The question
AI changes two things at once: what performance means, and how it is assessed. The first may matter more. When someone produces twice as much work with AI, has their contribution doubled? How do we recognise initiative, judgement, teamwork and quality when AI does part of the work?
For organisations on a January to December year, late November is the middle of the review cycle: criteria and calibration are set, but the quality of the conversations is still open.
Before AI enters the conversation, we start with a more basic question:
Do our reviews actually reflect people’s contributions?
Who it is for
Practitioners who own or shape performance reviews in their organisations: HR and people leaders, and the managers who run the conversations. Each comes with their organisation’s experience, including what has not worked.
How the morning will work
Every roundtable follows the shape of the first one, on onboarding. The questions change with the topic; the rhythm stays.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 09:00 | Arrival. Coffee, and one sentence to finish privately about what success looks like. |
| 09:30 | Why it matters. What it costs each organisation when this goes wrong. |
| 09:45 | What good looks like. Everyone’s answers on the wall, compared. |
| 10:00 | AI in practice. One practice from each organisation, then a few from our research. |
| 10:25 | Where is the boundary? Pairs take one practice through four questions. |
| 11:05 | AI and people. The group places what matters along one line, from AI to people. |
| 11:30 | Closing. What we missed, and one thing worth testing next. |
| 12:00 | Coffee and conversation, until 12:30. |
The format
1One conversation, not a workshop
The structure is there so that every voice is heard and the thinking goes deeper. It should never become the experience.
2Private thinking first
Before the key questions, a minute to think or write, so people form their own view before hearing the most experienced voice in the room.
3Differences, not consensus
When views differ, we ask what each person is seeing, and under what conditions their answer would change.
4Research as a second voice
Participants bring their experience first. Only then do we bring a finding from our research and ask whether the room supports it, challenges it or adds something it missed.
Eight to ten practitioners, by invitation, from different organisations and industries. No slides and no speakers: flipchart paper, sticky notes and one conversation.
What will come out of it
The conversation, its recording and its transcript stay private. What we publish is aggregated and anonymised: a practitioner report on reports.executeos.com that combines what the room saw with our review of research and international practice, as we did with Onboarding in the AI Era.