't see what it's got to do with how we rate schools?"
Those now dismantling the winning approach in place claim instead a replacement 'report card' approach will aid all concerned. Spoiler: it won't.
In reality - and we don't need to be a Deming disciple here - we've long known that when done properly, what gets measured gets improved.
See for instance in an arena supposedly mundane, how the 5-scale rating on eatery hygiene sped round the globe. Why? Because it raised the entire game. Despite any initial complaints from proprietors, they and diners alike now embrace its simplicity and effectiveness.
The report card will lead to what it is designed to do. Obfuscation, reduction in direct culpability, and worse of all a decline in standards.
Indeed, so successful has the regimen proved that other bodies clamour for similar. Among these notably include the Care Quality Commission.
Another part to like is the absence of a middle ground. The neutral fence-sit option of the Likert scale absent.
You are told too why you are where you are. You also get to know how to move on up, or stay if on high.
The crossover with selling on a personal or team level is clear. There are likely already in place firm calibrations here based on unarguable percentage of quota 'done'. So also think how you can apply this to the calibre of forecast of your potential business.
The power of it means you must consider how to adjudge the overall effectiveness of what is in the pipeline. And how said funnel is both filled and being progressed.