What's Wrong with Work?

GOAL!

Professional sportspeople have it simple. Not easy, but simple. 

There are any number of goals out there to aim for and any number of milestones along the way. 

If you have the talent and the will it's just a matter of focusing on the straight line ahead of you and off you go. 

I realise it isn't quite as obvious as I make it sound. And I certainly don't envy them. 

At school my PE teacher wrote in my report "Blaire keeps a positive attitude despite her obvious disabilities in this subject". Ah well. An international sporting career was never on the agenda really. 

But when it comes to business, I love to have a goal. It's just not as simple because, although there are competitions to win and awards to collect, that's not really the point of business. Most business people have to set their own goal and their own milestones. 

It's not easy to do, which is why we end up with so many goals which mean nothing and could be transferred to any business you care to mention and fit, kinda, with what that business wants to achieve. "Be the number one in our market" is the fall back position of most organisations and "Be the best team in our field" is the fall back for most teams. What's your team or organisational goal? Could it apply to any function like yours in any business or any organisation in any field, pretty much? Probably. 

We've been doing a lot of work with teams recently on just this - setting the Goal and defining the roadmap to get there. And there were no "Be Number One in Our Market" type goals. Instead we heard words like "Simple", "Brave", "Shape", "Brilliant", even the odd expletive to express what these teams really wanted to achieve, what would really get them out of bed on a bad day. I'm afraid I can't share them here as they are so exciting and ground-breaking that you would steal them. 

Anyway, they only mean so much because of the work that went in to creating them. The whole point is they can't be transferred to another team or another business and mean something. They had to come from the people in the room. 

There is nothing stopping you creating a team goal which really inspires your people, except perhaps the belief that it is possible. Well, I can tell you it is possible. Now, what's it going to be?

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What does participative decision-making mean?

When we encourage teams to participate in debate and discussion rather than expecting the leader to make all the decisions alone, we often get resistance to the idea. 

"It will be like decision-making by committee" is the most common response. 

The misconception is that participation means a majority vote. Leaders assume that because they are asking people for their opinion, they will also be delegating decision-making. 

Of course, it is appropriate, sometimes, to vote and the majority wins.

Equally it may be appropriate sometimes to vote to test out how popular an idea is and discover where opinions lie but not to use voting as the way to make the final decision.

At other times it may be appropriate to gather opinions and ideas but then leave the manager to make the final call.

When everything is put to the vote you might well wonder what the leader's job is. When leaders are able to judge which decisions are best left to the majority, which decisions they should stick away from altogether and which decisions they need to make having gathered opinions and ideas, they demonstrate true leadership - the ability to flex their style to suit the requirements of the situation.

Rather than being afraid to ask for input and participation because it may imply decision by committee, encourage input and participation knowing that, in the end, the buck may have to stop with you.  

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If you had to put your values in order...

Disneyworld has four quality standards, a bit like organisational values. Nothing new there, most organisations today do. But what I find interesting about theirs is that they prioritise them. 

So often in organisations staff are expected to balance the differing and often conflicting values meaning they choose the one which is most useful in that moment above the rest. 

So if a company has Our People First, Delight the Customer, Great Value Everyday and Ethical as their values you can see that on any given day you would be forced to decide whether, on this occasion, it is more important to be ethical or to provide a low price, to prioritise your own staff or let them suffer at the hands of rude customers because telling a customer what you think of them is likely not to "delight".

It is a constant trade off, when values are meant to provide staff with clarity about what matters so that they can make wise decisions without constant reference to their bosses.

Disney has got around this problem by prioritising their standards, meaning employees don't have to trade one value off against another in a random or convenient way. 

The four standards are:

Safety

Courtesy

The Show

Efficiency

Efficiency should never be prioritised over The Show (that sense that being at a Disney resort is magical). But The Show should never take priority over being polite. None of these matter more than Safety which is the number one standard. 

I wonder how many organisational values would stand up to this approach - whether they could be put in order. If not you run the risk of having values which don't help people make great decisions. And, I am left wondering, what is the point of them then?

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Cause and effect

An article by Guy Kawasaki in the latest issue of Wired magazine got me thinking about cause and effect. 

Kawasaki writes about Steve Jobs and advises wannabe super-entrepreneurs to interpret Jobs' success not try to impersonate it. 

So - Jobs wears jeans to work. But is that why he's successful? Will you be more successful if you wear jeans too? Probably not.

But will you give better presentations if, like Jobs, you use slides with pictures rather than slides packed with text? Probably yes. 

It can be a powerful exercise to observe people we admire and notice what the causes of their success might be. But we'll end up with the wrong answers if we simply reverse engineer and assume "These are all the qualities of a successful person, therefore, that's why they are successful".

Remember - successful people achieve success because of a number of qualities but also in spite of a number of qualities. Just make sure you don't confuse one with the other. 

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Homeopath insights

As part of my Quest to resolve my psoriasis, I went to see the homeopath. One might ask why my first call wasn't to my GP. But here is exactly why. 

The homeopath spent 90 minutes with me. She asked every question you could think of - likes and dislikes, food preferences, family history, stuff about my personality, my relationships, my sleep patterns, whether I prefer the heat or being cool, my imagination, my work...

Not once did she look at my skin, ask me to breath in and out, look at my tongue. 

She isn't interested in symptoms. She is interested in causes. 

Of course, at this point I can't tell you whether any treatment she prescribes does the job because she is sending the pills in the post and they haven't arrived yet! But I was impressed by the approach, perhaps because it reflects the approach we take to our work too. 

Symptoms like team conflict, low morale, lack of clarity about roles and direction, email overload, waste-of-time meetings...you can't really solve any of them by treating them directly. Of course you can put up some flashy posters to try to perk people up, or you can set some rules about email or you can re-think your meeting agenda and, to an extent you will get results (I talk about some of these treatments in What's Wrong with Work? and I don't take any of that back!).

But that is a bit like a paracetamol or a steroid cream. It will reduce the symptoms but it won't address the cause. 

In homeopathy, from what I understand, the root cause is always a problem with immunity. 

In business, I believe the root cause is a problem with ownership. When people really feel ownership of the outcome, the results, the purpose of the business, many of the symptoms just go away. Of course there are always going to be some challenges - mistakes, wrong paths taken, personality clashes. But when everyone wants the business to succeed and sees the part they have to play in that, they are usually capable and inspired to find a way to make it happen, if that is at all possible. 

It is much harder to treat the root cause. We will see if my homeopathic remedy actually works. But this thinking certainly makes me cynical about attempts to deal only with the outward symptoms. 

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Never, never give up

There is a point in most big projects when one suspects it will never be completed. This point usually occurs shortly before the finish line is crossed. That's when the majority of the work is done but there are final tweaks to make. Every time you fix one and think you are done, you notice another. The project isn't finished until every last one of these tiny fixes is, well, fixed and they just keep popping up everytime you do one last final check. 

It is at this point that most of us wonder whether we'll every be able to tick the box that says "job done" or whether we'll keep noticing these little defects for the rest of eternity. 

What's required at this moment is Rule 10 - Never, never give up. Having written 3 books I am very familiar with this moment, at the end of a project. The proof-reading, corrections, last minute changes to the font on one page or the positioning of a chapter heading on another page seem to never end.

And then, one day, you realise you have actually dotted all the "i's" and crossed all the "t's" and the book is ready to leave your hands and go to the publisher for the last time until you receive a copy of the finished article in the post.

Because, of course, eventually if you just keep plugging away, you do eventually finish. 

Never, never give up can sound like a rather glamorous Rule. We can imagine it as rather heroic - whilst everyone else gives up, you are still standing proudly, a flag metaphorically held high above your head. In reality, never, never giving up is rather monotonous and boring. It is about keeping on keeping on when it is boring, painful, hard or frustrating. At the time it doesn't feel in any way heroic. 

But all of our heros had moments like this when they just had to wade through the detail, get the basics right. And, to me, there is something very heroic about finishing what you start.

So why not pick something from your to do list which is nearly finished and finish it today? 

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My next Quest...

At Taming Tigers we talk a lot about Quests. For us, the Quest (the journey) is more important than the goal. It is through going on this journey, facing up to your Tiger (that voice inside you that roars and says "Don't!") and acting boldly that you grow as a person and strengthen your ability to achieve any goal you want. 

For the past few months my Quest has been very much around the business. Growing at the pace we are growing with the ambitions we have makes my Tiger roar, no doubt about it. But I imagine that is true for anyone who wants to grow their business. 

It is time to add a more personal Quest alongside that. And, because it makes my Tiger roar to even think about it, I am going to tell you. One way of getting the momentum you need to act boldly is to tell people what you are going to do. For most of us, letting other people down is a far worse prospect than letting yourself down so it is very motivating!

For many years I have had bouts of psoriasis. Lately this condition has got worse (working hard to achieve the business Quest above is probably part of the equation). My Rulebook says it isn't possible to get rid of it, the best I can do is reduce it a little. However, that Rulebook has stopped me taking any action until now other than buying vats of moisturizer and applying twice daily. 

So, my Quest is to get rid of it. I believe you can't be cured of psoriasis - it can come back if you are prone to it. But I plan to get rid of the external symptoms by addressing the causes. I don't plan to resort to steroids as this just treats the symptoms and has unpleasant side effects. My Quest is, through natural means including diet, complimentary medicine, hypnosis, therapy, whatever it takes, to be psoriasis free. 

I am open to suggestions about treatments. I have already booked an appointment with a homeopathic doctor on my return from holiday. I am drinking 2 litres of water a day (which is tough for me). I am make-up free when I can get away with it. I plan to relax on my upcoming holiday (also tough for me!).

Any other ideas?

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Puppy update...again

Some of you are very keen on an update about my dog, Humphrey, who is fast approaching his first birthday.

What has this got to do with work? I will reveal all as we go. 

You may remember that we were determined to approach training our puppy using "natural" methods - we communicate with the dog like a dog rather than a human, being clear about the status hierarchy in our pack and reinforcing that every day. The idea was that he would take a low status place in the family meaning he would not bark excessively, jump on the furniture, mess in the house, steal shoes, dig up the garden or pull on his lead. 

I can tell you that the strategy has been partially successful although we have also reverted to more conventional ways to train him such as treats. The garden looks like the site of a Roman excavation, the sofa is torn (hidden under delightful throws) and he sometimes steals shoes. In other respects he is fabulous. 

Maybe I am making excuses here, but I think what we've done right is that we have adapted to the dog we've got (and the family we are) rather than adhering to a set of principles which make perfect sense but don't actually work for us. We are vigilant about some things (not pulling on the lead, not jumping on people for instance), and we have found a variety of methods for dealing with the occasional bark and jumping on the sofa (mainly involving bursting out at him unexpectedly and shouting "no"!). We've mixed and matched to get the right solution for us.

Today (and here is the link) leaders need to be adaptive to the needs of their people. You may read about the latest leadership theory in Harvard Business Review or the secrets of success by a famous businessperson. But in the end, how you lead is about who you are and who the people are that work alongside you. 

What matters isn't whether you comply with current trends but whether what you are doing works in the short and long term. Mixing and matching until you find the right combination for you, your people and the situation you are in is likely to be far more achievable and productive than looking for "the right answer" when, chances are, no such thing exists.

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When inspiration strikes...

We just finished a short programme of workshops with a financial services company where 16 leaders work on their authentic leadership style, their Quest (an inspiring goal) and communicating with gravitas and presence. The idea was to help these guys and girls step right up and embrace the opportunities in their business, a business which is going through significant culture change. 

Without our intervention, this group of 16 have decided to meet again to update on their progress and get challenge from each other. Taming Tigers isn't there. This is something they are doing themselves. 

We all know how momentum gets lost the moment you leave a workshop. This group felt that the Quests they had identified were so meaningful for them that they would ensure this didn't happen. They agreed, on the final day of the workshop, to put a date in the diary. Everyone got their diaries out and put the date in immediately. There was no "Email me after" or "Can we not just do this by phone?"

This is what inspiration, versus motivation, looks like. It comes from within. With the right goal (all of these goals were business critical, focused on the strategy and aligned to the values of the organisation and related to the roles these individuals had in the business), energy, enthusiasm, commitment and courage come naturally.

When we are connected to the goal we go above and beyond, we surprise ourselves. 

If you are ever tempted to commit to a goal you can't really get behind (which requires you to get behind it to be achieved) or to try to sell someone else on a goal they can't really get behind stop. 

Step back.

Ask - is this the right goal? If not, what is?

Because when inspiration strikes, you will find yourself capable of things you never knew you could do. 

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Re-writing the Rules

As you know this blog is really about work and, specifically, what is wrong with it and how to fix it.

However, what I was really trying to do in the book and now in this blog is to reconsider what work is. In other words, I think we need to re-write the rules of work. The ones we have today largely don't work.

Today I watched a fantastic film on Ted.com presented by a married couple intent on doing that same with Parenthood. They have set about challenging the rules of parenting, in particular the lies parents tell one another which actually get in the way of enjoying being a parent (and, I imagine, get in the way of enjoying being a kid!).

Whether you have children or not, you may enjoy this film simply because it destroys the myths of parenthood and replaces them with common sense...which as we all know is not that common.

Imagine if we could do the same with the workplace? I would love to know what you consider are the lies or myths about the workplace and how we might start re-writing the rules, just as this couple are doing in their world. Click here.

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