An Elegant Puzzle

Most companies start out using a single scale to represent performance designations, often whole numbers from one to five. Over time, these often move toward the nine-blocker format, a three-by-three grid with one axis representing performance and the other representing trajectory. Having used a number of systems, I prefer to use the simplest representation possible. The extra knobs in more complicated systems support more granularity, but my sense is that they simply create the impression of rigor while remaining equally challenging to implement in a consistent, fair way.