“So, you want me to really take a step back and look at the interactions between people?” quizzed Lawrence.
“More than just look, I want you to design the interactions between people.” I stopped to watch Lawrence’s face. There was a question behind his eyes.
Since I had his attention, I continued. “Think about these kinds of questions.
- How are team members given work assignments?
- How often are they given work assignments?
- Do team members depend on work product from other team members?
- How do team members hand off work to other team members?
- When a team member completes a work assignment, how does their supervisor know?
- When they complete a work assignment, how do they know what to work on next?
- Does anyone review or inspect their work?
- How often is their work reviewed or inspected?
- Are they permitted to continue on additional work before their current work has been reviewed?
- Do they work on multiple assignments simultaneously?
“The people system is the most important system you work on. This is just the start.” -TF
I’m not convinced you can “design” the interactions between people. That smacks of the old authoritarian ideal of being able to control the people who report to you.
Your items are good ones in terms of role design, which should stop design mistakes fouling up intereactions. But the interactions themselves depend on individual values, thoughts, emotions and levels of understanding.
We can try to affect reality through our actions (and interactions) but we can’t predict or control it.