Changing Others?

Here’s a fairly common scenario:

You’re a manager responsible for 100+ people, all involved in some kind of knowledge work. You’ve been asked, told – or maybe feel the need yourself – to do something about the productivity of your group. How would you proceed?

Aside: I’ve been in this situation myself some number of times, and seen or helped managers with such scenarios, too.

Beliefs

How a manager decides to proceed is most often a function of what they believe about the nature of work, and the nature of people.

I’ve seen managers issue diktats: “You will improve”.

Opt to get consultants in: “These guys will tell you how to improve”.

Or “coach” people: “I’ll show you the way to improve” (not my definition of coaching, btw).

I’ve rarely seen a manager say: “Let’s sort this out together”.

But if you accept the answers to these Six FAQs, then this latter option seems like the only viable, long term basis upon which to proceed.

And if that is so, then the key questions become:

• “Can we all agree that we need something to be done?”
• “If we can so agree, who’s going to be involved, and in what ways and degree will they be involved?”
• “For those who are closely involved, how shall we make a start?”

The last of the above questions is something like the Theory of Constraints three questions:

• “What to change?”
• “What to change to?”
• “How to effect the change?”

Or, maybe, just these two questions:

• “What is the purpose of this work, from the paying customers’ (end-users’) point of view?”
• “What measures will the workers choose and use to understand and improve their work?”

Do you concur, or would you choose a different way to proceed?

– Bob

Further Reading

The Art and Science Of Changing People Who Don’t Want To Change ~ Reut Schwartz-Hebron