How to unblock your people’s creativity

“We need more self-starters” said Matthew.  I could have sworn he was glaring at me.  He had been CEO for a year now.

“In what way?” I asked.

“Our people just won’t make decisions.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“I don’t know!  We’ve empowered our people but they’re still bringing all the decisions to us.”

“Frustrating.” I agreed.  “So what have you tried?”

“Like everyone else, we’ve done our OCI, we’ve come out…”

“…red and green.”  I finished for him.  “And you want blue.”

“How did you know?”

“Because if people are shivering, I’m pretty sure when I look at the thermometer what it’s going to say”.

Matthew sat back.  He seemed deflated. Read more…

How to stop your culture of busy busy and start delivering

“Everyone around here is just too busy being busy” sighed Merryn.  Her business employed 250 people, it was growing and she was feeling the strain.

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“Because everyone time I ask someone ‘how’s things’, I get the same response…a roll of the eyes and  ‘just busy….flat out…..you know how it is’.  And things are stalling.  Lots of action, no results.”

“What would you like to be hearing?”

“It would be great” Merryn continued, “if someone would say  ‘I’m focussed, in the flow and we’re all delivering.  Feeling great‘”

“So what are your people working on then?”

Merryn looked puzzled for a second, then replied “Lots of stuff – business-as-usual, we’ve got improvements to the warehouse operation underway, legislative change coming, our IT systems need an upgrade, the usual product development, and on top of that, we’re trying to find ways to innovate so we can play in some new fields”.

“Sounds pretty busy busy” I replied.  “So if I’m sitting there with a choice as to what to work on next, which one do you want me to do?” Read more…

The (not so) hidden key to integrating business units

“I’ve got some issues between my two key General Managers” said Ingvild, the CEO.

Self-organising doesn’t mean self-directed

“The thing about Scrum” I was saying to Melinda, one of my ex-colleagues and also one of the kindest and nicest people I’d ever worked with….”is that nearly all of it makes sense in a way that’s totally requisite.”

“Scrum?” she asked.

“Sorry, what I mean by Scrum is the software development method that’s based on principles of Agile.  The Agile stuff is about frequent checking in with the customer, that developers can sort themselves out, a whole approach that makes sure a team’s collective capability is used well.  What Scrum does is nicely define roles within a team under the Agile philosophy so that everyone knows what they’re doing.  That’s my potted overview anyway.”

“Isn’t that the stuff you teach with requisite?  That by clearly defining the role relationships in terms of who can ask who to start or stop things, people can be freed up from one of most common sources of conflict?”

“Yep, all the role relationships in a Scrum Team are a version of natural requisite role relationships.  No issue there.”

“So what’s the problem?” Read more…

Why do you use this ‘requisite’ stuff?

No therapy required: How to get your people working together

Have you, or are you about to, invest money in getting your people to work better as a team?  To get them to get along, to understand each other, to form closer bonds so work will truly flow across your organisation like the ball moving from defence to attack?

Don’t (automatically) blame the performance appraisal

“We’re thinking about ditching performance appraisals” said Bill.  He was the CEO, I was sitting down with him and Theo his GM of HR.  “Or at least revamping the whole thing.”

“Run me through it” I prompted.  “What are you seeing that makes you think they aren’t working?”

Theo answered; “Formal feedback and anecdotal evidence.  We put out some simple questions, namely, to each employee; ‘I find the performance appraisal process to be useful to me in my work’, and to each manager ‘I find the performance appraisal process helps me to make my people more valuable’.  Both with the usual 5-point system between ‘not at all’ and ‘absolutely’.”

“What did you get?”

Bill jumped in; “We struggled to get to 3….which meant ‘somewhat’.  Mostly got 1s and 2s which means ‘not at all’ or ‘barely’ some value.”

“So as you can see…” Theo continued…”the system that my area leads isn’t too flash!”

“Maybe not” I answered. “But there’s a fair chance you’re looking at a symptom here, not a cause.”

“How can perform appraisals not working be a symptom?” asked Theo.  “A symptom of what?”

“Ineffective organisational design.” Read more…

Are you doing real OD work?

Maria was GM People & Culture and we were discussing the organisational development work her area was delivering over the next three years.

“OK, I’ll bite.  So what is ‘the organisation’ Maria asked.

“Try this on for size” I answered.  “The organisation is made up of the principles and practices in play that determine who gets to work here, and how they are expected to work together'”.

Maria was silent for some time.  After a while she looked up:

“I’m not sure what you mean”.

“Another angle” I replied.  “The organisation is the internal rules of the game on how people are supposed to work together, whether explicit or otherwise.”

“What sort of rules” Maria asked.

“Things like how you determine how many organisational layers are needed, who gets to make decisions about what, how processes are run, what minimal practices are expected from every manager and/or team, how people are expected to work out issues of priority, and so on.  But what we’re talking about fundamentally is your concept of what needs to be in place in a healthy organisation such that anyone who has the capability, is willing to learn and can get along with others will be able to deliver results.”

“My concept?”

“Yep, your concept, your underlying theory of your organisation, your basis for comparison should any organisational issues arise.” I said.

“And not the people themselves?”

“The organisation that the people are effectively dropped into”.

“Sounds impersonal to me.  Taking the ‘H’ out of ‘HR'”

“You’re seeing ‘impersonal’ and ‘caring’ as opposites, but that’s not the case.  Adjusting the temperature of a room to make it comfortable is not a ‘personal’ act, but it looks after people.  The same applies to working on the internal ‘rules of the game’ to make sure that they are allowing people use their capability in the direction of the organisation.   OD needs to stop doing the equivalent of teaching people how to not shiver in a cold room, when the real issue is a broken heater”.

The fundamental (missing) OD question….

“Run me through what you’ve asked Adrian to do.”  I was grabbing lunch with Maria, GM of People & Culture.  Adrian was her Senior Manager Organisational Development.

“I’m asking quite a bit” said Maria.  “I need him to roll-out a number of programs to get our people better across the board”.

“Give me the top three” I asked.

Maria laughed; “I knew you were going to make me focus on priorities.  OK, the top three are….

One, all managers will be going through difficult conversations training,

Two, all staff will undergo workshops to design to improve resilience…”

I must have raised my eyebrows or some other ‘tell’, as Maria paused for a second.  Then she went on…

“and thirdly, we’re going to do targeted productivity workshops to lift the amount of work we can do in certain areas”.

I nodded.  “Sounds like a fair bit, as you said.”

“But……” Maria asked.

“But…Adrian is your Senior Manager of OD right?”

“Yep”

“And the ‘O’ stands for Organisational”

“Yep”.  Maria frowned.

“So what are you going to ask Adrian to deliver that will actually develop the organisation?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what do you consider to be ‘the organisation’.”

“The people” she replied quickly.

“I know what you mean, but I can’t get past the fact that people come into the organisation, people leave the organisation, yet the work mostly just keeps going.  So we can’t just say ‘the people’.”

Maria started to answer then stopped.  She stared at me, not moving, then after a few seconds started slowly stirring her coffee.

“You know” she said, “after more than 20 years of working in this field, I’ve never actually considered what ‘the organisation’ is.  What I’m actually asking Adrian to help ‘develop’.  Is that bad?”

“Maybe.  But I know one thing for sure.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re not alone.”