Category Archives: Motivation

Is the MBA worth it?

October 9, 2011 By in mba, Motivation, QuakeAware Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I received an e-mail from the Dean of the Business school after our convocation ceremony yesterday. Here was the introduction….

“Congratulations on your graduation from the Beedie School of Business. This is a significant achievement and a major milestone for you in your life and career. You have succeeded in a program that combines academic rigor with practical application, has notably high standards, and most importantly, provided you with opportunities to meet new people and confront challenging ideas.” That is certainly what I hoped for when I joined the program. This was not quite my experience though but more on that later.

It seems to me that the benefits of an MBA depend a great deal on who you talk to. Many successful entrepreneurs consider the program a waste of time. They believe you are far better off to actually do\create a business or a product rather than learn from academics. Many professors are incredibly intelligent but lack real world commercial experience and\or have successfully run a business. From a corporate perspective an MBA can be an important “enabler” for more senior positions later in your career. Completing the program shows a drive to gain valuable experience and acquire new skills needed in executive life. I think there are merits to both points of view.

The MBA “gravy train” for major academic institutions is being disrupted by innovators like the University of Phoenix who are offering similar content delivered online for a fraction of the cost. I think business schools obsessed with their brand in light of this very stiff competition are misguided and have lost focus on their core mission. I thought Tony Hsieh of Zappos had a very profound insight when he said that brand is a lagging indicator of culture. His point was that organizations need to align their employee and customer experience to achieve outstanding results. Established universities need to deliver world-class education, foster an entrepreneurial culture and supportive ecosystem to truly differentiate their products and services from their online competition.

A couple of thoughts in terms of my personal experience as an MBA candidate:

1. If students choose not attend most lectures and rarely participate in group assignments how valuable can the MBA credential be?  This suggests to me that as long as you pay the “substantial fees” you earn the credential\brand. This is not rigorous or high standards. I think this is one of the reasons why MBA’s are not as held in as high regard as they used to because of perceived grade inflation. Obviously there are a lot more people with the credential now as well.

2. To charge higher prices established universities need to deliver premium instruction, preferably original research or at least the latest research from talented and engaged professors. The problem from a prospective student is you only find out how good the instruction is after you sign up for the program. My experience was that lecture quality was very inconsistent. It’s fine to tell me about the world-class academics on staff but if I am not taught by many of them frankly who cares? Some professors had little grasp of technology even though it was an MBA with a technology specialization!  One course had content was quite dated with examples that were relevant about 1o years ago. Fortunately many courses were excellent, taught by dynamic professors or incredibly experienced veterans with compelling stories and connections to boot! I would have paid a lot more for some courses and not at all for others had I known what I know now.

3. I was really impressed with the efforts the Beedie Business School make to provide a supportive eco-system for students to develop business ideas. They offer a variety of incubator programs for new ventures and provided free passes to the excellent BC New Venture Competition lecture series. I was fortunate to work with a great group of students that developed an iPhone app called QuakeAware as part of the program. A great way to make your MBA count is to apply the learnings to an endeavour as part of the program. Without a doubt working with this team on our pet project was the highlight of the program for me. I regret not making more of the incubator resources the University offered.

4. Burnout becomes a real issue the further you progress in the program. I became a father towards the end of the fourth semester which made a tough schedule occasionally unbearable. While my wife rapidly lost weight after the birth I continued to expand because I was eating junk food and drinking coffee late into the night on a regular basis. Needless to say this was bad for my health and not sustainable in the long run. Fortunately I was not alone. :) Many other members of my cohort joined me in the “pleasantly plump” brigade. My patience for “light lectures” of questionable value wore thin towards the end as the personal sacrifices I needed to make and the price I paid was not certainly not worth it far too often.

5. I really enjoyed the safe environment for students to share their perspectives on their professional challenges. Most lecturers made a point of encouraging discussion which was often insightful and thought-provoking. I learned that the challenges in my organization were not unique by any means and that in many instances Sage was ahead of the curve in our industry. I highly doubt I could have had these type of conversations over an e-learning or online course as it takes sometime for students to get comfortable with each other to share what they really think.

Was it worth it? All in all I think so. I have a broader perspective on business. I have a solid platform to move from the technical to the business side of my organization. The program has already proven beneficial to at least half the cohort. Many have moved up in their organizations or moved on to new employers already. The MBA is as much a test of endurance as it is a test of intelligence. I promised myself I would do this and now I have. I am pretty proud of myself actually!

The ethics of job obsolescence & overtime

May 7, 2011 By in Employees, Leadership, Management, mba, Motivation Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I aspire to bring out the best of the people I serve as a manager. I try to be supportive but I definitely want the teams that I work with to be the best they can be. Most team meetings I begin by celebrating the very real accomplishments made since our last meeting, identify any opportunities for improvement I see and then ask the team to aim even higher. For me to justify my salary as a non technical manager the team needs to demonstrate improved performance. My view is that if they don’t, the company should hire another developer or a manager that can help the team achieve their potential.

I was very unpleasantly surprised when a developer I work with advised me that I was the most demanding boss he has ever worked for earlier this week. I quickly conquered my initial reaction to justify my management style and realized this employee was doing exactly what I challenged the team to do, share feedback constructively! He had two points. The first was that he was grateful that I pushed the team and the team regularly received recognition for their accomplishments at various levels of the organization. By starting with the positive I was better able to receive the second piece of feedback. He then went on to say that the only way the team could possibly meet the request for even higher performance was to work extended amounts of overtime! In a nutshell, “Donal, your words come across as very reasonable but your requests suggest you are not. Which is right?”  (My language not the employee’s)

As we discussed the matter further to clarify his perspective I came to two conclusions. The first, was that if he had this concern the other developers probably did as well. I had not communicated my expectations clearly despite my best efforts. The second was that there was a key truth in their insight. Although I don’t necessarily expect employees to work more overtime to get the project completed faster I do believe they have a vested interest in spending time outside of their core work hours to upgrade their skills. Why? This segues nicely to the title of this post. I have attended an ethics course this weekend with Dr Mark Wexler. He suggests that employers of knowledge workers are only required to provide fair compensation, benefits and decent working conditions from an ethic‘s perspective. The onus is on employees entirely to ensure their skills remain relevant in the market place.

In the old days a manual laborer or factory worker received their pay and were rehired the next day. Although modern knowledge workers enjoy better employment conditions the reality is that we must continue to invest in our skills outside of work hours to continue to earn salaries comparable to those we earn today. Technological innovation demands we master new technologies faster than ever before. Although employers may not be ethically required to invest in their knowledge workers skills I explained in my previous post they have a powerful interest in doing so. Core capabilities become core rigidities in organizations with legacy skills which limits their ability to compete.

I decided to speak with the rest of the developers on the team after a very productive 1 on 1 with the employee. I wanted to communicate my perspective differently armed with the new insights from my previous conversation. Here is what I tried to say. At times in a software project there may be times when we need to do overtime to meet project deadlines. This should be the exception not the rule. Work-life balance is important and typically leads to better performance in the long run. My focus is not for the team to work harder on the project per se. I do ask everyone to foster a supportive, collaborative environment and to provide constructive feedback to colleagues. I truly believe building this higher level of trust is a powerful enabler of high performance. Our ability to improve is directly proportional to our ability to solicit and improve based on this feedback. People don’t like doing this because giving feedback that can be perceived as negative is incredibly hard. This is why (from my perspective) I originally thought I was not asking employees not to work harder.

The developers were right too though. I am requesting they take the time to upgrade their skills mostly on their own time. This is additional work. To me this is about employment security though. The best workers with the skills in the latest technologies in demand will continue to earn high salaries and have their pick of employers.  The reality is that development work for mature products that are increasingly becoming commodities will continue to face compelling cost pressures from outsourced development centers.

I believe I have no right to ask employees to work overtime to acquire new skills. I sincerely believe I am responsible though to identify the future technical trajectory of our products and the market. This gives employees the opportunity to align with them to maximize their professional success. Take control of your career. Why worry endlessly about outsourcing? Take the chance to become more valuable in the market. Then it’s up to employees. (It really is) We make a choice every day how we spend our time. Upgrade or obsolescence, the real choice for the knowledge worker with all the possibilities or consequences that comes with whatever choice we make eventually…….

Related articles

Human Capital

May 4, 2011 By in Agile Development, Employees, Leadership, Management, Motivation Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

As large organizations continue to delayer and eliminate middle management more and more responsibility is being transferred downwards across the organization. It never ceases to amaze me to observe the rigorous criteria organization’s enforce to ensure the ROI on capital expenditure. In comparison how much are most companies are willing to invest for training in their front-line management or key players who manage the most valuable capital of all, human capital? My experience has been not nearly enough…..

For most organizations their workforce is their best opportunity to deliver an extraordinary customer experience to provide that all important and often elusive competitive advantage. Think about it, I know of organizations where any capital request over $10,000 must be reviewed by a committee of C-Suite executives. This meeting alone must cost at least a couple of thousand dollars to the company. Executives typically review a pitch from senior managers on why the investment is worthwhile. This same company has developers that make an average of $80,000 in various locations across North America but cannot find the budget to regularly invest in management training. You could buy a very nice BMW or Mercedes for the kind of money their employees are paid! Are we focused on the return of the right assets?

This may offend some people but company’s deserve a similar return on their investment in terms of high performance from staff on premier salaries. The fact is we are now competing in a global environment. If company’s don’t get the results from employees making three or four times as much as a developer somewhere else it can make sense to outsource to cheaper locations. This is why front-line management serve such a vital role for both their employees and their employers. We need to help our employees be the best that they can be to remain competitive, enjoy their jobs and make a meaningful contribution to their organizations and fellow employees. And make no mistake, for the companies that can afford to pay a truly engaged, well-trained, experienced and talented developer working on a high performing team locally, they will typically receive higher quality software faster and more predictably.

I am fortunate that the company I work for has a generous tuition reimbursement policy. What a great opportunity for employees and managers at Sage. It is vital that everyone takes the initiative to upgrade their skills on a regular basis to remain relevant in today’s workforce. It never ceases to amaze me how many people still believe that the company owes them a job even after the great recession. The onus is on the employee and the employer to invest in each other for future success. Employers who don’t invest in their staff are unable to respond to new market opportunities as quickly as they like. Their core competency becomes a core rigidity. Employees with the latest skills have more employment security as they are more valuable to the market. What happens if no one invests. You have employees who can’t move because they won’t make the same money somewhere else but are not able to improve at the rate needed to keep the company competitive in the market. In the end, everyone loses.

That said, it’s undoubtedly tough at the top, the middle and the bottom of most organizations hierarchy’s these days. Many people’s span of control has broadened considerably due to reorganizations over the past few years. For the most part this is wonderful. Daniel Pink suggests that autonomy, mastery and purpose are three critical elements in maximizing satisfaction and productivity at work in his wonderful book “Drive“. (If you have ten minutes to spare I highly recommend you watch this excellent video explaining his ideas in more detail.)

Empowerment is wonderful. It is incredibly powerful but can be dangerous if not used wisely. Empowerment has changed the nature of the relationship between employees and managers fundamentally. When employees\people taste autonomy and are given the freedom to choose the best way to proceed this often can bring out the very best in them. With power comes responsibility though which is often overlooked. Many senior talented employees now find themselves in “unofficial” leadership roles as well. It seems to me that these new leaders are often intimidated by their new responsibility and don’t quite understand how to act sometimes. This may sound critical. That is not my intent. We need to invest in more leadership training for these new leaders as well. In many ways they are just as influential as the frontline managers. If managers are trying to change the culture or change direction in a project and the unofficial leaders are not on board managers lose the “war” when they are not in the room.  It is very tempting to try to manage this by “staying” in the room. This actually makes matters even worse…..

Challenging but exciting times. Are you continuing to upgrade your skills for the next set of challenges and opportunities? Are you ready to take advantage of them? Is your organization?

Related Articles

2011 Targets

January 9, 2011 By in Building teams, Employees, Motivation, Personal Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Personal:

  • Spend more quality time with Min Chi
  • Learn to be a great dad
  • Spend more time with my family back in Ireland
  • Reconnect with some old friends

Blog:

  • 10,000 hits
  • 50 personal posts
  • 2 guest posts
  • 25 comments

QuakeAware:

  • Setup a non profit organization
  • 25,000 downloads of the App
  • Redesign the website
  • Expand into at least one US city
  • Explore open source model for global presence

Professional:

  • Build 2 high-performing agile R&D teams
  • Bring out one hidden talent or maximize a known one for every employee I work with
  • Become a better presenter
  • Attend networking events monthly
  • Raise my performance on R&D management team

Health:

  • Eat better
  • Loosen up – stretch more
  • Drop 15lbs
  • Vary my exercise more
  • Play soccer this summer

Study:

  • Complete MBA with 4.0 GPA average
  • Write an excellent business plan for my final project
  • Write one more plan by the end of the year for practice
  • Attend BC New Venture Series this summer

Culture change

November 21, 2010 By in Agile Development, Building teams, Employees, Management, Motivation Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I have been fortunate to work with many teams over the years in a variety of functions including Customer Support, Operations, Project Management and most recently R&D. The most exciting time in a team’s turnaround is when they start to sense the possibilities of what high performance could really look like. It’s intangible but very real. I got that feeling this week in Accpac R&D after the management team hosted a week-long internal conference for our department to discuss agile best practises and how we plan to organize ourselves for our next project.

In hindsight we provided insufficient training to our staff when we originally transitioned to Agile. This cost us dearly in terms of effectiveness and productivity. As I have mentioned before agile is really a set of principles and best practices rather than a rigorous methodology. The focus is always on self-improvement or Kaizen to use the Japanese term. With this in mind, we have acknowledged our mistakes and adjusted accordingly. The management team has invested heavily in training for our staff in 2010. For example, over 50 employees have become certified ScrumMasters; 30 have become certified Product Owner’s this year. Training is scheduled to help staff better test in Agile in December. Most importantly we will ensure that regular training opportunities are available to staff as part of operational rhythm in 2011. Everyone’s hard work, energy and commitment have ensured that the team’s understanding of agile has risen to a new level and provided a solid foundation for future learning.

Funding training opportunities sounds great but what is the ROI for the company and the employee? Put another way, why is training so critical for change management? Have you ever heard of “competence compulsion?” At work, we are all compelled to act and to make sense of every situation in a way that ensures we appear competent to ourselves, and we appear competent to others. Unfortunately, when we are learning, we can appear less than competent. An important premise in Agile is that the team are self-managing and empowered. It is a big ask to expect employees to lead effectively when most have only experienced working in a command and control environment as subordinates. The change is even more difficult when they everyone is unsure of their new roles and the “right way” to proceed. Needless to say management found the new environment ambiguous and challenging as well and struggled to provide employees the support they desired in the transition.

Training is often expensive in terms of money and time. It can be hard to justify pulling key resources off a project (especially when you are behind schedule) to take training. My experience has been that management and employee’s commitment has paid off and the payback has been huge in our department in 2010. For example, armed with new insight and confidence 20 staff recently attended the local Agile Vancouver conference. These folks (many of whom are key change agents) subsequently played an important role in bringing back many excellent suggestions to the team. Although management organized many supporting events the focus of last week was really on the employees. Employees presented their insights and ideas many of us were not familiar with. They offered personal recommendations on how we should organize ourselves. Different opinions and ideas were debated by the department together. The quality of conversation and level of engagement seemed unimaginable not so long ago.

I believe the team has acquired a new core foundation of knowledge (in Agile). This has enabled many to unleash their potential and seek out more advanced ideas to further improve individually and collectively. There is a palpable desire for change and demand from employees for more say in how our R&D organization is run. Energy is higher than I have ever seen it. There is a culture change taking place. I am proud to be a part of it and support the team in any way I can. This is what management is all about!

Mixed messages in business

November 9, 2010 By in Employees, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

 Organizational life becomes more complex as you rise through the ranks in management. New stakeholders are constantly introduced into the mix. Company strategy needs to constantly evolve. For example, a new technology can disrupt the business environment and threaten a previously robust business model. We work in constant flux these days. One area where I really struggled earlier in my career was “translating” the mixed messages that seem rampant in corporate life. How many times have you left a meeting where many in the the audience don’t understand the message communicated? Even worse sometimes it seems evident the company is not moving towards the publicized lofty principles or values. Why is this not discussed?

Many times the people who get ahead are those willing to see past their organizations failings and try to make things better. Some become overly political to get ahead. Others give up. Their negative sentiment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bold aspirations are rarely met so why even bother goes the thinking? Even worse, some actively block their peers that really are trying to change things for the better. Employees become cynical when they see values or objectives heavily promoted one day only to be sacrificed at the altar of expediency and commercial reality shortly afterward. The problem worsens when these sacrifices become the norm and confirm cynical employee’s  prejudices. Mixed messages are very challenging to defend as a manager.

In a recent conversation with fellow students in my MBA program we devised a list of some mixed messages we have experienced in our careers to date. Here is the list in no particular order.

Provide an estimate: You made a commitment.

Quality is Number 1: We must hit the release date no matter what.

I don’t care about the numbers: Lots of (senior) eyeballs are looking at these reports.

Accelerate the project: We will invest in outsourced teams unfamiliar with the product to do this.

The team decides: Except when public commitments are announced on their behalf.  

We need to involve frontline managers in strategy:  Frontline management can’t make basic operational decisions around merit increases, hiring or firing.

Get the issues out on the table: Don’t make your superiors look bad.

The company is profitable: We need to reinvent ourselves or face terminal decline.

We are all one team: Company politics dictate that…

It is vital everyone understands the company’s strategy: Employees can’t be trusted with confidential information.

We have a pay for performance culture: There is practically no difference in merit increases for high performers compared to other employees.

We need to hear creative ideas: There is no capacity available to implement your new ideas.

The company cannot afford to pay merit increases: The company continues to increase dividend payments to shareholders.

We are one big team. We must defend ourselves against opponents determined to kill our project.

We need everyone on the same page: Don’t share updates that will mess with the “plan”.

This new system will make us more efficient: We need to hire more people because the system is so difficult to use.

Delivering an amazing customer experience is our competitive advantage: There is no bandwidth to correct existing defects reported by our customers.

Can you remain positive, see positive intent in an ambiguous and complex environment ? Can you make sense of these competing tensions in business to your employees and peers? Can you remain authentic, be courageous and respectful? Can you avoid being fired or avoid corporate landmines? If you can answer yes to most of these questions you could enjoy a very rewarding career in management.

Any other mixed messages that you can think of?

Management Excellence (via Alok Tyagi’s blog)

July 4, 2010 By in Building teams, Leadership, Management, Motivation Leave a comment

I blogged a while ago about the responsibility of everyone but particularly managers to understand your company’s strategy. I just came across this post from the leader of R&D for mid-market at Sage North America that speaks to this topic. I thought my readers might be interested to hear a senior leader’s perspective on management excellence.

I agree with all of Alok’s comments. The major challenge that I see (and he points out) is that managers are often removed from decision making. Many decisions made seem counter to strategies that are communicated. At any rate, I enjoyed this post. I hope you do as well.

Front line management plays a key role in the success of an organization. It can be competitive differentiator when companies are able to harness their management talent for their greater good. Consider the following on the importance of front line management: For 80% to 90% of the employees in an organization – their direct manager is the umbilical cord that ties them to the company. This is where most of the employees interact on the daily basi … Read More

via Alok Tyagi’s blog

Let them eat heat…

July 4, 2010 By in Employees, Motivation Tags: , , , 1 Comment

Next week promises to the be the first of many glorious weeks of sunshine in beautiful British Columbia. I can’t wait for the good weather to arrive, after work that is. Of course, we all want to be outside enjoying the good weather but I actually enjoy my work too for the most part. Occasionally the sun can become a real nuisance though. In the afternoons I can no longer see my monitor or look at people directly in front of me because the sun shines so brightly in my office. So what Donal? Why are you sharing this mundane observation on your blog? I realize I am lucky. I’d like to share a story a friend told me recently about a large corporation that moved into a brand new building some years ago. 

This building is impressive inside and out. The company is justifiably proud of the new working environment they have created for employees. The windows allow for an impressive amount of natural light, there is a nice dining and recreation area for employees and a nice area to walk nearby. It is an impressive venue to take partners, customers and future employees.  Yet, when the weather is at its best many employee’s don’t want to work there. Why not?  Can you imagine if you were a programmer, tester, sales person or support analyst blinded by the sun at work? What are the chances these employees will perform at their best when they are unable to see their monitors, are suffering from migraines or feeling uncomfortably hot. Even worse, can you imagine if this situation had not been addressed for a couple of years despite numerous requests from employees and management?

I attended an excellent training session at work last week focused on delivering extraordinary customer experience. Two key elements stood out from the training. Ultimately, it is we; the employees who must deliver extraordinary customer experience. We choose the level of energy and commitment we bring to work every day to serve our internal and external customers. The second conclusion I came to is that the company must create a good environment for employees to excel in. An excellent example used in the course was the mixed message employees in customer support received in the past. They were required to deliver superior customer service but had an average of fifteen minutes to do it or face censure in their performance reviews! This got me thinking about the company my friend was telling me about. Facilities layout has immensely strong effects on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Although a good work environment is necessary for employee satisfaction good facilities are insufficient by themselves to increase employee motivation. It’s tough to be an employer!  I am sure its not easy as a member of facilities either. I often wonder if management in this area get evaluated on their ability to keep costs low or ensure their customers have a productive work environment?

A well-known expert on employee motivation in the workplace is Herzberg. He  constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people’s attitudes about work. He concluded that such factors as company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary are hygiene factors rather than motivators. What does this mean exactly? According to the theory, the absence of hygiene factors creates job dissatisfaction, but their presence does not motivate or create satisfaction. In contrast, he determined from the data that the motivators were elements that enriched a person’s job; he found five factors in particular that were strong determiners of job satisfaction. These motivators (satisfiers) were associated with long-term positive effects in job performance while the hygiene factors (dissatisfiers) consistently produced only short-term changes in job attitudes and performance, which quickly fell back to its previous level. Simply put, the satisfiers relate to what a person does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the person does what he or she does.

Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory
Hygiene Factors   Motivators
Salary,
Job Security,
Working Conditions,
Level and Quality of Supervision,
Company Policy and Administration,
Interpersonal Relations		   Nature of Work,
Sense of Achievement,
Recognition,
Responsibility,
Personal Growth and Advancement

 

A simple observation and conclusion is that managers need to work with facilities to ensure that important working conditions issues\hygiene factors get resolved for our staff. If we can’t address challenges due to budgetary restrictions in the short run that is ok. Employees understand that finances are tight. It  is important that employee see more of their feedback turned into action though. Many friends in management tell similar stories of employees tired of surveys because they don’t see material change based on their feedback.  As managers let’s make best efforts to ensure necessary equipment is budgeted next year to address employee concerns.  Our ability to motivate our employees to deliver extraordinary customer experience depends on it….

My employee inspires me

June 10, 2010 By in Building teams, Employees, Leadership, Motivation Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I saw something today at work that truly inspired me. I was in casual conversation with two testers in the hall. A co-worker joined us and requested that one of the testers attend a meeting. The meeting is designed to improve collaboration for all QA testers across the various sprint teams in our organization. All testers attend in rotation; but this employee’s consistent attendance is desired by the employee’s peers.  This person is the “unofficial” leader of our QA  team. Seth Godin would describes this person as a linchpin, someone who is indispensable to the organization.

My nickname for this tester is “Peter Panic”. The de Paor siblings called my mum Peter Panic because try as she may, she could never stop worrying! Like my Mum this tester never stops worrying about peers and the project. Now that I think of it perhaps the employee could be considered  the mother hen of our department. Someone who is always looking out for us. The interaction today got me thinking. What are the qualities the employee demonstrates that has earned them the privilege of being requested to lead the QA team?

Here is what I came up with;

  • The employee is honest. The person speaks their mind when they have concerns. You know where they stand on an issue.
  • The person is independent.They will support an idea if they think its right. They support management publicly if they think we are right (even if the team thinks otherwise). They challenge the management team publicly and constructively if they have concerns. This is tough to do but they pull it off.
  • They see the best in others. They don’t align their perspective with a self-serving perception of what might be in it for them. When an employee was struggling I asked this person to mentor the employee. When things didn’t work out they continued to gently remind me that we needed to do the right thing by this employee even though they had left the organization.
  • This employee really cares about their work. They are totally committed to the product, project and their team. Sometimes, your strengths maximized become a weakness. Sometimes one can care too much. Give me this challenge to work through with someone any day over another who is ambivalent about their work.
  • The employee is  a true team player. They are happy to lead or support depending on the value they bring to task at hand.
  • This person is human with flaws like the rest of us. They are wonderful but not Mother Theresa. They don’t make me feel inferior in any way.
  • They acknowledge an error if they perceive they have made one.
  • The employee plays to my strengths and weaknesses which I really appreciate. If I am weak in an area (example – attention to detail) the employee manages that weakness for me and leverages their strength to compensate for me. The employee leverages my strengths when it makes sense to do so. I am willing to take risks and speak publicly at a higher level which they don’t feel comfortable doing.
  • The employee holds me accountable. If I say I will do something they remind me if I don’t. (which I like)
  • The employee regularly takes initiative to propose solutions to problems.
  • The employee is tenacious. They continue to follow-up until the issue  receives the appropriate attention.
  • This person demonstrates a sense of urgency. Once they raise an issue they want to ensure this issue is fixed.
  • The employee has patience. They are willing to explain a scenario multiple times until I understand it. As I had no background in R&D this was particularly helpful when I first joined the team.

Sometimes change is happening right before our eyes if we are perceptive enough to see it. The QA team is starting to self-organize, share information and slowly drive change. Employee empowerment is becoming a reality. How exciting. Now, how do I get invited to that meeting …….

Donal

Do you understand your company’s strategy?

May 29, 2010 By in Agile Development, Building teams, Employees, Leadership, Management, Motivation Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

I came across a very funny story as I was reading Gervase Bushe’s new book “Clear leadership“. He says his student’s told him about it and is unable to cite the author. Never mind this story is worth telling. It’s called the plan…..

The Plan

In the beginning there was the plan and then came the assumptions, and the assumptions were without form, and the plan was completely without substance, and darkness fell upon the faces of the workers.  And they spake unto their supervisors, saying: “The plan is a crock of sh*t and it stinketh.”

And the supervisors went unto their department heads, and said: “It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof.”

And the department heads, went unto their group managers, and said unto them, “It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none can abide it.”

And the group managers went before their general manager, and said unto him, “It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength.”

And the general manager went before the vice-presidents and said “It promoteth growth and is very powerful.”

And the vice-presidents went to the CEO and said unto him: “This powerful new plan will actively promote the growth of this company and all its business units.”

And the CEO looked at plan, saw that it was good, and the plan became policy.

Why do I share this story with you? Here is a question worth pondering. Do you know what your company’s strategy is? If you do, do you really understand it and the role you play in adding value to the “plan?” If you are a manager and find yourself in this situation be scared. Your ability to lead and drive the necessary changes are pretty limited. Even worse your employees are probably more confused about the strategy then you are.  In organizations with seemingly endless appetites for re-orgs employees get cynical quickly about  another change effort doomed to fall short of the promises of management when they don’t understand the context behind the changes.

Another interesting dynamic I often see is the parallel universes and perspectives of people at various levels of the organizations when discussing change efforts. For example, at work I believe we have made important strides in becoming a more agile organization which is critical to our future success. In a few years time I think we could become the leading innovators of Agile at Sage. I was surprised and disappointed when a couple of valued employees advised they were pretty skeptical about the benefits of agile on Friday. From their perspective the benefits we had promoted as part of our agile transition were far outweighed by the greater overhead, coördination and confusion that goes with more delegation to employees unclear about their roles in this new world. As managers we are eager to promote the win’s without speaking candidly enough about the many challenges that our employees experience as well when we meet as a team. We need to be positive about the future but realistic about the present. Employees must feel safe to raise their concerns publicly without feeling they are undermining management. That said employees should not publicly undermine management either! This can be done, they are not mutually exclusive objectives.

I came across a very interesting group recently called RLG International. This consulting company based out of Vancouver focuses specifically on connecting company’s from top to bottom, aligning strategy at all levels of the organization and helping employees see how their performance matters to the organization. Their methodology reminds me of many of the core principles of agile development with a focus on operational rhythm, improved visibility, communication and relevant metrics. As Patrick Lencioni reminds us in the Three signs of a miserable job employees will only ever feel fulfilled in their work if they believe their efforts really make a difference to their organizations, they feel valued and there are realistic metrics to quantify  and evaluate their contribution. Apparently RLG grew 20% in the midst of the brutal recession last year which is an impressive achievement. Although it seems like they operate in a niche market I believe this is becoming a greater issue for organizations as we struggle to survive and thrive in these turbulent times.

If your organization  is unlikely to hire an organization to help communicate your company’s strategy what’s the number one thing you and I can do to address this pressing organizational problem? Be curious! Ask questions. Be constructive but highlight the discrepancies and have some solutions to offer to move the situation forward. If you do have a solid understanding of your organization’s strategy be sure to share your wisdom with your colleagues. Context is huge in helping people succeed with change.

As always, if anyone has any comments I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Donal

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.