I am in San Diego, working with a group on the Time Span research of Elliott Jaques.
“So, what do we do next? How do we implement this stuff?” came the question at a break.
“Calm down,” I replied. “For starters, don’t do anything.”
This was definitely NOT the anticipated response. I smiled. “Look, during the past three hours, I have described a new way of looking at your organization, a new way of looking at work, how roles are created, how accountabilities are designed into those roles. So, stop. Don’t do anything.
“Sit, and watch. Observe. See things with new eyes. Describe what you see, first to yourself, then to someone else. That is the first step.
“So, tell me, with your new eyes, what do you see in your organization? What is going on?”
You’re right, Tom. Sometimes I just need to watch what is happening in my department and then apply what you have been teaching us about Time Span.
Yesterday I was having our department meeting. I was trying to give guidelines for making decisions about what is appropriate to bring up in a company staff meeting and what is inappropriate. My approach was causing frustration. There were just too many variables to consider. Tempers were rising–mine and theirs. After thinking about the problem I was bringing to my team, I realized that I was making too hard. They felt that they would never know what to talk about and what to avoid. They would never know when they were going to get criticized for what they were bringing up. While it seemed simple to me, it was far from simple from their point of view.
The solution was really easy. We will go over the agenda in our department meeting the day before. Everyone will feel confident in what they are presenting. Stress levels go down. Everyone is happy. More important, they come off as confident and knowledgable to the rest of the company.
Fair, This is a profound understanding on your part. Instead of giving guidelines for them to follow, ask them what they see. In their minds, what would be appropriate and what would be inappropriate? At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what you think is appropriate, it only matters what your team thinks. Your role, as a manager is to get your team to think. And it’s really a simple question. What do you think? -TF