The Results-Oriented Work Environment (ROWE)

Apparently the most recent flavour of the month is the Results-Oriented Work Environment or ROWE for those who prefer to only work with acronyms.  It a great name because how could anyone not want a more results-oriented work place?  Some of its detractors call it something different – anarchy.  I would probably call it self-employment.

ROWE, in its most current incarnation, was pioneered at Best Buy, and is in use at other high profile companies such as IBM and Netflix.  The theory is a simple one:  employees set their own time, schedules, and work methods, and are instead measured on the output of what they produce.  In theory, it sounds like an excellent idea, and in certain cases it could probably work very well.

I can think of a two situations where it really wouldn’t work:

  1. It can’t work where there’s a high degree of inter-dependence with other stakeholders.  As a refugee of the Retail Food Industry, I can say without reservation that it would be a disaster if employees wrote their own schedule.  As great as it would be for the bulk of employees to work banker’s hours, it would get pretty frustrating for customers who predominantly shop at nights and on weekends.
  2. It can’t work in situations where it is difficult to measure the output of employee effort.  If there is any degree of variation in work processes, then the measurement thereby becomes very difficult.  For example, any profession with case-work (lawyers, social workers, insurance etc.) are inherently difficult to measure.  Some cases may be easily wrapped up in a few minutes, while others may require weeks of research and follow up.

I know we’re all supposed to buy-in to the myth that any and all things are measurable, but the luxury of believing that falls only to academics who have never had to actually measure anything.  Ask a professor how to measure teaching effectiveness, and watch her face as she looks like your dog when you pretend to throw the ball and then hide it behind your back.

The second group of people who insist that all things are measureable are management consultants – who, (for the low cost of $5000/day plus expenses) are more than willing to help you measure everything in your business.  Unlike the professors, these folks don’t believe it, but they make good money convincing organizations to try it.

Should you try to better focus your organization on results?  Yes – that’s your job as a manager.

Should you impose measurement systems on everything?  Maybe – it depends on your business, and how meaningful you can make your metrics.  Where possible, you should measure and evaluate people mostly on their output.

Should you set people loose and tell them as long as they produce X widgets in a given week, they can do whatever they want?  I think that’s a recipe for disaster for employee morale, risk management, and true accountability.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong (with thanks to Dennis Miller).

My Boss is a Micro-Manager

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Symptoms of Micro-Managers:

  • Highly Controlling – wants to oversee every aspect of the work
  • Power-Hungry – enjoys “flexing muscles” to ensure everyone knows s/he is the boss
  • Makes all the decisions – no matter how minor

Why are They Like This?

  • Insecurity – may be unsure of their own ability in the job
  • Power-crazed – may use their position to feel self-important
  • Perfectionist – may need every aspect of the job to be as close to perfect as possible
  • Not a Leader – may have been a great individual contributor, but has moved to a leadership role without requisite training

What Can I Do About It?

1. Upward Manage

  • Schedule and structure one on one meeting times with your boss
  • Determine what is most important to him/her, and contribute to those priorities
  • Talk about what you plan to do in the coming week, and get feedback in advance
  • Don’t ever surprise your boss

2. Get a Performance Agreement

  • Define boundaries of authority.
  • Agree on a work plan that defines outcomes and methods
  • Agree on the top 3 – 7 priorities
  • Link your performance goals clearly to your bosses goals

3. Learn to Say “No”

  • Always say “Yes” before saying “No”
  • Acknowledge their position as the boss
  • Refer to your Performance Agreement
  • If you think a request is unreasonable, try to negotiate.  Educate him/her as to the nature of the request
  • Describe the impact a request may have on you without complaining
  • Carefully manage your tone

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Business is a Contact Sport — Wear a Cup

At the risk of coming across like The Cranky Middle-Manager, I have a couple of grievances to air on how people interact with each other in the workplace.  It seems that people claiming that they work in a “toxic environment” is all the rage as of late.  In a minimum of cases, this may be truth, but in far more circumstances, it seems as though anytime someone doesn’t smile at you at the water cooler, you’re entitled to claim a horrible work situation.

The truth is that anytime you are in a workplace of more than one person, there are going to be disagreements and compromises.  And contrary to much of the hype you read in the popular media, sometimes work will be a drag.  To quote Jed’s dad, “If it was supposed to be fun, they wouldn’t call it work.”

I believe the root cause of this problem, is most people’s incompetence in dealing with conflict.  Many people believe that conflict is bad, when in fact it is neither good nor bad, but merely exists.  People’s response to conflict can make the situation bad.

Some people respond to conflict by becoming aggressive and overbearing.  Others choose to avoid conflict like it was a toilet seat at the bus station.  Both responses are destructive and will not improve or resolve whatever situation has caused the conflict to emerge.

Interestingly, in my experience I see the most common response to conflict to be one of either avoiding or yielding.  Both are poor responses to conflict in almost all cases.  If you are inclined to respond to conflict in this way, it is time to grow a pair and act like an adult.  Issues need to be confronted and dealt with.

It doesn’t mean you are always going to get your way, but at the very least you will have some confidence that you have attempted to constructively resolve workplace conflict, rather than letting it get pushed underground to fester.

It’s a Jungle Out There

I found this clip on YouTube that is a hilarious/sad commentary on many workplaces.  Happy Viewing.

You’re Fired! How to Fire an Employee

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Before You Fire

  • Have you done everything reasonably possible to have the employee succeed?
  • Has the employee been warned that their poor behavior or performance will lead to termination if not corrected?  Are these warnings in writing?
  • Consult with your legal council and HR to determine whether the termination is ‘with just cause’ or ‘without just cause’
  • In cases of ‘with cause’ have you completed an investigation and got the employees side of the story?
  • With the help of Legal or HR prepare the letter or ‘separation agreement’

Be Respectful

  • Have the conversation as soon as possible after making the decision to terminate
  • Select neutral territory, preferably where you can be as discreet as possible
  • Plan to allow the employee to depart with as much dignity as possible
  • Provide appropriate transitional support

Doing the Deed

  • Have someone with you to witness the conversation, preferably HR or another manager
  • Keep the discussion quick and to the point
  • Don’t defend or debate the decision

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ABC’s of Performance Management

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People do what gets reinforced (this is both a good news and a bad news story)!  Here’s how you can use consequences to manage performance.

The ABC’s of Performance Management

For more information, take a look at ‘Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement’, by Aubrey C. Daniels

Activator (or antecedent)

  • Something that comes before a behaviour or activity which sets the occasion for that behaviour
  • Most often over-used by managers
  • Have only short-term effects
  • Cause a behaviour to happen a limited number of times
  • Must be paired with a consequence to be effective

Behavior

  • What a person does
  • Performance
  • Action
  • Event
  • Decision

Consequences

  • The result of a behavior
  • A response to an action
  • What is said or done about someone’s work or an activity
  • An event that occurs after a given behavior
  • What happens to the performer as a result of the given behavior

Leaders often overuse activators and underuse consequences.

Types of Consequences

There are four types of consequences:

  • Positive reinforcement – Makes me feel good about something I’ve done
  • Negative reinforcement – I do something because it will allow me to avoid something negative
  • Punishment – Makes me feel bad about something I’ve done
  • Extinction – Being ignored for something I’ve done

Positive and negative reinforcement are consequences that will increase behavior, while punishment and extinction are consequences that will decrease behavior.

Consequences That Drive Performance

Consequences can be:

  • Positive  OR Negative
  • Immediate  OR Future
  • Certain  OR Uncertain

The consequences that will drive performance are positive, immediate, and certain.

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Chicken$hits Can’t Be Effective Leaders

Far smarter people than me have written about what is required for effective leadership, but this week I have been reflecting upon the most necessary ingredient:  courage.

I have had the pleasure of interacting with many leaders of varying quality over many years, and all of them have at least a few obvious strengths, but the common denominator in the truly outstanding leaders, are those who handle awkward, difficult or downright scary situations head-on.  They don’t always get it right the first time, but the outstanding leader does not back down because she fears reprisal from her boss, peers, direct reports or some other stakeholder.

It is amazing how many people have a strong need to liked by those who report through to them.  The relationship between a boss and his/her employees should always be respectful, but it does not need to be friendly.  Many leaders hate to deliver bad news, or say “no” to people.  Other leaders won’t deal with performance issues because it might involve a difficult conversation, or let an employee who should have been fired years ago get away with perpetual sub-par performance.

This is exquisite BS.

It is a form of dishonesty, and certainly demonstrates a lack of integrity when leaders fail to engage in difficult conversations.  Progressive organizations have figured this out, and gotten rid of managers who are afraid to get rid of people.

The right thing to do is rarely the easy thing to do, but it is the burden of leadership.  If you are too chicken$hit to do the right thing, then you should either grow a pair, or wait to be fired.  The choice is yours

Summer and Pretending to Work

One of my favourite work assignments was a project based in Philadelphia that was a joint venture between an American Company and a British one.  One would think the similarities between these two countries would keep cross-cultural issues to a minimum, but as anyone who has worked in both countries will tell you, the differences are more than merely adjusting to funny accents.

One of the first wrinkles that needed to ironed out was the fact that Americans take about 3 weeks vacation a year in increments of no longer than 5 days, and their British counterparts have two or three times that holiday entitlement.

While the Brits would jet off to Southern Europe for 3 weeks at a time during the summer, the Americans would be at the office working the same excessive hours as always.  Interestingly, the productivity of the two groups was about the same.

This got me to thinking about how we work in North America, and how much of the time we are pretending to work.  Lots of people will take offence to the notion that they are not really working, but in reality the bulk of the work at many organizations takes place in just a few weeks per year.

January through May are good production months, except for a few days around Easter and Spring Break.  June through August, many people are not at work at all, and those that are working show up, but really have one eye to the outdoors and their next BBQ.  September and October are usually about budgeting and planning, and while some will argue they are critical to the business, it distracts from the actual running of the business, and often adds far less value than it costs in time and effort.  Finally November and December work gets done, but with the distractions of Christmas and (for the Americans) Thanksgiving.

So as a manager, how do you reconcile that the few people that do show up in July and August are probably just pretending to work?  You don’t.  It’s part of the deal, and most organizations don’t fall apart as a result.  The real question to ask is whether the work being done the rest of the year, when the entire staff complement is in place and working at capacity has any value.

Anyway, I better take a quick lap around the office floor (holding a piece of paper, and walking quickly) so as to maintain the appearance of work, before someone figures out I’m part of the masses pretending to work during the summer months.

Airport Security Screening and Employee Performance

Something happens in an airport or on an airplane every few months that makes us collectively lose our minds.  In the past year, restrictions have been put on air travelers that are only slightly less obtrusive than being bound in straight-jacket while in transit.

At any given time there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the air.  Of all of those people, some tiny fraction of one percent want to do harm.  Regardless of how small that deviant population is, all air travelers are subject to slow, invasive, and somewhat ineffective security measures.

Many workplaces manage their employees the same way.  They put restrictive policies in place to thwart the occasional employee that may abuse a corporate directive.  One example was a client of ours who had a proposal to put people on a per diem expense when they were travelling, and thus eliminating the need for the collection and auditing of hundreds of $10 lunch receipts.

Ultimately the proposal was turned down because there was some history of one or two employees abusing their expense accounts.  Rather than properly discipline the offending employees, it was decided to stack policy on top of policy to eliminate any chance anyone could abuse their expense account.

In the process, they created an abundance of unnecessary work for countless employees, cost the shareholders more in compliance-related costs, damaged any atmosphere of trust in the organization, and ultimately didn’t stop dishonest employees from taking advantage of the situation.  Not a very smart decision.

In the airports, we don’t have much choice; in the workplace we do.  Managers need to be accountable for managing.  If an employee behaves poorly, then address the behavior – don’t write a policy.  In the example above, the offending employees should have been fired.  They then could have instituted an expense allowance that is easier to administer and saves everyone time and money.

I can already hear the HR and Finance people objecting, but at some point pragmatic common sense must prevail.

Why Command and Control is Underrated

It seems to me that Command and Control as a management style has gotten a bum rap.  You’ve heard the disparaging remarks, “She’s a complete command and control style manager” – implying there is something wrong with that.

I think such comments display a startling lack of understanding of what leaders are required to do in organizations.  Command and control is a very useful managerial tool for certain situations.

People love to use fire-fighting as an analogy to describe modern management practice.  I would challenge anyone to go find himself a Fire Chief and ask him/her if command and control is a bad idea.

When a building is burning and lives are at stake, the Fire Chief very much relies on command and control as the appropriate management tool for that situation.  Can you imagine the fire department showing up at an emergency, and the Fire Chief requesting that everyone break up in study groups, to hold hands and sing camp songs?

“OK – everyone brainstorm ideas for how we should tackle this, and I’ll give a special prize to the group that comes up with the best idea.  Make sure everyone participates equally, and remember that everyone’s feedback is valuable.  This is an excellent opportunity to reinforce how much we value each other, and I’ll float between the groups to help facilitate.”

Glad it’s not my house on fire.  I want the Fire Chief standing on top of chair barking out orders as fast as she can to get the situation under control.  I also want the Firefighters to listen carefully to the orders being dispatched, and execute as they’re being instructed to do.

When they are back at the Firehall, and practicing for such emergencies, or doing community outreach, then the Fire Chief would be well advised to pull a different tool out of his box, and to engage his people in a more collaborative style.

The problem for people that disparage command and control is that they confuse this very important managerial style with a lack of respect.  Lack of respect is never appropriate, but many times it is a leaders job to tell her direct reports in no uncertain terms what they are required to do.  Setting clear expectations, holding people to account for those expectations, and administering the appropriate consequences are what we pay managers to do.

Command and control is one legitimate tool to get this done.

Tell me your experiences – both good and bad – with command and control as a management style.

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