Every manager
has problems and there is a right and wrong way to react to them. The wrong way
is to see people as the cause of the problems and expressing negativity. The
right way is to treat problems as the food for improvements; cost reductions
and productivity increases. If you are reacting the wrong way then the
corrective actions are first, practice and reinforce for others “not expressing
negativity”, and second, involve your people in process improvement. If your
organization is already involved in a quality improvement program, such as Six
Sigma, then you should know how to involve your people in process improvement.
If not then work on the first step for now and we will get to process
improvement training later.
To understand why blaming
people is wrong and improving processes is right we need to review what is
called the “85/15 rule”. This is one of those rules that have resulted from the
experience of many managers over a long time and is a fundamental basis for
process improvement efforts. This rule says that 85% of problems are due to the
system, not the people in the system. Therefore managers that blame people for
problems are wrong 85% of the time. This induces fear and lowers the
organization’s effectiveness. Managers that blame the system and attempt to
improve the system are right 85% of the time; an excellent “batting average” in
problem solving for managers. Remember that the system is the manager’s
responsibility even though workers may own the process involved. Only after
there is a fully trained, empowered and experienced workforce can the manager
relinquish some responsibility for improving the system.
A way to test how well you are
progressing in handling problems is to evaluate your degree of enlightenment as
a manager when problems arise. The higher you are on the following list the
higher your enlightenment is in reacting to problems.
•
Changes system (high enlightenment)
•
Blames no one
•
Blames himself or herself
•
Blames other(s) (low enlightenment)
The flow
chart in figure 5 below shows that if a manager reacts properly the reaction
creates a positive feedback, making it easier to handle future problems.
The process
described in Figure 5 results in happier workers because they don’t get blamed
for problems and managers demonstrate that they care enough to get involved and
help fix the system. This builds respect for managers, commitment to
organizations and improves motivation of workers.
Exercise
1. Review
problems faced in your organization over the past few months
2. Try
to recall if you expressed any form of negativity. Think of specific incidents
where:
a. You
blamed people for a problem that may have been a system problem
b. You
blamed the boss
c. You
blamed yourself
3. Write
down a better way you could have handled each incident
4. Now
review the corrections to your action plan that you made after Lecture 13. Does
your plan include changing your approach to problem solving in a way that
raises your problem solving batting average and does not induce fear in your
organization. If so proceed with implementing the changes you have added to
your plan.
If your
analysis says you have habits that may be inducing fear you should change your
behavior. This is about the most difficult thing for anyone to do (change
behavior). Changing what we do is easy in comparison to changing how we behave.
First, we must be honest with ourselves and want to change. Then we must know
how to change. The key at this point is to avoid inducing fear, which
undermines the organizations effectiveness and our effectiveness as a manager.
If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book “The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership” at:
or hard copy or for nook at:
or hard copy or E-book at:
