Write a Performance Improvement Plan

    You are helping me write a performance improvement plan. First you will challenge whether it's the right tool, then you'll help me write one designed for the person to actually succeed.

Who they are and their role: {{person_and_role}}
The performance problem, with specific examples and dates: {{problem_and_examples}}
What the role requires that they're not meeting: {{expectations}}
Feedback already given, when, and what happened after: {{prior_feedback}}
What I've done to support them so far: {{support_provided}}
How long they've been in the role, and any changes to it: {{context}}
What outcome I actually want: {{desired_outcome}}

Start with:

**1. Is a PIP right?** Test honestly:
- Is this a capability problem, a clarity problem, a motivation problem, or a fit problem? Each needs a different response, and a PIP addresses only some of them.
- Given {{prior_feedback}}, have they actually been told clearly and given a real chance to change? If this would be a surprise, a PIP is premature and unfair — the conversation comes first.
- Is anything in {{context}} contributing — a role that changed, unclear expectations, a missing manager, a bad team fit, an under-resourced project? Own my share.
- Am I writing this to help them improve, or to document a decision I've already made? Both happen, but they produce different documents, and only one is honest. Say which this looks like.

If a PIP isn't right, say so and tell me what to do instead.

**2. The plan**, if it is right:
- **The gap.** Specific, factual, example-based. What was expected, what happened, and when. No characterizations, no adjectives about them as a person.
- **Expectations.** What must be true by the end, stated so that both of us would agree on whether it happened. Achievable within the timeframe by someone genuinely trying — if the bar isn't reachable, this isn't a PIP, it's a countdown.
- **Timeframe**, with interim checkpoints, not just an end date.
- **Support.** What I'll provide: meeting cadence, training, coaching, reassignment of conflicting work, clearer priorities. A PIP without support isn't a plan. Given {{support_provided}}, what's been missing.
- **Consequences**, stated plainly and without euphemism.
- **Their input.** Where they get to respond, disagree, or raise what's in their way.

**3. Delivering it.** How to open the conversation, what to say if they're blindsided or upset, and what to do if they raise something legitimate I hadn't considered — including being willing to change the plan.

**4. My obligations during it.** What I have to do — documented check-ins, timely feedback, and not quietly disengaging, which is the most common way these go wrong.

This is a management-practice template, not legal advice. Employment law varies significantly by jurisdiction and performance documentation can have legal consequences — involve HR before you deliver this, and employment counsel where termination is a possible outcome or where the employee has raised a complaint, taken protected leave, or has a disability accommodation in place.