42 one-page manager guides, word-for-word scripts for the hardest conversations, and print-and-use worksheets. All grounded in IO psychology. All free.
Shortcut: the single highest-value question is “when was the last time you thought about leaving, and what triggered it?” Almost everyone answers honestly, if you ask before they’re interviewing.
Jake Vassello · Sr. Manager of Talent, Training & Engagement · MS, Industrial-Organizational Psychology · people programs at Microsoft (Activision) and Refuel Operating Company
Each guide covers what the tool is, why it works, how to run it this week, and the pitfalls that sink it. Many come with a printable worksheet attached. Word format so you can adapt them to your team.
Hire on evidence, not gut feel.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLAsk about what they did, not what they would do.
Download ↓ DOCXScreen with realistic dilemmas, not resumes alone.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLWatch them do a slice of the actual job.
Download ↓ DOCXSell the job honestly, including the hard parts.
Download ↓ DOCXKnow what the report can and can’t tell you.
Download ↓Know what the job actually is before you hire, rate, or train for it.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLDefine what good looks like at every level.
Download ↓ DOCXRedesign the role to motivate, not just the person.
Download ↓ DOCXLet strong performers reshape the role toward their strengths.
Download ↓Why specific and difficult beats “do your best.”
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLRate against described behaviors, not adjectives.
Download ↓ DOCXCollect the views you can’t see. For development, not verdicts.
Download ↓ DOCXCatch easy graders and harsh graders before ratings ship.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLReviews built on the whole year, not the last month.
Download ↓Keep your best people before they’re leaving.
Download ↓ DOCXFive questions monthly beats sixty questions annually.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLMine departures for patterns, not one-off complaints.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLThe strongest known predictor of team performance.
Download ↓Diagnose before you prescribe a course.
Download ↓ DOCXEvaluate training by behavior change, not smile sheets.
Download ↓ DOCXDevelop people through work, not just courses.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLTurn every project into a lesson while it’s still warm.
Download ↓Check autonomy, competence, and connection before assuming laziness.
Download ↓ DOCXFind the broken link in the effort-reward chain.
Download ↓ DOCXPeople accept hard outcomes when the process was fair and explained.
Download ↓ DOCXSpecific, timely, and matched to the person. Otherwise it’s noise.
Download ↓The first 90 days decide the next three years.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLThe highest-leverage meeting you’re probably wasting.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLHand off outcomes, not just tasks.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLBurnout is an equation, and managers control both sides.
Download ↓ DOCXProtect the argument about ideas. Shut down the one about people.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLWrite down the unwritten rules before an incident writes them for you.
Download ↓ DOCXResistance is information, and participation is the antidote.
Download ↓Why eight people produce less than five.
Download ↓ DOCXThe team’s real asset is knowing who knows what.
Download ↓ DOCXTeams that review how they work beat teams that only work.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLThe most expensive process nobody designs.
Download ↓ DOCXYou have an inner circle whether you meant to or not.
Download ↓ DOCXNeither “my call” nor “let’s all discuss” is a style. They’re tools.
Download ↓ DOCXThe four behaviors with the deepest evidence base, minus the charisma myth.
Download ↓ DOCX + TOOLYour calendar is your real strategy. Audit it like a budget.
Download ↓The eight hardest conversations, word for word, with the psychology behind every line. Ratings, resignations, pay disappointment, burnout check-ins.
DownloadTen print-and-use forms: interview scorecards, stay interview sheets, incident logs, goal checklists, and more.
DownloadAn Excel tracker with live formulas across all four levels, plus a dashboard that flags each program’s weakest level automatically.
DownloadThree working Excel models: turnover cost, adverse impact screening, and a retention code tracker with early-warning flags.
DownloadFour field instruments for HR and IO practitioners: job analysis questionnaire, interview guide template, BARS worksheet, exit and stay protocols with a coding scheme.
DownloadThe toolkit above is built for speed. These are the longer essays, deep-dive guides, and the original template library of quick-reference tools.
The three types of organizational commitment most managers have never heard of.
Read →A better framework for goals that resist measurement.
Read →A century of useful findings that most managers have never heard of.
Read →What the socialization research says about where the first 90 days actually go wrong.
Read →The longer reads, collected in one place.
Browse →Research-backed analysis on leadership, culture, and the psychology of work.
Browse →Everything on this site is the free version of what I do professionally. If your team needs more than a download, here’s where I help.
A half-day, evidence-based workshop built from the toolkit: hiring on evidence, performance without bias, retention, and the hard conversations. Practice-heavy, not lecture-heavy.
Structured interviewing rollouts, competency models, performance systems that managers actually use, and retention diagnostics with real analysis behind them.
Talks and advisory work on closing the gap between people science and people management.
Or reach out on LinkedIn.
Jake Vassello is a Sr. Manager of Talent, Training, and Engagement with an MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. He’s led people programs at Microsoft (Activision) and Refuel Operating Company. The research behind good management has existed for decades. It just stays locked in journals, behind paywalls, forty pages long when a manager needed one. This site is the fix: one page per tool, plain language, a shortcut version at the bottom of every guide.
A concept, why the evidence supports it, and the smallest version you can run this week. No theory dumps, no filler.