The 3 Bars Framework is something I read about in Steven Bartlett’s book, “The Diary of a CEO, The 33 Laws of Business and Life”. It’s a fantastic book, definitely give it a read (https://www.amazon.com/Diary-CEO-Laws-Business-Life/dp/0593715837)!
The 3 Bars For Building Great Teams as it’s actually called in the book, is used to evaluate people from a culture fit perspective. It takes the emotions (and avoidance) out of difficult conversations. As I have outlined in previous videos, firing someone is ALWAYS awful, even when they earned it. With that it’s easy to avoid, the 3 Bars help simplify the conversation and get to the proper answer in a very quick thought process.
The concept is simple, if you have someone that you feel like might be a culture misfit or is struggling in their job…ask yourself this question, “If everyone in the company shared this persons values, standards and attitude, would the company bar be raised, maintained or lowered?”
If someone is in the bar raiser category, it is probably time for them to be promoted and on a path to leadership…if they are someone who would lower the bar, it’s probably time to fire that person as research shows that the person in the lower the bar category would be a disproportionately toxic influence on the teams culture.
As always, there is nuance when it comes to firing people, so it’s important to understand the whole picture before making any major decisions. Pull in your team leader, HR and discuss what the options are…perhaps training will help pivot this person. The key is, don’t let them linger, they are either improving or it’s time for them to move on.
I hope this was helpful! Again, check out this book, it’s an amazing read and one that I always keep around for inspiration. Thanks for being here! Take care!
