The Manager - 122 - Why, what, how
THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT
Hi,
I hope you’re doing safe and well.
Things are going good here, although remote learning (home schooling) is taxing.
When I work with a client, I can guarantee that managers and leaders are working at the wrong “level”.
What do I mean by this?
Well, I like simple models and the one that works for me is the Why, What and How. It’s pretty much a simple construct that helps to delineate a focus of attention.
Why is all about why the company is doing what it’s doing. And it’s pretty much the focus area of leaders and to some extent, managers too.
Why are we doing this change initiative?
Why would customers buy our product?
Why do we exist as a business?
Why are we heading in this direction?
Why are we structured in the way that we are?
I call this a painted picture. Some people may call this a vision or mission. It’s why the company exists and why it operates as it does. Every major initiative within the business would also benefit from a why.
Once we know why we are doing something, it’s then important to define what will be done.
What will we do to serve our customers?
What do we want our tech solution to do?
What value do we need to add to our products?
What will we focus energy and attention on?
For example, I spend most of my client time in change programs, helping companies release agility. Many companies have no clear Why. As in, they’re not entirely sure why they want to be more “agile”. This is worrying.
But once they define some pretty good reasons, it’s then time to define what will happen. What are we going to do? We’re going to embrace agility, re-organise the company and work in small increments. Decent enough to get started.
The “what” belongs to managers in my opinion, with input by leaders and the team.
Then comes the how. And I firmly believe the how belongs with the very people who will do the work.
If we know why we’re doing something and what we believe will bring about this why, then the hard work of how to do it belongs with those closest to the work.
This is where many leaders come unstuck. They play around in the how and micromanage. They make decisions at a high level without knowing the detail. They take away agency from people in the business. They dabble here with no real day-to-day knowledge of the problems and the challenges.
When I ran a tech team, I would spend a lot of time working out the why and ensuring that any tactics (the what) were not started until we knew why we were doing them – as in, what problem were we solving.
Once we were clear on the why we’d spend time working out what tactics would bring about the why. Once we were clear on this, we let the team rip on it.
We set the vision, explained what the strategy and tactic was, then let the team use their skills, experience and creativity bring about the how.
Not only is this energising for people in the business, but it’s also a great way to learn. With a clear why, and a clear what, it is easier for people to make local decisions, to cooperate and to experiment with work.
In an agile example, would Kanban be better than scrum? Would this technology be better than that? Would this way of organising our work be better than that one?
Working out how to achieve the why and what is the domain of the experts. It is the work of those who know the work best. And as people have already fed into the what, they are bought into the change, initiative or way of working.
Every client I work with has a separation of concern problem in all directions.
There are employees getting involved in the why (or expecting to) without the commercial awareness or information that execs have. There are execs dabbling in how to run a meeting, or what a Kanban board should look like. There are managers telling people how to do their work. And there are measures in place that measure the wrong things.
One of the first things I recommend leaders and managers do, is make sure they have a clear why. Then I encourage them to define the “what” (gathering input from the team). Then I encourage them to communicate these clearly – and let their talented staff define routines, habits and ways of working that satisfy the how.
Without a why it’s troubling to put energy and attention into anything.
Without a what it’s not clear what’s expected or what success looks like.
Without the how, there’s no traction or movement.
All three bring about business results, help with decision making and ultimately, align vision with action.
And yep, all three are pertinent to your own life too. Why are you doing what you do, and how are you doing it.
Have a great day.
Rob..
Latest Video
I have a series of 5 videos coming out this month all containing lessons and thoughts about leadership and management. They are text lessons over some of my favourite footage with some great tunes on top.
The first one is here: https://youtu.be/vqufaY3WzJY
FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN
1 - I'm a big fan of noticing our physical surroundings and the way they steer behaviours. Smart cities is also a passion of mine. So, this article about how social networks can learn from open spaces is interesting (at least to me). But also consider, our workspaces (if we ever get back to them) can seriously drive behaviours. Are they driving the right ones?
2 - All news media is bad news.
3 - Remote working requires trust. Agreed. This article explains what to do, but it's missing the key ingredient - who people are and why they don't trust others....a harder nut to crack.
4 - Seth Godin on the choice of disappointment when we create things.
5 - Apple could well be making it much harder for advertisers to track you and sell to you - yay.
6 - You're not meant to be happy - and that's a good thing.
7 - How to keep your cool in high stress situations.
8 - Some rules on hiring. One of which is hire fast, fire slow. I take the opposite approach. I'd rather spend my time hiring slowly, than spend my energy and attention dealing with fires...but the author makes some interesting reasons for moving quickly.
9 - MIT's introduction to economics is free.
10 - Apparently AI created more jobs than it killed off.
11 - Finished reading Art & Fear (affiliate link) - a wonderful book for anyone wanting to create something in life or work.
12 - Been working on opening an Etsy store - more on that soon.
13 - Finding time for creativity will lift your spirits.
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Thanks
Rob..