Of course, we all carry our prejudices and stereotypical views around with us. Some of these are from “expert” sources. A few years ago, a notable German airline gave a booklet on local customs to its passengers to the UK. It was amusing to read that we English, eat Fish & Chips from newspaper followed by tea and cake around 4pm. Everyone knows Health & Safety have banned newspaper food wrappers! No doubt the English have their own, equally weird stereotypes. Some time ago I went to a famously foul-mouthed comic’s show and joined in the laughter at the stereotypical French jokes. These same jokes would have drawn the same audience response three hundred years ago! Perhaps it is lazy and comforting to have knee-jerk stereotypical responses. It helps to bond us together as a team, as a group, as an organisation, or nation. To make an inclusive group you must exclude others. Very often, our prejudices are hidden in our stereotypes. This is a block to creativity and blunts progress.
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The humble Manager
Do you think of a manager as someone who chases everyone to make sure things get done? Do you think a good manager is devoid of leadership. Equally, can you have a good leader who is unable to manage? How ever you see it, management and leadership are two sides of the same coin. This story tells of a group of people who achieved greatness in their working life.
Continue readingProductivity Enhancement
A version of this article first appeared in 2010, and was written, tongue-in-cheek, to warn of impending lunacy. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should! Any similarity with trade names or organisations is purely coincidental. It appears the UK economy has started to grow again! Sooner or later, organisations will come up against capacity constraints. It is usually the case that unused capacity becomes lost capacity. The assumption that you had the capacity two years ago so still have it today, is just that, an assumption. To help bring up general productivity levels, to boost capacity, we suggest you think about the three techniques below and what they can do to your organisation’s performance. Financial Incentives In the industrial setting, we need to make widgets more cheaply than our competitors. The following story shows a solution. A keyboard manufacturer had to ensure the availability of all the parts needed to make a keyboard. In order to maximise efficiency, they have dedicated moulding machines, one for each key, one for each part of the case. The operators of the machines are extremely skilled. By careful adjustments to the machines, they can change the machine’s performance. Therefore, a financial […]
Continue readingThings ain’t what they used to be
Do you remember the good old days? The business was exciting! Everyone knew everyone else and everyone knew what was going on! That excitement drove everyone and the business succeeded and grew. Now you lead a big organization, maybe not everyone recognises you, and you don’t know everyone. You miss the old days, the excitement, the talks over coffee. Profits are good, but you feel in your stomach that things ain’t what they used to be. They could be better.
Continue readingBullying
The content starved News media have reported that some senior people have been accused of bullying. I am old fashioned enough to view the bullying of a subordinate as quite repulsive. But I do fear our media-driven culture has begun to laud the bully. TV presents us with so many bullying examples, with a view to make compulsive behaviour. Do we see this bullying as strong management? Do you think powerful people should shout abuse and push you around?
Continue readingCompound disinterest
One of the difficulties of thinking is that we all tend to drop into the ruts of previous thought patterns. The deeper the rut the more difficult it is to think outside that rut. To escape the rut, it is useful to think in terms of analogies: to take an idea or method and apply it in a different context. It is a powerful tool. Managing people is not always straightforward. The uncertainty of outcome, which is normal with people, makes the mathematical tools of probability a relevant analogy. An engineering analogue might be the derivation of reliability statistics for complex systems. Human beings are definitely complex systems!
Continue readingMotivating the Professionals
Professional people do not need motivating by their managers do they? They know what to do, so you just let them get on with it. What is your experience? Perhaps leaving professional people to “just get on with it” is not the answer. Professional people have already shown that they can defer gratification by going through their qualification process. They usually do have a strong and far-sighted view of the right thing. Managing professionals is on a par with herding cats. They have minds of their own and want to do it their way when they are ready. But what if doing it “their way” does not match the organisation’s needs?
Continue readingEmployees are Customers too
We are used to being treated as special customers, as individuals. We expect to be able to get exactly what we want, when we want it. Naturally, our desire for treatment as special people, as individuals, comes to work with us. You can see the effect in the recent growth of flexible benefit packages. You can swap pay for holiday, medical benefits or gym membership etc. The availability of the flexible benefits does not depend on the day-to-day performance of the individual though. Neither does our immediate manager have any sway over the package. There is no link between our performance in the job and the benefits we receive. You get the benefits simply by turning up to work. How do you reward people for performance in the job?
Continue readingManagement – My Way or Any Way?
What do you look for when you recruit a manager? Let’s not get into the Leadership/Manager discussion though. Let’s accept that Leadership and management are two sides of the same coin. One can’t exist without the other. What is the job of a manager? Enjoy the video.
Continue readingIs Leadership bad for motivation?
This query is interesting for the meanings imputed to “Leadership” and “Motivation”. If we view Leadership as having the following attributes: Out in front Public face Agenda setting Target demanding Driving Hard The do-as-I-say Boss The Decision maker Then under this sort of Leader, people have these experiences: demand for performance involves a threat – perform or else avoid identifying weaknesses a lack of self-directed work the vision from the top is obscured no-one cares how you feel about the work do not feel personally involved your opinion doesn’t count focus on satisfying the Leader do as little as possible commensurate with meeting targets no discretionary effort Such a work regime is familiar to many of us. It motivates us to do the job and not make a fuss. We are motivated to put as little effort into the work as is needed to satisfy the targets. We achieve our feeling of self-worth by how many get-out clauses we can build into the performance measures. We can beat the system!
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