5

Conversations
Framework
2HH – Group 3

• Ahmed Nour – ID 20121805

• John Samy – ID 20122136
• Mohamed Emad – ID 20121806
• Mohamed Hassanin – ID 20121807

Under Supervision of
Dr. Sahar Salem
5 Conv. Definition 00
What’s Wrong?! 01
Why it is Important? 02
SHRM Practices 03
How? 04
Success Stories 05
Challenges 06
Academic Articles 07
Our Point of View 08
Recommendations 09
References 10
5 Conversations Framework Definition
• The Five Conversations Framework is a fresh approach to managing performance.

• It has been introduced by Dr. Tim Baker to replace the traditional performance appraisal, by overcoming the
weaknesses of the standard approach to appraising performance.
• After interviewing 1200 managers and HR professionals, Dr. Tim stated 8 shortcomings regarding the traditional
performance appraisal:
1. Appraisals are a costly exercise.

2. Appraisals can be destructive.

3. Appraisals are often a monologue rather than a dialogue.

4. The formality of the appraisal stifles discussion.

5. Appraisals are too infrequent.

6. Appraisals are an exercise in form-filling.

7. Appraisals are rarely followed up.

8. Most people find appraisals stressful.

 5 Conversations Framework Definition (Contd.)
• Rather than the traditional performance
appraisal, the FCF comes in the context of a
less-formal and more frequent dialogue
between the manager and his/her
subordinates.
• The five conversations is to e covered over a
period of six months i.e., one topic for each
month, in a meeting that lasts for 15 to 20
minuets.
• Over the course of a year, using this new
system, the manager is expected to have ten
conversations with each of his or her
colleagues.
• The order of the conversations has a logic to
it. This framework is based upon flow of
questions, that Through this flow, each of
the conversations builds upon information
from the previous discussions.
Why the Five Conversation Framework is
Important?
• Increasing employee's engagement with lower cost.
• Maintain a consistent dialogue with employees.
• Increasing the quality of the relationship between managers and employees.
• Getting continuous feedback and initialize actions about the performance related issues.
• Moving from job description to role description, makes the employee behaving as team player and
being prepared to grow and develop personally and technically, and to contribute to ways and
means of being more efficient and effective.
SHRM practices in applying the trend to
enhance organization development
• The trend is consisting of five themed conversations that you should do with your people.
• Each theme should be done in one month, so you applied in five months out of six.
• The trend will be applied two times a year
• First conversation is Climate review conversation (determine the atmosphere of working between
employees, managers, employees' satisfaction, morality and communication between them, it is
good to take a shot of what needs to be focused on them or where to start the development
process).
• Second one is Strengths and talents conversation as most of the appraisals are working on how to
overcome the weaknesses but in this one, we shall focus in enhancing the strength and talent as
you’re working with the positive side than the negative side of showing the weakness.
SHRM practices in applying the trend to
enhance organization development (contd.)
• 3rd conversation is Opportunities for growth conversation which is
discussing with the employees how they can improve their own work
which can lead to agreement with the line managers on certain goals and
objectives that eventually will be straight with the business strategy of
the organization
• 4th conversation is learning and development conversation which
depends on working in the strengths of the employees and enhance their
performance and it is not about sending the employees to just courses,
but it is focusing on each type of learning if it is technical learning,
problem solving or human soft skills, they will lead to human resources
development.
SHRM practices in applying the trend to
enhance organization development (contd.)
• 5th conversation is innovation and continuous improvement
conversation which is a practical moves of how to improve the efficiency
and the effectiveness of the entire organization not just the individual
employees, this is working between different business units in a whole
organization. This of course will lead to a lot of ideas some of them will not
be practical or feasible to apply but some of them can be applied and
definitely will improve the whole organization not just the individuals.
How this trend can be
applied on the HR functions
1. Investigation , articulation , association and collaboration
2. The data can be collected from the manager and sent to HR
for collation
3. Training all those involved in the process of analyzing
and evaluating jobs and roles
4. Agreeing on a format on how Role Descriptions,
specific to the needs of the organization
5. Developing a comprehensive list of the elements such as the ones outlined earlier and
make it available to role analysts
6. Ensuring that a representative sample of people from the spread of jobs to be covered
by the role is consulted
7. Removing gender, race, and individual identification from Role Descriptions
How this trend can be applied on the HR
functions (contd.)
8. Once Job Descriptions have been converted to Role Descriptions, KPIs and
targets can be established for each key performance area (KPA). These
documents become the cornerstone of a performance management framework
9. HR’s role is to compile a report that considers the opportunities for growth
across the organization
10. This trend will assist HR professionals and managers to implement a better
performance review process
11. HR is then in a position to prioritize and plan learning and development
opportunities that have application and currency
12. The Five Conversations Framework provides HR with a wealth of information for
planning and developing its approach and strategy on a continual basis
SUCCESS
STORIES
⮚ Cargill Intro­duced Coach­ing Con­ver­sa­tions in Place of Annu­al
Appraisals
⮚ Cargill, the US food pro­duc­er and dis­trib­u­tor, start­ed to trans­form
its tra­di­tion­al per­for­mance man­age­ment process­es back in 2012,
when it intro­duced ​“Every­day Per­for­mance Man­age­ment”.
⮚ Cargill removed per­for­mance rat­ings and annu­al review forms
and instead focused on man­agers hav­ing fre­quent, on-the-job con­
ver­sa­tions and giv­ing reg­u­lar, con­struc­tive feed­back. They have
made this work by:
▪ Reg­u­lar­ly reward­ing and recognizing man­agers who demon­strate
good day-to-day per­for­mance man­age­ment practices.
▪ Shar­ing the expe­ri­ences and tips of their suc­cess­ful managers.
▪ Hold­ing teams account­able for practicing day-to-day per­for­mance
management.
▪ Build­ing the skills need­ed to suc­ceed at Every­day Per­for­mance Man­
70% of Cargill employ­ees  say­ing
age­ment, includ­ing effec­tive two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion, giv­ing feed­back,
and coaching. they feel val­ued as a result of
their ongo­ing per­for­mance dis­
cus­sions with their manager.
• The change made by simplifying the system and setting three simple conversations
a year
• Goal-setting and alignment at the beginning of the year
• Mid-year discussions about the employee’s career, path, progress on goals,
interests and passion, and developmental opportunities
• Year-end discussion: How did you do?

• Outcomes
• Employees love the frequency of conversations – the more frequently
discussions are held is a key.
• The subordinates with no ratings are perceiving their performance, commitment
and career path at General Motors much more positively than those in the
traditional route.
• Feedback through structured brainstorm – How am I doing against everyone I am
competing with for promotion?
• A good leader is giving feedback in the moment. Not waiting until year-end.
Getting real and being honest with each other.
• Employee insight: Wanted to know not just what leaders thought of them, but
what their peers thought as well.
• Next thing to test is upward feedback – How employees feel about giving
performance feedback to their managers.
Challenges faced while applying the
mentioned trend
1. Changing people’s point of view and the ideas that it’s not one-way monologue
2. Finding the right internal administrative support as HR has an important administrative
role to make sure that the process is being adhered to
3. Combine flexibility with a set of core competencies

4. The managers to view their role as coach or productivity facilitator

5. The employment relationship leaders and managers to adopt a new way of
developing human potential at work
6. Conventional thinking about performance and conceptualize the
organizational work people do as a role rather than a job. This change of
perspective necessitates moving from job descriptions to role descriptions
Academic articles discussing FCF
• We have many articles that discuss this trend in performance and development plan through conversation.
• All these articles state that performance and development process is a continuous process.
• This continuous process is like a working strategy for all the organization that is willing to invest in their human
resources.
• We define first our vision and mission as HR without affecting the whole organization vision and mission.
• Interviewing the employees to measure the work environment between employees, managers and Peers.
• You must be prepared for these interviews with employees, that you give them a proper time to come prepared,
record all these interviews and take notes to give them more accountability and creditability.
• SWOT analysis after interviewing with employees to focus on the points of improvements.
• Most important as we said before that we focus on the positive side not the weaknesses of the employees .
Academic articles discussing FCF (Contd.)
• Discuss with the employees and define SMART objectives that we can evaluate their performance on them.
• The objectives shall be aligned with the organization and the whole company objectives that the employees will
understand their contribution in company’s direction.
• With setting these objectives and discussing with the employees on their development plan, we create the right
environment for coaching, mentoring, guiding and supporting them to achieve these objectives.
• After implementation we open a continuous feed back channel between line managers and employees and focus
on measuring if we’re going in the right direction to achieve the discussed objectives or they need adjustments ,
modification etc.
• By the end of the time plan for the objectives we discuss again and measure the level of achievement for each
objectives .
• Based on achievement we will go again this cycle as it is a continuous cycle and continuous improvement.
Academic articles discussing FCF (Contd.)
• All the recent steps shall be recorded and documented, and both manager and employee will sign it.
• The employee must feel that he is involved in each step of the evaluation and feel free to give their opinion.
• Even the employees that needs more development and performance improvements must feel that the
organization is investing in them, and they are part of the organization not something expendable.
Group point of view and comments
• The Five Conversations Framework assisted in improving engagement , trust and relationships for participants
,staff retention , attraction , productivity , innovation , maneuverability
• The conversations helped to break down barriers to communication and enable line managers to have more
open conversations with team members
• The Five Conversations Framework has fostered more improvised conversations in the team as discussions about
what team members are working on
• The benefits of the Five Conversations Framework are ongoing dialogue , openness and directness, flexibility ,
timely information and more relaxed approach
• On the organization This is the most effective change management program to improve the culture of the
organization, which means greater levels of trust, more engagement, and improved productivity.
• On Leader The growth of a skills-set that helps the leader develop influence & the people they lead ,
• On Team member More engagement, less turnover, and more accountability
Group recommendations of how this trend could
be applied in different organizations
• First: Avoid Overcorrections, we encourage to run the conversations with your traditional system for first time
• Encourage Managers on all levels to implement the new conversations-based system
▪ Reg­u­lar­ly reward­ing man­agers who perform the practices.
▪ Shar­ing the expe­ri­ences and tips of suc­cess­ful managers.
▪ Setup team from the HR to follow-up, encourage and support.
▪ Build­ing the need­ed skills (for example sessions around effec­tive two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion, giv­ing feed­back,
and coaching)

• Conduct feedback survey about the performance management system before and after running the program
• Short induction workshop by the HR team to explain in brief the framework and how it should be applied (the
workshop may include simulation covering the 5 conversations. In the simulation the HR employee play the
manager role and the other managers play the employee role.
• Provide ideas for conversations questions and topics for all managers and keep monitoring and provide continues
support when needed
• Encourage the leaders to provide immediate feedback and encourage the transparency
Adobe’s Check-in Toolkit
• The purpose of Check-in is to make sure employees’
expectations are clear, share feedback, and discuss
development needs to enhance their performance. The
flow of Check-in follows three core steps:
1. Expectations: First, agree what is expected of employees
for the year in terms of deliverables, behavior and
contributions.
2. Feedback: Next, provide frequent, two-way feedback to
see how employees are progressing against expectations
and let managers know if they could be doing something
differently to better support the employee.
3. Development: Then, when employees know how they are
performing, they can plan actionable goals in terms of
learning, career and experience.
Adobe’s Check-in Toolkit
References
• Redefining performance management – How Celgene and General Motors are approaching the challenge, Dr. Jack
Zenger & Dr. Joe Folkman - February 22, 2017
• The End of the Performance Review - by Dr Tim Baker - First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
• Five Conversations Framework - Culture Change Through Performance Conversations (flyer)
• Relevance of Employee development plans in employee performance management - Article in SSRN Electronic Journal
· October 2010 - Dr. Jessy John
• Performance and Development Review (PDR) for Reviewers (Professional Services) - People Development Team 2016 –
University of Exeter
• https://www.clearreview.com/top-5-performance-management-case-studies/
• https://www.developintelligence.com/blog/2017/09/five-conversations-framework/
• https://www.adobe.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zB8ol49qyU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLZuWPNkFEA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHgyhRZixTo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k76kR_-sVI