Once the tribe chief Bare Bone called for a tribal hunter who, since the recent time, was called a Lonely Bone. What members of the tribe meant, is that Lonely Bone was literally almost only bones, and for a good reason. For a long time, Lonely Bone was a very successful hunter who brought a lot of food to the tribe. In fact, he was so successful that some cannibals started to talk about making him the chief. That was the beginning of the end for Lonely Bone, at that time still Hunting Bone yet.
Once the Chief, Bare Bone, heard about it, it did not matter anymore how much food Lonely Bone brought to the tribe. Each time the food was given, Lonely Bone was getting very little, so he starved.
Lonely Bone tried to protest:
"But I bring a lot of food to the tribe, more than most other members! You even gave more food to Dumm Bone! And he barely brings any food to the tribe at all!”
"No-no", said Bare Bone, “You look at the picture too narrowly. A good cannibal has many skills. You are a good hunter, and you bring good food to the tribe, but you have weaknesses, and you don’t work to eliminate those.”
“And what Dumm Bone does well, which I don’t?” asked Lonely Bone.
“You see, you don’t even realize your weaknesses”, said Bare Bone importantly, “And until you fix those, you definitely need improvement. By the way, that’s your performance rating. And until you fix them, you will get little food.”
For a long time, Lonely Bone tried to figure out what is it so special that Dumm Bone does better than he does. But to no avail... All that time he was getting less and less food, since Bare Bone called him underperforming, and underperforming, well, they get very little food. From starvation Lonely Bone lost most of the muscle mass and started to look like a walking skeleton. This is the time what the tribe has changed his name from Hunting Bone to Lonely Bone.
And then, one day, Cute Bone, the Bare Bone’s right hand, whispered to Lonely Bone:
“Dumm Bone kisses Bare Bone’s butt.”
“And that he calls my weakness???” cried Lonely Bone.
“Ts-s-s!” said Cute Bone, “Just do it!”
Lonely Bone sighed, spent a few days very sad, and, what can you do? He started to do what Dumm Bone did better than him. Bare Bone was very happy:
“Now that’s better,” said he, “But while you fixed your greatest weakness, your hunting results became much worse!”
This was true. Lonely Bone became weak from starvation, stress, and depression and was not such a successful hunter, he was once.
“I know how to help you! It pains me to see you starving,” said Bare Bone, “What we should do is to start a Performance Improvement Plan for you. And we will use a metric to see your progress. Let me tell you how much food you have to bring in this month, so that PIP will be considered successful, and you will start getting more food. Just do it, and everything will be well.”
Alas, Lonely Bone was too weak to hunt successfully anymore. In a month Bare Bone said:
“Sorry, Lonely Bone, your PIP has failed.”
And Lonely Bone went to the tribal cauldron.
“Why did you give him an extra month?” Cute Bone asked the Chief, “Did you expect him to become a good hunter, he was once?”
“Of course, not,” laughed Bare Bone, “I just started to give him more food so that he get some meat on his bones before we throw him into the tribal cauldron!”
“But what about that performance improvement?” asked Cute Bone.
“Would you agree that he tastes much better than a month ago” asked Bare Bone, and he tore off the last piece of meat with his teeth, and then, chewing it, threw a completely gnawed bone into the bushes.
