The Manager - Edition 59 - People aren't stupid - By Rob Lambert
Welcome to the Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you've had a cracking weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead.
I've had a hectic week recording podcasts, consulting, writing articles and formulating where I want to take Cultivated Management as a company. All very positive - but tiring.
Thought for the week
Most companies have dysfunctional behaviour, it's natural when you bring people together in an organisation. The organisation changes, morphs, grows and adapts over time - it is organic - it's where the word organisation comes from.
Some companies clearly have more dysfunction than others. It's why some companies are thriving and others aren't. It's why some are fast to respond to market changes - and others are not. It's why good people stay in one company and other companies cannot keep its people.
It can be tempting as a manager to look at a dysfunctional organisation and assume that the people working there do not know what they are doing. That the decisions being made were not thought through. I've heard plenty of coaches, consultants and managers describe their people as stupid. And of course, only someone who believes that they themselves are intelligent, would differentiate people using that label.
They are not stupid.
And managers are not that clever.
A lot of decisions made in an organisation had the right intentions behind them. If you ask someone working in a dysfunctional business where the problems are - they'd tell you - and likely be correct too.
People are often working in a broken or dysfunctional system - and the major reason for the system being dysfunctional is poor management, not stupidity by the people working in it.
Managers aren't clever. People in the business aren't stupid.
So if you find yourself questioning the ability and intelligence of those you are working with - start by asking questions about the system; it's constraints and limitations, performance measures, how people are rewarded, how communication and information flows (or doesn't), the goals of the system and of course, how managers talk to people about performance.
It's likely that the answers to these questions will explain why the organisation is dysfunctional.
And once you have strategies and answers to these questions - go forth and improve the system. And in doing so, you'll soon discover that a lot of people in the organisation (not everyone of course!) will now be able to put their skills, ability and intelligence to growing the business - not fighting the system....and of course, you'll also discover that they were intelligent all along.
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It's a short newsletter this week - I didn't read a book this week - and took no photos (too busy :) ) and didn't read much on the web either......oh dear - I have some time off next week - expect a loaded newsletter next week :)
Have a good one.
Rob..
Cool Stuff To Click On
1 - Some problems are easier to sell. Good post by Seth Godin - look at some of these problems and see how many of them are similar to problems in your world.
2 - Oh my - how does narcissism affect the performance of a team.
3 - Basic but effective communication skills for life.
4 - Cognitive journaling to overcome our own personal beliefs, limiting beliefs, emotions and behaviours.
5 - Regular readers will know I'm not a huge fan of Facebook. In fact, I find that organisation incredibly frightening for a few reasons. They capture a lot of data about us. They don't appear to care about norms, morals and lines that shouldn't be crossed. They are held with HIGH esteem in the tech community - but the code that people are writing....is having some dubious effects on society. And their network is designed to keep you hooked - and it's having some very negative side effects on people and their mood. And here is another one - their automatic (AI) systems are also pushing boundaries of what's acceptable -they need more 'guard rails' as Facebook stated. Do we, as Technologists, know the effect we're having on society? If so, I guess we're comfortable with it. If not, shouldn't we be gaining a deeper understanding of the effects of our work - and be sure it ties with our own values?
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
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Thanks
Rob..