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Four Attributes
Assume that every commercial enterprise can be “objectively” (LOL!) characterized by the following four discrete attributes:
- Trustworthiness [untrustful | trustful]
- Transparency [closed | open]
- Fairness [unfair | fair]
- Product_Quality [crappy | meh | excellent]
If I did the math right, there are 2*2*2*3 = 24 attribute combos. At one end of the spectrum, we have orgs that are untrustful, closed, unfair producers of crappy products and services. At the other end of the spectrum we have enterprises that are trustful, open, fair producers of excellent products and services.
So, what do you think the ratio of OrgAs to OrgBs is in the world, and why? Do you think the ratio is increasing or decreasing as civilization advances? Do you think the four attributes are uncorrelated or are they intimately coupled? Can an untrustful, closed, and unfair org produce excellent products and services? Given an OrgA, can it transform into an OrgB? Given an OrgB, can it transform into an OrgA? Which transformation is more likely?
Thoers
In case you were wondering how to pronounce the title of this post, it’s “thoo-errs“. It rhymes with “Dewar’s“.
During the rise of the “institution” in the 1900s, Taylorism produced the segregated thinkers/doers model of operation (as shown on the left in the figure below) in order to get things done. Most doers were uneducated and assumed to be lazy/unmotivated barbarians.The “superior” thinkers created the framework of how/what/when work was done; hired some doers; tightly monitored and controlled the process of production.
Relative to the institution-less past, the segregated Thinkers/Doers modus of operandi was an improvement. Via an exchange of pay for work done, institutions provided the means for doers to satisfy Maslow‘s level one/two physiological needs for themselves and their families.
The vast majority of institutions today still operate in accordance with (a milder and veiled form of) Taylor’s segregated thinker-doer model. However, there are some gems (Zappos, Morningstar, Semco, Gore, HCL) out there that operate according the “thoer” model – where everyone is both a thinker and a doer. Although they’re hard to ferret out, these gems proactively provide a work environment in which all 5 levels of Maslow’s hierarchy are attainable to all stakeholders within the organization – not just those in the upper echelons.
Instantaneous Feedback
Alfie Kohn wrote a whole book on the subject. So, what subject…. you ask? Why, it’s the subject of the “venerable” yearly performance review created in the bygone era of the early 1900s. Specifically, Alfie’s book conscientiously provides details on how to get rid of what Dan Pink describes as the “highly stylized ritual in which people recite predictable lines in a formulaic way and hope the experience ends very quickly“.
In case you don’t want to, or are afraid to read Alfie’s heretical tome for fear of tossing a grenade at your existing mental model, Mr. Pink gives the subject some treatment as point number 12 in his FLIP Manifesto: “Scrap performance reviews”.
Dan gives not only 1, but 3 ideas for drop kicking the yearly performance review out of the borg and into its rightful place in obscurity. My fave is number 2:
I know, I know. Abolishing the yearly performance review can’t possibly work in your borg. Your business and industry are “different“. It is the way it is because it is the way it has always been and it is the way it has to be. Case closed.
Interdisciplinary Team Effort
Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns. – Shirley Bassey
The Uncrossable Threshold
Unless you work in a Chinese sweatshop, the likelihood is high that your management has an “open door” policy. After all, it’s been the right thing to do since the 80’s, right? However, the likelihood that anyone but their “direct reports” casually cross the threshold to chat about problems and ideas for improvement at any level in the org is low, no?
So why is that? Could it be an unwritten rule in hierarchies that “little” people aren’t allowed to “whine” to stratospheric luminaries? Could it be a culture of fear of reprisal? Could it be a dearth of trust? Could it be the perception that bosses don’t like to hear bad news? What do you think it could be?
Resource And Asset Ban
Stocks and bonds are assets; water and iron ore are resources. Assets and resources are “its“. People are not resources and they’re not assets and they’re not “its“. Get it? So, stop parroting your moo-herd peers if you want to distinguish yourself from the pack like you say you do.
Hitherto, the unesteemed BD00 proposes a federal law (Phil, if your reading this, the last two words are fer you 🙂 ) that will ban all orgs from using the MBA-inspired, utterly unauthentic, and Taylor-esque words “resource” and “asset” when their PR spinners and glossy annual report writers refer to their “people“.
Referring to people as assets is a vestige of the so-yesterday theory X management mindset that is so ingrained in the psyches of both SCOLs and DICs everywhere that this standard practice remains unexamined even today by most orgs. So, please consider replacing the phrases on the left with those on the right:
- Deploy our assets -> deploy our people
- Utilize our resources -> utilize our people
- Allocate some resources -> allocate some people, time, and money
- People are our greatest asset -> People are our greatest strength
You may think that BD00 is being anal when he brings up such minutia, and that’s OK. BD00 thinks that the little things matter, and this is one of those little things that matter. What little things matter to you?
The “E” Test
From Dan Pink’s “FLIP Manifesto“:
To take the E test, draw the letter “E” on your forehead. Oops, too late. You already know which way is the “correct” one.
An Unexpected Honor
Whoo hoo, BD00 has arrived! Effective immediately:
A Succession Of Funerals
Science advances one funeral at a time. – Max (walk the freakin’) Planck
As implied by the quote above, new and more effective ideas/techniques/practices/methods take hold only when the old guard, which fiercely defends the status quo regardless of the consequences, “dies” off and a new generation takes over.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, who many people credit as the father of “theory X” management science (workers are lazy, greedy, and dumb), died in 1915. Even though it was almost 100 years ago, theory X management mindsets and processes are still deeply entrenched in almost all present day institutions – with no apparent end in sight.
Oh sure, many so-called enlightened companies sincerely profess to shun theory X and embrace theory Y (workers are self-motivated, responsible, and trustworthy), but when you look carefully under the covers, you’ll find that policies and procedures in big institutions are still rooted in absolute control, mistrust, and paternalism. Because, because, because…, that’s the way it has to be since a corollary to theory X thinking is that chaos and inefficiency would reign otherwise.
Alas, you don’t have to look or smell beneath the covers – and maybe you shouldn’t. You can just (bull)doze(r00) on off in blissful ignorance. If you actually do explore and observe theory X in action under a veneer of theory Y lip service, don’t be so hard on yourself or “them“: 1) there’s nothing you can do about it, 2) they’re sincerely trying their best, and 3) “they know not what they do“.
The Principle Objective
The principle objective of a system is what it does, not what its designers, controllers, and/or maintainers say it does. Thus, the principle objective of most corpocratic systems is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corpocracy…
The principal objective of corporate executives is to provide themselves with the standard of living and quality of work life to which they aspire. – Addison, Herbert; Ackoff, Russell (2011-11-30). Ackoff’s F/Laws: The Cake (Kindle Locations 1003-1004). Triarchy Press. Kindle Edition.
It seems amazing that the non-executive stakeholders of these institutions don’t point out this discrepancy when the wheels start falling off – or even earlier, when the wheels are still firmly attached. Err, on second thought, it’s not amazing. The 100 year old “system” demands that silence is expected on the matter, no?
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