Stop Trying to Replicate a Single Star Performer

Research into organizational learning suggests companies often squander the benefits of diverse talent not because of who they hire, but because of how employees learn from one another. Drawing on

In 2012, journalist Kurt Eichenwald published a devastating exposé in Vanity Fair. Microsoft, he reported, had become a place where talented people fought each other instead of the competition. The culprit was stack ranking. Every review cycle, managers sorted employees into a fixed curve of winners and losers. Rankings were updated once a year. Between reviews, everyone knew who the previous cycle’s winners were and copied them.