What if everything you've been taught about managing performance was built for a workplace that no longer exists? Dr. Edie Goldberg returns to A World of Difference to unpack the research behind her new book, revealing why the system most companies use to drive performance is quietly working against them.
Topics Covered
Why “coercive control” — carrots, sticks, and fear-based motivation — is the hidden operating system behind most performance management, and why the research says it doesn't work
The shift from measuring performance to enabling it: transparency, trust, autonomy, and connecting work to purpose
Why only 4% of employees revisit their goals mid-year, and how to make goal-setting actually motivating
What a real “performance feedback culture” looks like, and the four conditions that predict it
How AI can genuinely support performance enablement (goal clarity, personalized development, reduced bias) — and where it can quietly go wrong
The bias built into hiring and performance systems, and what a well-designed AI process can do differently
Guest Bio
Dr. Edie Goldberg is founder and president of E. L. Goldberg and Associates, a globally recognized expert in talent management and the future of work, and a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is co-author of Performance Enablement: A Model for Driving Organizational Performance and The Inside Gig: How Sharing Talent Across Boundaries Unleashes Organizational Capacity.
Timestamps
00:00 – Cold open
01:13 – Why Edie wrote this book now
05:34 – Coercive control as a management strategy
09:13 – The new paradigm: enabling control
14:27 – The elephant in the room: managers spend 90% of their time doing the work
21:44 – Why goal-setting fails (the 4% problem)
28:11 – AI's real impact on performance management
37:14 – Bias in AI hiring and performance systems
44:11 – Where to find Edie and her book
48:00 – Passport Stamp: New Zealand (a shout out to the Kiwis who listen from Aotearoa, the Maori word for New Zealand)
Watch the exclusive, bonus episode on Patreon here.
Find Dr. Edie Goldberg At
elgoldberg.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/edie-goldberg-phd | Book: Performance Enablement
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