tl;dr: The Red Bead Experiment demonstrates how firing “low performers” based on arbitrary targets or rankings punishes people for system-driven variation, not individual effort. Bad metrics and poor leadership can create outcomes that look discriminatory, even when intent isn’t–highlighting why leaders must improve systems instead of blaming workers. Quite often, I used the famed “Red Bead Game” (a.k.a. the “Red Bead Experiment”) that was made famous by W. Edwards Deming. Here are my previous blog … Continue reading When Red Beads and Bad Metrics Lead to Unfair Firings at Work