Performance issue —
or something else?
When underperformance is misdiagnosed and the wrong process begins. The capability question that should have been asked first.
A performance dip is the most common entry point for a decision that compounds.
An employee’s output drops. Their manager notices. The performance framework is the obvious tool — set targets, monitor, document, escalate if needed. The process is followed correctly. The framework runs as designed.
And six months later, the situation has produced an outcome nobody wanted. A grievance. A tribunal claim. A resignation. A reasonable adjustments failure that was visible from the first conversation — if anyone had asked the right question.
The performance dip wasn’t the problem. The performance dip was the symptom of something else. Something the framework wasn’t designed to detect, because the framework starts from the assumption that the issue is performance.
When this scenario meets the tribunal.
Example 01 · Tribunal caseMerchant v BT — Dyslexia, Performance Management & Reasonable Adjustments
A performance process ran correctly against a dyslexic employee. The framework worked exactly as designed. The tribunal found unlawful disability discrimination — because nobody asked whether the standard was applicable before applying it.
Read full case →Same situation.
Three different decisions.
One manager sees a performance dip and reaches for the process. Another sees the same dip and asks about workload. A third notices the dip is recent and explores what changed. Three managers, same situation, three different decisions — and three different outcomes for the employee.
The pattern isn’t that any of those decisions was wrong. The pattern is that the organisation has no shared standard for which question to ask first. So the outcome depends on which manager the employee happens to report to.
See how your managers
would handle this.
Bring one real performance scenario. See how different managers in your team would respond — and where the inconsistency is already creating risk.
Surface the Decisions Driving Turnover →Browse all scenarios →