Some years ago in grad school I was exposed to the world of systems thinking by the book The Art of Systems Thinking. It certainly influenced me, though as a young developer I didn’t always see or understand the bigger picture of the systems I was living and working in. Fast forward seven years into my career (three years in IT management) and I have become extremely interested in systems thinking. This blog post from Bob Sutton highlights a fascinating real world case involving GM and Toyota which shows just how powerful systems and processes can be as drivers of human behavior and performance. | I have been following the NUMMI plant (in Fremont California) in a haphazard way since it was opened as joint venture by Toyota and GM in the 1980s. |
| If you want to learn about the plant’s history from its birth to (nearly) its death, check out the astounding episode of This American Life, a compelling tale of how it went from the worst of the worst GM plants (drug use and drinking were routine on the line, and you could buy sex in the plant — and the quality and cost numbers were awful), to how Toyota started the NUMMI plant (the only unionized Toyota plant in the country) with a workforce composed (85%) of the same people who worked at that awful plant, how they retrained them in Japan, how these same workers once put in a different system started making some of the highest quality cars in the U.S. — even the world – from the day the plant opened,Read more at bobsutton.typepad.com |
Often left unmentioned when discussing self-organizing teams is the requirement of self-discipline of the individuals making up the team. This is a good and concise article on the topic… The notion of a self-organizing team runs deeply in the agile community. However, there is a flip side to self-organization, one which agile teams often forget—self-discipline. Just as freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand in a democracy, so do self-discipline and self-organization. Companies cannot empower teams that do not want to be empowered—those who are populated with individuals who refuse to accept any accountability for results, those who refuse to confront reality, those who gravitate to their cubicles and refuse to engage with other team members, those who are unwilling to accept team decisions, and those who disrespect colleagues. Read more at blog.cutter.com |
I had the pleasure of meeting and briefly “working” with Scott Berkun for an afternoon session at the 2009 Adaptive Path MX conference in San Francisco. I won’t go into all of the details of that session and learning experience except to say that one thing I learned from him was that “the rules” are movable or breakable.
In a recent blog entry Scott talks about how your design constraints (or rules) are movable, changeable or breakable. The highlighted portion which I’ve amplified resonated with me most as I’ve found it true in my own experience time and time again. Read the whole thing. The trick in creative work, especially with clients, is how to explore their constraints in such a way that you do not annoy them, but that you understand the problem sufficiently well that you get at core of the problems they need to solve. And then get them to happily acknowledge these are the true problems, rather than assuming their description of their problems is sufficiently well formed to be the true target. The reason why so many projects fail is the lack of this skill on all sides: clients, executives, designers, engineers and customers all stink at this process, and dismiss it as irrelevant. Read more at www.scottberkun.com |
Many managers are currently in the position of having to motivate their teams without the use of financial incentives - myself included. If you’re in that position, then this article from McKinsey Quarterly will point you in a good direction.
My own experience confirms the findings - I greatly value the three noncash motivators listed, especially one-on-one mentoring and more opportunities to lead. If I had to explicitly choose one or the other, as much as I would love more money, I would still desire the others more. Interestingly, the noncash motivators are likely to be a better long-term investment in potential future financial earnings.
Motivating people: Getting beyond money
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A recent McKinsey Quarterly survey2 underscores the opportunity. The respondents view three noncash motivators—praise from immediate managers, leadership attention (for example, one-on-one conversations), and a chance to lead projects or task forces—as no less or even more effective motivators than the three highest-rated financial incentives: cash bonuses, increased base pay, and stock or stock options (exhibit). The survey’s top three nonfinancial motivators play critical roles in making employees feel that their companies value them, take their well-being seriously, and strive to create opportunities for career growth. These themes recur constantly in most studies on ways to motivate and engage employees. Read more at www.mckinseyquarterly.com |
Requisite Writing by Forrest Christian has become one of my favorite, new (to me) blogs. Here he shares research on how one’s emotional state can affect their productivity. There are some interesting relationships. Be sure to read the rest.
My own thoughts were spurred regarding one’s emotional state when engaged in musical creative work. The high-level conclusions from the research seem to indicate one would be more musically creative when happy. In my own experience I have seen this if more than one person was involved in the creative work. However, I have personally experienced and have seen other’s experience where the opposite was true when the creator was working alone. Sadness and depression have often resulted in amazing works from classical composition to pop songs. And where does the blues fit in? One might say the blues came from deep sadness. Or maybe the blues were rooted in an experienced deep sadness but ultimately the writer still maintained a sense of hope and joy in life despite the sadness?
It’s all very interesting to consider… Two psychologists at the University of Alberta, Professor Robert Sinclair (now with Laurentian University in Sudbury, ON) and PhD student Carrie Lavis, published some research in 2001 on work they did with workers in a printed circuit board factory. They made some of the workers sad, about as sad as one would get after watching a sad movie. These workers didn’t make more boards, but had fewer errors, and therefore made more usable product (less rework). |
It seems that sad people use work to distract themselves from their sadness. They may also be more reflective. Happy workers see work as a distraction, too, but from their happiness. Read more at www.manasclerk.com |
Here is a good clarification from Tom Foster with insight into Elliott Jaques’ insights on organizational models. Check out the rest of the blog post to learn about the use of Time Span to add value to problem solving and decision making. Question:
As I look at Elliott Jaques model organization, I notice that it is a hierarchy. Over the years, I have heard, or been taught, or read articles about how it is important to flatten out the hierarchy, drive decision-making down to the front lines, closer to the customer. It makes sense to me, but Jaques seems to ignore these new flat organizational models. |
Response:
Your observations about Elliott Jaques’ high regard for hierarchy is correct. And these new organizational models really aren’t new. The flat organization, for all its well intentioned “new-ness” is the way things were before there was hierarchy. |
Why has hierarchy gotten such a bad rap? Likely, the adverse experience comes from poorly run organizations who blamed their tribulations on something they didn’t understand. Read more at www.managementblog.org |
Read these. And laugh. It helps. Trust me.
Oh and promise me you will try to avoid these phrases as I will. :)
50 office-speak phrases you love to hate
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2. “My employers (top half of FTSE 100) recently informed staff that we are no longer allowed to use the phrase brain storm because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. We must now take idea showers. I think that says it all really.”
Anonymous, England
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5. “My favourite which I hear from the managers at the bank I work for is let’s touch base about that offline. I think it means have a private chat but I am still not sure.”
Gemma, Wolverhampton, England
Read more at news.bbc.co.uk |
I must credit Steven M. Smith with amplifying this to me. I chose to re-amplify it myself as I believe it especially valuable in light of my recent post on Twitter use which discussed engaging employee’s and setting and reviewing performance goals.
In this article, Harvard Business professors are calling attention to the often overlooked harmful side effects of setting goals in an organization. If you are in a management or leadership position, I highly recommend reading the entire working paper. - The harmful side effects of goal setting are far more serious and systematic than prior work has acknowledged.
- Goal setting harms organizations in systematic and predictable ways.
- The use of goal setting can degrade employee performance, shift focus away from important but non-specified goals, harm interpersonal relationships, corrode organizational culture, and motivate risky and unethical behaviors.
- In many situations, the damaging effects of goal setting outweigh its benefits.
- Managers should ask specific questions to ascertain whether the harmful effects of goal setting outweigh the potential benefits.
Read more at hbswk.hbs.edu |
Here we go again. Now it’s Twitter that is going to drive your company into the ground due to lost worker productivity.
As a manager in software development I am continually dismayed at the finger pointing other managers and company leaders want to engage in when it comes to employee use of social media. The reason for my dismay is simple: Besides the obvious reasons listed in the techdirt.com article, the manager has a very simple tool for tracking worker productivity - employee engagement!
If you are a manager then you should be engaged with your employees at the individual level and team level. You should be regularly setting and reviewing performance goals. You should be tracking their work progress and deliverables. In other words, if you have an unproductive employee then it will be reflected in their work and performance!
If your employees consistently meet all goals set for them then you should:
1. Scream for joy! Take pride that you have such a wonderful team. Sing their praises to them and others in the company. Give them all raises.
2. Review the performance goals you are setting for them. You might have set them too low in some cases. You might have employees capable of much more.
If you are a manager, leader of a team or company and you are first focusing on external factors to lost productivity then you are not doing your job. Worker productivity cannot be effectively analyzed at 30,000 feet or effectively treated with a one-size-fits-all solution. No, Twitter Use Is Not Costing Companies Billions |
| Not this again. It happens with every new internet fad. Some company trying to sell something (filters, consulting, training, etc.) comes out with some study claiming that the new popular internet thingy is “costing x billions of dollars” because workers are using it for some amount of time per day. |
| Of course, if that were true then coffee breaks, lunch breaks, sleep and many other things would also be “lost productivity.” But, we all know that’s ridiculous and that the truth is those things make people more productive by giving them a break here and there to recharge.
Read more at techdirt.com |
I’ve recently been discussing with colleagues the design consideration of the page fold. This article provides some interesting insight into the reality or myth of the page fold concept in UI design on the web.
The article claims it is a myth, though there is interesting evidence even in their own testing that points to the need for still considering the page fold in your UI designs. As well, various commenters on the article bring to light some other interesting points of consideration left out of the article and testing.
My Take…
People have become accustomed for one reason or another to having to scroll. So it appears not to be a barrier and thus a design myth. My question is not “Is this a myth?” but “Is it preferable to users to have to scroll, search, poke, prod, and strive to find what they want or need?”.
Personally, I am very tired of scrolling and searching and constantly having my eyes and brain assaulted by 5,783 widgets, text blocks, moving images, colors, lines, links, and more to process. Some sites are getting this and greatly reducing the screen clutter in their existing designs (i.e. facebook and facebook lite) or never introducing it to begin with in their first designs (i.e. tumblr). As web professionals, we all know that the concept of the page fold being an impenetrable barrier for users is a myth. Over the last 6 years we’ve watched over 800 user testing sessions between us and on only 3 occasions have we seen the page fold as a barrier to users getting to the content they want. |
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