We gathered around the table. In a brief moment, the conversations stopped. Glances exchanged over the food prepared. And we gave thanks.
This Thanksgiving also marks 19 years of Management Blog. We will return next Monday following the holiday.
Victoria was stumped. She had always thought the only way to motivate people was to create a bonus or incentive program.
“So, if a bonus is off the table,” I started, “what could you create as a positive consequence?”
“I suppose, if I am around and notice something good, I could give them an attaboy,” she floated.
“And if you are not around?”
“That’s the problem, when I’m not around, things grind to a halt.”
“Have you ever heard, What gets measured, gets done?” I asked. “Why do you think that happens?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s because people think they are being watched even when they aren’t being watched.”
“Don’t be naive. People know exactly when they are being observed and when they’re not. Here’s why What gets measured gets done. Knowing that something was done correctly, one unit completed to the quality standard creates a positive consequence. But only if it was measured. If no one notices, then there is no positive consequence. If it gets measured, there is a positive consequence.”
“So, then I would still have to be there to count all the completed units?” Victoria resisted.
“No, they’re adults. They can count their own completed units, and post the number on the white board by their work station.”
“What white board?” Victoria asked.
“The one you are going to purchase and put up tomorrow.”
“Maybe, I will have to give them some more training. That might perk them up,” Victoria replied. “The J-curve says that productivity on anything new will decline before it gets better, but more training might be the ticket.”
“And what else?” I prodded. Victoria was getting push back as her team took on more responsibilities.
“I guess I could talk to them, as a group, let them know how much I was counting on them,” she added.
“Those are both things that you could do, probably won’t hurt, but probably won’t have the impact you are interested in,” I explained. Victoria’s face twitched. She was looking for more approval than I was giving.
“Both things you suggest,” I continued, “occur before you get the behavior you want. Most managers go there. It’s not that it’s bad, just not very powerful. The power is not in what you set up before the behavior, but what you set up after the behavior. Consequences. And the most powerful consequence is a positive consequence.”
“You mean like a bonus?” Victoria guessed.
“A bonus is a reward, not a consequence. An immediate positive consequence is more powerful than a reward. Rewards are always delayed, can get taken away, the qualifications may change. Immediate reinforcement is more powerful than an uncertain reward.”
“I don’t know. If I can’t ply them with money, what can I do?” Victoria cringed.
Victoria looked a little down. “Why the long face?” I asked.
“Ugh,” she replied. “I think I just entered the J-curve. We had to let two more people go last week, I had to reassign some of their work to other people. Empowerment, you know the drill. It’s tough getting people to do new kinds of work. Their new responsibilities are suffering, big time.”
“What do you think is the problem?”
“The new things they have to do aren’t that difficult, but I am getting resistance. And some of the new decisions they have to make, well, maybe, with a little experience they will do better.”
“Describe the resistance,” I shifted.
“It’s not really resistance. They don’t say anything. But I can tell. It’s like a blank look. A nod that says yes, but a feeling that says no.”
“What do you think you are going to do, to get a different result?” I pressed.
“I am going to give it more time. Maybe things will improve.” Victoria was an optimist.
“And, what if they don’t improve? First, how will you know whether they are improving? And what if they don’t improve? What will you do differently?”
Tyler thought for a minute. “If we do something wrong, then we have been doing it wrong for some time,” he observed. “That’s the way we have always hired people from the outside.”
“And how is that working out for you?” I asked.
“Ten percent of the time, we get lucky, most of the time we get someone who is okay, and ten percent of the time, we get stung.”
“As you look at your process, who is the first person to touch the resumes on their way to the Hiring Manager?”
“That’s easy,” Tyler replied. “HR.”
“And, you, you’re the Manager Once Removed. When do you finally see the resumes?”
“Well, right before we extend the offer, I usually see the last three resumes. Often, I will bring back the strongest candidate for a final interview.”
“And, what would happen, if you turned your system upside down, so you were the first person to review the resumes?”
“Now, wait a minute,” Tyler stepped back. “I have enough to do without looking at dozens of resumes.”
“Tyler, what more important thing do you have to do than to focus on building the infrastructure of your team? In fact, the reason you are so busy, is because your hiring process is designed to produce exactly the people you end up with.”
“What went wrong?” I asked.
Tyler recounted the steps they used to qualify candidates. First, they killed a couple of trees printing resumes. Because there were so many, the stack was moved to the reception area. The large stack was divided in two, those from out of town were discarded, those in town were delivered to an area supervisor. The area supervisor was familiar with the job tasks, so that’s where the first real cuts were made.
The final forty resumes were delivered to the hiring manager. The hiring manager was very busy and a little put off by having to deal with forty resumes. He made quick work of the process, however, quickly finding some defect in thirty-five candidates. In the final five, two wanted too much money, two were working somewhere else, so that left one candidate who could easily start within 48 hours. Too good to be true.
“So, where do you think you went wrong?” I repeated.
“I know I have heard that before,” Vicki replied. “As the manager, it’s not my job to motivate, I am supposed to create an environment. So, what does that mean? We have work to do here.”
“This is all about work,” I replied. “And by work, I mean making decisions and solving problems.”
“But my people know what they have to do, and there aren’t that many decisions to make.”
“Look again,” I encouraged. “Your team is making decisions all the time, if you let them. Most of their decisions fall into two categories, quality and pace.”
Vicki looked puzzled, “What do you mean?”
“How many units are supposed to come off the line by lunch time?” I asked.
“Fifteen,” she replied.
“And so, as the morning goes on, your team is making decisions about how quickly they should go without compromising quality? And if there is a quality issue, they have to solve the problem and make up the pace to reach the goal by noon?”
“Yes.”
“And, what happens if they discover that they can maintain the quality standards, and produce 20 units by noon?” I smiled.
“Well, they would probably knock off at 15, or slow the pace down because the goal was 15.”
“But that would violate the contract,” I prompted.
“The contract?” Vicki repeated.
“The contract to do their best. Part of the contract means if they can complete more than the goal using their assigned resources in the allotted time, they are supposed to tell you, as the manager.
“See,” I continued. “That is why 15 is your goal, not their goal. It is the manager who is responsible for the result. And that is the first thing to understand about creating this environment.”
“It gets back to the contract you have with your team,” I said. “Each team member is responsible for doing their best. That’s it. People have a deep need to do their best, a deep need to contribute, a deep need to work.”
“Then, why do I feel like I spend most of my time trying to motivate my team?” Vicki pondered.
“I don’t know, what do you think?” I replied. “Keep in mind, people behave in accordance with the systems we place them in. It is not your job to motivate. It is your job to create the environment where all the motivation hype is not necessary.”
“Okay, I pay him to solve problems and make decisions, not to push the button,” Vicki tested, still resisting. “Aren’t you just being picky?”
“I am. And for a reason,” I replied. “People don’t come to work to push a button. They come to work to solve problems and make decisions. They come to work to contribute. They come to contribute to a group of people who they hold in high regard. Much of their identity is related to the position they hold in your company.
“Our status in life, our place in the world is defined by the groups we belong to. If we don’t belong to a group, we don’t exist.”
Vicki was listening, her posture gaining interest.
“People want work that challenges them to their highest level of capability. In that work, there is true satisfaction. Not by pushing a button, but exercising their full judgment in making decisions toward a goal.”
Vicki was stumped.
“Your team member is in the break room, having a soda, thinking about a problem in his work area that needs to be solved,” I repeated. “Would you call that work?”
“I want to say no,” Vicki struggled. “He is not at his work station working, so he can’t be working. I know, he is not being productive, so even though he is thinking, he is not being productive, so he is not working.”
“And if he does not solve this problem he is thinking about, his productivity will stop,” I continued.
“You want me to say yes, he is working, but it feels like no,” Vicki insisted.
“Vicki, do you pay your machine operator to move a piece of metal into position and to press a button to cut the metal? Because, if that was it, you could hire a robot. Or do you pay your machinist for his judgment of how raw materials are organized to enter the work area, the cleanliness of the scrap produced by the machine, the attention paid to the preventive maintenance to keep the machine operating?”
Vicki finally responded in a long slow sentence. “I pay him for his ability to solve problems and make decisions, not to push the button.”