The Manager - Edition 30 - from Rob Lambert
Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you've had a great weekend and are looking forward to starting a brand new week. As usual, links are below to some articles but I've been a little pre-occupied this week with Agile and why it fails in so many companies. (and of course why it also succeeds).
What follows are a few thoughts on why levers at a management level are the ones I like to pull and push. They tend to have more effects.
And I've also noticed how the immediate reaction to command and control environment change is to go to the other extreme - no managers. I think this is very very wrong. Especially as people moving from a top down approach will need time to adjust.
I’m painfully aware that I see the world through the eyes of a manager who appreciates systems and flow. I am biased. We all are. And so I need to tend to this bias regularly. However, in most companies the more influential levers of change often exist at the management and leadership level. Pull the right lever at this level and big swathes of change can be unlocked. It’s why I focus my energy at the management level until enough decision and initiative taking action is open to the team - then it’s time to coach and nurture and help those in my team achieve their potential.
Until the gateways, freedom and opportunities open up for them though, it can be a slow and painful and drawn out process to bring about change. And yet, time after time I see, hear and help people who are trying to bring about agility and improves effectiveness in organisations at the wrong level. Trying to coach around management issues. Trying to improve effectiveness in a system that simply won’t allow it. Frustration creeps in, resent builds and generalisations start to pop up “Agile doesn’t work”, “Management are useless”, “Nothing will ever change” yada yada yada. If you’re trying to turn around an oil tanker you start by working with the person who controls the lever that turns the ship. That’s usually the captain. It’s rarely the person who pulls or pushes the lever. And it’s the same in most organisations. Management make or break most initiatives, yet most agile transition “specialists”, coaches and advocates for change are re-arranging the deck chairs on a ship that isn’t fundamentally changing direction. If that’s you - ask how you could influence management, how can you help management get what they want, how can you encourage others in your organisation to work with management. In most organisations management are mostly ineffective. But remember, it’s not because they want to be ineffective - they just don’t know what they’re doing and they’ve likely never had training. Go easy on them, but be aware that until management behaviours change, it’s unlikely that the ship will change direction. Don’t give up though. Work with them, not against them or in silo to them. Until next time.
Rob
Here's what's I've been reading that I think will be interesting for you :
1 - I liked this article about spotting leaders, I just didn't agree with the wording of "motivate your employees...." - motivation comes from within, not outside. "Encourage" is a better word.
2 - Teaching others is a great way of learning a subject. True.
3 - When I ran a support team years ago I used to pretty much say this - customers don't expect perfect and they expect things to go wrong - it's how you deal with that when it does that matters.
4 - Words do make a difference. To others, but also to ourselves. Interesting, short, article by Michael Hyatt on changing your vocabulory.
5 - This is exactly why I spend so little time on social media anymore. Life is for living and I lived my wrong for a few years - obsessed with promotion, FOMO and what people were up to. Now - I'm re-finding life again. More living, less scrolling.
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
Thanks
Rob..