A Different Kind of Performance Review

I was reading an article by Premal Shah of Kiva this past week.  The focus of the article was on how to do reviews for the people that work for you.  I thought he had some really good ideas on how to get away from the traditional annual review.

At Kiva, the staff are required to present their latest work regularly to a group of their peers.  If they are working on a particular project or particular part of the world, they stand up and give a presentation to the staff about why they are doing this particular work, and how it’s going.  This review process factors heavily into a staff member’s performance evaluation.

I really like this idea, and when I get to the point where I have employees at Rocket Hangar, I think having something like this would be a great way to make sure I have the right people working with me.  If they don’t feel passionately enough about something to stand up in front of the rest of us and tell us why, then we shouldn’t probably be spending money or energy on it.

Question: If you had to do this at your job, would you feel strongly enough about your work to stand up and defend it in a room full of your peers?