Meet Chet, industrial engineer and manager of a small manufacturing department. He just came to this company a few months ago. This is his second job since graduation. He was a line supervisor for about a year at his previous company. He felt that job was too confining and prevented him from using the full extent of his college degree. He’s read all about quality and human relations and can’t wait to bring his people to their full potential.

In the next few minutes Chet is scheduled to perform several annual performance evaluations in a manufacturing cell that he manages.

This is new territory for him and he could use some advice, but he’s not about to ask for it. It might be a sign of weakness, and that would destroy the image he’s trying to create.

David, his unofficial mentor and plant human resources (HR) manager, is about to earn his keep.

Chet approaches the manufacturing floor determined to carry out performance evaluations of the six people in his department. He’s never done evaluations before, so last night he reviewed a chapter on the subject from a psychology book he had in college. It sounded familiar to him. If he doesn’t remember something, he’ll wing it. That approach has always worked when he came up against a problem and didn’t have all the information he needed. Besides, he’s got a lunch date with the cute new girl in HR. It’s now 11 a.m., so he’d better get with it.

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