What I Learned Today
I’m reading a book called “Change or Die”. Good read, not your typical OB book, which gets boring real quick. Basic message - you, your business, even your industry can proactively reach a behavioral change, you just need to take the right path.
Anyway, I was reading the section about the substantial cultural change IBM went through in the 90’s and later and one thing REALLY struck me that I could put into action immediately in my every day work life (and personal life for that matter). You can’t just tell people to do something (Theory X management style) and expect that to sustain a productive and innovative work environment for too long. Eventually you need to inspire hope, self fulfillment, and “buy-in” if you want your team to really function well and reach the next level. I consider myself a pretty damn good manager, definitely more Theory Y than Theory X, but I realized I could do much better. For example:
I am working on a staffing plan right now for a huge event I manage, the US Open. My direct report (whom I trust and work hard to enhance her career) is going to be second in command this year, with a new member of the team as the third member of the team. My biggest goal is to get her to move to a leadership role, so my staffing plan reflected that. But what I realized today is while she would certainly appreciate the trust and faith I have in her, if SHE had input into the staffing plan, I could get her buy-in. This will no doubt have positive effects on her work on this event. So, I sent her an email posed as a “challenge” to her and asked her to write a staffing plan for herself, a wish list, if you will.
Now I’ll get to see exactly what she envisions for herself (which should be on par with my initial staffing thoughts) and when I put the staffing plan into action, she’ll be much more likely to really invest herself into the work since she essentially asked for it.
