A crucial cause of work behaviour

There’s a classic old video on youtube called Explorations in Management, and I’m not going to put the link up – the production is just too hard-core 70s and the language so gender exclusive I can’t associate myself with it.  It’s like a serious, boring Goodies episode.  But I’m mentioning it by way of acknowledgement because it makes a simple and fundamental point about what causes people’s behaviour at work.  (If you can’t resist finding it, type ‘Lord Wilfred Brown’ into youtube).

So, without further ado, quoting Lord Wilfred Brown:

“the behaviour of an individual at work is as much conditioned by the nature of the role they occupy, and its relation with other roles, as by their personality and its interaction with other personalities“.

He then goes on to say as a logical extension of this:

“we can stimulate more rational behaviour by creating an unambiguously clear and acceptable structural environment.  That’s what organisation is about.”

What do you think?  Did you nod when you read this?  Most do.

But now consider – the latest people issue that you dropped by your colleague’s office to discuss – where did that discussion go?  Did you say something like “The way Bob was carrying on, I mustn’t have been clear on what his accountabilities and authorities actually were for that job“.  Or was it more like “The thing with Bob is that when he’s good, he’s good; but he needs to control himself a bit more“.

Did you say “I probably wasn’t clear on what the priority was for Jill, and I didn’t go over to Production to let them know I’d changed things“, or did you say “Jill struggles under pressure and gets angry at her people“.

We tend to the latter.  And this is natural, because the common knowledge that is taught about how to design clear, unambiguous and acceptable organisations is sadly lacking, and lets face it, discussing personalities is a lot more interesting.

But your job is manager.  You’re not there to change personalities.  In fact, you’re not qualified to mess around in that area.  You are there, however, to ensure effective behaviour, which means you need to create the conditions that cause this.

Unambiguous accountabilities, authorities to match (which have been communicated) and clear tasking.  These are crucial to creating the conditions that lead to effective behaviour.

Ask your people how you’re going in this area.  It’s worth it.