Question:In the Amadori example, you state, “EQ accounts for 47% of the variation in managers’ performance. Furthermore, managers’ EQ at three different plans correlated positively with the OVS Engagement Index, revealing that 76% of the variation in employee engagement was directly correlated with the plant performance”. I am having difficulty in understanding what this means in practice. Does it mean that the managers with the highest EQ ratings performed 47% better on a particular set of criteria? And does 76% of the variation in employee engagement mean that where employees were more engaged, the performance of the plant was 76% better? Answer:It means... Of all the reasons why a score is in a particular place, X% can be EXPLAINED by Y. So, if I say: 100% of the variation in happiness is predicted by eating apples... it means, essentially, everyone who eats apples is happy. In statistics, we can't prove causation... we can only show relationships. But if 100% of people who eat apples are happy, it means somehow there is a total match (and very likely a causative relationship). In this case, we can say: There is a MASSIVE relationship between EQ & manager performance.... almost half of the variation in performance scores is predicted by EQ scores... meaning: If you want to increase performance you could increase EQ plus do 20 things to improve performance, but half of your increase is going to be because of EQ. Likewise, 3/4 of your increase in plant performance is going to come by increasing engagement. So, we see a performance chain: Managers increase EQ -> Manager performance is higher -> Employees are more engaged -> Plant performance increases. Always? No. But of all the things you could do to achieve the results... between 1/2 - 3/4 of the gains you can get are going to come from above. TipThink of height and weight. Does height CAUSE weight? No... there are someone could be 170cm tall but weight 100kg.... but in general, taller people are heavier. How strong is the relationship? Of all the reasons why a healthy person would be heavier, something like 70% of the variation is due to height. So, if you ask me: Who is going to be heavier... someone 140cm or someone 180cm, I can say, VERY likely the 180 cm one. Always? No..... |