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The Future Is Already Here…..
….for those people who are lucky enough to work in truly enlightened orgs that really walk the talk.
Check out this case study: “How Microsoft Netherlands Reinvented the Way of Work”. Yes, you read that right. It’s a division of that polarizing behemoth, Microsoft.
Just in case you don’t have the time, but you’d like the cliff-dozer00 notes version of the article’s highlights, here they are:
- There are no assigned desks as well as no private offices for managers (not even the General Manager).
- There are no physical “Departments”, each of the 900 employees of MS Netherlands can work anywhere in the office building by using a laptop, headset, webcam, or Windows based Smartphone and connecting to the network either wirelessly or by plugging in at a desk.
- People are encouraged to work from home more often, whenever it is appropriate and are allowed to work whatever times they wish to work. The only requirement is that they “get the job done”.
- If you wish to work until late at night on a project and take the morning to see your son’s school play, you can do that too – and you don’t have to ask your manager for the time off.
So, how can one judge whether these Theory Y policies have worked out? Managers love metrics (cuz metrics give them the illusion that they’re in control), so here are a few:
Of course, managers who who are dead set on clinging to their FOSTMA thinking UCBs (regardless of what they espouse) won’t believe the results; or they’ll play ostrich and ignore their existence – because it would take too much courage and “work” to effect a similar, massively positive change in their CCFs.
Generalizations
To function semi-sanely in this world, we all have to make generalizations so that we can make sense of the world and to at least try to be able to predict future outcomes that result from our actions. It’s OK to make them as long as one realizes that there are exceptions to every generalization. There are very few, if any, absolutes in the world. Assuming that one’s personally concocted generalizations are absolutely 100% true all of the time invites “suffering“, no?
Take the mercurial CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, for example. He seems to be at least one exception to my personal generalization that “dictator” bosses can’t be successful in the long term (Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is another exception). Check out these blurbs that I pulled from cyberspace:
I think that one reason why Jobs and Apple achieve the stellar product and financial success that they do is because, even at the lofty CEO level, Mr. Jobs gets his hands dirty – and that endears him to the technical and creative talent that he does retain at the company. Contrast this to a Stalinist brute like “chainsaw” Al Dunlap, who lived in a separate world “above” his people.
How about you? Do you think that my “dictators can’t be successful leaders in the long run” generalization is valid in most cases? What’s your equivalent generalization?
Quietly From Behind?
An anointed (not elected) leader once told me: “sometimes it’s best to lead quietly from behind“. Of course, leadership has many facets, and “leading quietly from behind” can be one of them. But is it?
The concern I have is with the word “quietly“. Unless one knows what’s going on and communicates clearly what needs to be done, which implies being “unquiet“, how can one lead from behind without telepathic powers? It reminds me of the general who stays in the warm tent 100 miles behind the front lines where the grunts are busting their asses for god and country. But, since I’m not a leader (boo hoo! and waaaah!), don’t listen to me. Plus, I certainly ain’t the quiet type – except when I’m in situations in which I’m engulfed by fear. D’oh!
How about you? What kind of leader are you? If you are a lowly in-duh-vidual contributor, what kind of leader would you be?
To Prevent Asking, Simply Don’t Ask
One of the dudes that I follow on Twitter is Don Harkey. His handle is “LeaderBook“, and he’s got a neat gig going on. When he tweets, it’s always a phrase or sentence from a book on leadership:
If you have a culture where your employees don’t even think about asking for, let alone actually asking for, a projector, a white board, a second computer monitor, a professional membership, a training class, or (heaven forbid) a tool that costs money, you get what you deserve.
So, how do you get a culture of “non-asking“? It’s so easy it comes naturally. There’s no work required – and that’s a good thing for work-averse managers. All ya gotta do is “lead by example” by never asking your employees what they need to do their jobs better. To really discourage the practice of employees from asking for things to help them do their jobs better (because employees can’t be trusted and they’ll take advantage of your goodwill, of course), you can ensure that the acquisition process is an unknowable labyrinth littered with approvals required by bureaucratic little Hitlers. See, I said it was easy.
Which Path?
To all front line managers out there: “which path below did you take when you were promoted out of DIC-land?” To all DICs out there who want to, or are on a course to, move into the brave new world of management, uh, I mean formally anointed leadership: “which path below do you plan on taking?“.
To all those who took or prefer the D&D path, please leave this page now. To the remaining E&E takers and preferrers, please peruse this follow-on diagram:
Will you allow the natural and effortless course of increasing entropy occur after you’ve made your choice, or will you temporarily “hold it together” with effortful due diligence throughout your career – no matter how high you go or how much pressure you feel from your peers?
Is it even reasonable to ask for any overlap between work-work and management-work as one ascends higher up in a hierarchically structured CLORG? For example, in a 10 layer hierarchy, is it insane to expect the dudes in the upper echelons to know something, anything, about the nature of the work that goes on down in the boiler room?
Gored
In her book, “The Stone Age Company“, author Sally Bibb cites W. L. Gore (which coincidentally is on my list of faves) as one of the exemplar companies that will continue to thrive in an increasingly chaotic future that is sure to be apocalyptic for legions of old guard CLORGs. Sally states that one of the leadership mantras inside Gore is: “Look over your shoulder to make sure someone is following you“. In other words, if people don’t willingly follow you, you won’t be a leader for very long at the company.
Serendipity being what it is, I recently stumbled upon this short essay by W. L. Gore CEO Terri Kelly: No More Heroes: Distributed Leadership. Here’s what Ms. Kelly, in spite of being a real-life CEO, authentically says:
Organizations that hold onto conventional leadership models will find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain top talent.
Leaders will need to recognize that their primary role is to empower others versus build their own power. They will no longer stand behind a title with assumed authority to tell people what to do.
Those who know their leaders best are typically the individuals they lead. If you want individuals to have a voice in the organization, they must also have a voice in selecting and evaluating their leaders.
All associates (at Gore) get the opportunity to rank members of their team, including their leaders. They are asked to create a contribution list in rank order based on who they believe is making the greatest contribution to the success of the enterprise.
Note that followers have a say in who leads them and they evaluate each other and their bosses by perceived contribution – not by rank or status or academic knowledge or “number of years of service”. Now that’s empowerment, no?
So what do you think? Is your company structurally and behaviorally oriented for success in an increasingly networked, complex, and flattened world? Or is it the same old, same old, business as usual….. waiting to get gored to death by competitors who are.
Team Formation
Assuming all other things equal, which method of forming problem solving teams will produce the best results? Method A, of course. Why? Because Method B has never been tried. Why? Because…. that’s just the way it is – Method A only. Why? Cuz everyone knows, the boss is the smartest dude in the room. Why? Well, just because – dammit!
The led must not be compelled, they must be able to choose their own leader – Albert Einstein
The BCMT
Print out, copy, distribute, collect, and evaluate. If the results aren’t to your liking, ignore and bury them. Otherwise, toot your horn loudly and frequently.
Culture Convergence?
Many, many articles and books targeted at executives and senior managers spew out all kinds of elixirs, formulas, and lists guaranteed to catapult a business to the top of the heap. For example, take this squeaky clean and slightly redacted list from a book that will remain unnamed.
The one common, across the board demand that all these gurus impose on top leadership teams is that “you must change the culture“. The hidden assumption in these words is that one culture exists. Well, does it?…….
Maybe all these revered business gurus should talk about culture convergence instead of changing “the one culture“…..
How naive of me to think that there are two or more cultures in an org, no?
Your Chetan Heart
OK, OK. The title of this post has nothing to do with its content. It just “felt” right.
The “Chetan” in the post title is a placeholder for “Chetan Dhruve”, the author of the splendidly candid and hard-hitting “Why Your Boss Is Programmed To Be A Dictator“. Recently, Chetan (I don’t know how to pronounce his name but I’ll bet it doesn’t sound like “cheetin'”) contacted me via LinkedIn. He graciously asked if he could use the content of my “Leader Or Dictator” post on his web site. Of course, being the needy, fame-seeking, egomaniac that I am, I used my “power of authority” to “approve” of his request – after he filled out all of the proper forms and paid the licensing fee, of course. Check out Mr. Dhruve’s site here – and then buy the freakin’ book.
Note: The “man” on book cover is actually a collage of six of the most notorious dictators of all time. Can you guess who they are? If not, you can find out on Mr. Dhruve’s site.
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WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
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