Let’s throw bodies at a problem

Ah my beloved management falacy: let’s throw bodies at a problem.

Let’s face it, nobody likes problems even small ones and if they are bigger even worst. The bigger or the more complex the problem the harder it is to find an obvious solution. If you’re lucky you’ll get the team members to work together to brainstorm some ideas that can work and resolve it and apply “trial and error”, which might or might not work as per desired timelines.

So what’s the “easiest” way out?

Let’s throw bodies at a problem.

I’ve lost count as to how many times different levels in the organization come up with let’s get more people, because more people the faster it is to resolve something right?

No!

Just because you get 9 mothers it doesn’t mean you’ll get the baby delivered in a month. Would be good, but that’s not how it works.

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-throwing-money-business-cartoon-people-problem-image71736617

Every time I hear this answer to any given problem this song plays straight into my head

It’s very easy to believe that the more people you get the more problems / tasks they can achieve. The problem which is easily forgotten is that the more people you need the stronger the communication needs to be to be able to split a big piece of work in smaller parts, distribute the workload and all still fit together. The more people, the more management and if they happen to not have the right skillset for the problem it might end up having the undesired impact.

When you have a problem to tackle you need different ideas. Having 1 or 2 people from outside helping to brainstorm on how it can be tackled can indeed be quite helpful, but ultimately you need to be able to know how to distribute the work among all the “new joiners”. You’ll also have to spend some time explaining what the problem statement is so the additional resources can help to tackle it. I suppose if you have a big problem in the hands of a given team, the last thing the team will want is to have to do knowledge transfer to someone new. You’ll easily end up with a spaghetti monster of communication when no one knows who needs to do what.

Good article here

So what can you do instead?

Well, I’m a firm believer in the power of small teams. Hence, if you have a big problem to tackle, whereas you might benefit from some specific help (1 or 2 people), I would say it needs to come down to priority. What can be dropped from the team’s plate to tackle “the problem”. Get the team to brainstorm what could be done, split the work and let them try to achieve it.

Add into the backlog all the other items which are being paused, in priority item so they can start to be addressed as the resources become free from tackling the bigger issue.

Define quick wins that will booste the morale of the team and ensure they can indeed resolve this massive problem in front of them.

Empower them to make the right decisions within the team, which will reduce the time required to get all the buy in from the different stakeholders and let them present their findings and progress.

It’s all about coms

Like any good relationship if there’s no good communication, sooner or later the cracks will start to show. This is valid everywhere, from home to office and all around us.

But first and because I can’t resist a few memes here you go:

And this last one pretty much sums how I’m feeling these days

So why does communication matter so much for the organization?

Well to start with, it wouldn’t be organization without communication anyway! To function, organization need to establish communication channels to ensure all the employees are aligned. There’s emails, banners in the offices, newsletters, team meetings and the whole lot. Traditionally the communication would be top > down (although I’m pretty sure some companies still approach it this way). As any kid playing chinese whispers soon enough the message will be lost.

What is often neglected is that the most powerful source of communication is not the offical one. Oh no, it will be the coffee chats, the chit-chats in the corridor, the who knows who about what’s going on. We will trust a close source at the company more than the message that was cascaded down miles from the top.

In reality it’s more like this

All the sources of communication are relevant though. The message from the top should be so simple that you can do it in a 30 seconds lift break. However, companies need to ensure the right people that need to be working together are talking together and are not constrained by the top > down communication flow. Whereas they need to abide by the strategic goals of the company, they need to be empowered to do decision making on the fly amongst themselves.

But why is it so hard though?

1 – Because we are no different than children!

People raise your hand if you have felt you work in the kindergarden! It’s as simple as, if we don’t like one particular person we will not talk, even if we are meant to be working together. We will avoid it with all our heart. You might argue that being a professional adult you should be able to put your own personal feelings aside and ensure there is cooperating. We don’t all need to be friends at work, even though that would be quite nice. The more tired you are, the likely you will try to surround yourself by those you enjoy working with and speaking with. Those with whom you relate. Which to me could be resolved by ensuring you have the right skillsets in your team but also their personalities end up working towards the goal you want to achieve.

2 – Because there is a communication overflow

There’s e-mail non stop 24/7, millions and millions of them no matter how many fancy rules you establish on your outlook, then there’s team messenger where you chit chat with your colleagues but also get chased by people trying to seek your attention, then there’s your own personal overflow of communications like alerts on your phone to pay the bill, read some gossiping online, the news, you name it. So unless you are very disciplined at managing all the different sources of communication you will feel overwhelmed and potentially not notice the key ones until it’s much later. This is where the ability to prioritize becomes key.

3 – We are tribal

Yap, we are. That’s how we evolved. And I’m sure it’s easy to find what the tribes are in your workplace. Typically these will be departments, or even teams in a given project. Within the team it’s easier to get communication flowing, but to cross your tribe that’s a whole new level. There is more resistence to go and ensure you are aligning with a completely different team. You might not be interacting with them on a daily basis therefore you don’t have the same level of confidence and trust. It seems there is an invisible China wall between teams and they just won’t speak, even when it’s in their interest to align. Ways to overcome this would be to do workshops together where the teams discuss the dependencies between them and agree the most efficient way of communication (e.g. 1 team member of each team would have a working group to discuss common points). The lack of cross communication might be a reflection of a blaming culture, and people would rather stay within their boundaries than venture on the other side and be blamed for something. So they don’t talk, nor share. But like at home, if you don’t talk, you don’t resolve the issues you should be resolving and sooner or later the cracks will come when it might be too late to resolve them.

So let’s go back to why does it matter

Fostering good and open communication channels throughout the organization will enable employees to share their ideas, concerns and points for improvement. This will only happen if they believe their individual voice will be heard. Team leads need to be empowered to act upont the information they receive to make a change on the fly as and when situation occour.

Through good communication, especially outside the specific department or team will enable the company & the leadership to define strategic innitatives and which teams should be working together based on successful achievements from the past. If there is no good communication you will see the same type of innitiative being done in 3 different places by completely different teams (which in turn will be more costly) and with the risk of impacting each other negatively at a later stage.

Knowledge will be shared faster and teams will be able to upskill each other and stay relevant, which in the end can only be competitive advantage. Also, on a team level basis, if there is good communication then the team lead will be able to spot and act when the employee might be feeling demotivated or upset which in turn would lead him to leave the company and go to the competition instead.

Ikigai @ The Office

First let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of Japanese culture, from Kaizen (continuous improvement), to the great sense of community where everyone feels proud of what they do because it’s all important to the community (not just yourself). If I’m feeling stressed out I always try to close my eyes and return to the place I felt most at peace, and that was a Zen garden in the outskirts of Kyoto.

There have been many trends and inspirations from Japandi to japanese food and Marie Kondo. I was chatting with my team this week and I’ve said a few times that I believe the western world has lost a sense of purpose and even mastery (and my mastery I mean purposefully wanting to continue to improve a particular skillset). Do you wonder why the japanese people live for so long? A possible explanation (along with lifestyle choices) is related to Ikigai.

I first discovered Ikigai 1 or 2 years ago (I completely lose track of time these days) through the book below.

This book is available at Amazon here, at Watersontes here and at Foyles here

The book mainly focus on how they apply Ikigai – or one’s purpose – to live better and longer and the more I think about it the more I believe this is very relevant for the our office live as well. Not just for us as human beings but for the organization as a whole.

Because I’m a firm believe a picture is better than words (and same as the kids I focus on the pictures first and if I don’t get it I will read the text after) see below.

In summary Ikigai is about finding that sweet spot on what you love, you are good at (or with some training and mastery you can improve) and that the world needs. It’s all about what makes you wake up in the morning and feel this is what you want to be doing because it has a purpose, not just for you but as a contribution to society. It’s what would make you love Mondays (if such a thing is possible).

Most people – and again please note I’m contextualizing people working in offices – go to work to get money. Let’s face it, we need it. But when is the point where we say I have what I need, I’m contended therefore I can focus on what I trully enjoy doing and maybe dedicating some of my time contributing to a bigger purpose. We get carried away that we need more money to buy more stuff, because stuff gives us status and likes, but once you get them you have to work get harder to get more, more and more. How do you end up? Most of us, just plain miserable.

See this concept of me me me, look at me I’m a special snow flake is recently new and very western. We evolved by being part of a group and I think that’s where the magic of Ikigai begins.

How do you believe that, if you as an individual worked out what you’re good and can do, but also thought about how you and your team can continue to evolve together to make things better for everyone? It could be organizing everyone to tackle a small charitable project (e.g. painting a local school, arranging a garden outside) and then applying your learnings back into the office? You would feel more connected, you would feel you have a purpose, that the company you work for genuinely wants to make things better. Wouldn’t that be better? Would you feel less moody on a Monday morning?

What we get is this sense that you and you alone have to work harder to be noticed, to then get promotion and then it doesn’t even matter if you feel it has a purpose, as the purpose if to fulfill your own ego. I can’t believe for a second that in the end this is even beneficial for the organization. Soon enough people burn out and at some point they leave and with every person that leaves is a small portion of the companies reputation that gets damaged. As I’ve written a few times, one day you are the employee next day you might be the client.

The question we should all be asking is do you want to wait until retirement to be doing the things you love doing and that make you smile? Is there anything you can do right now in the role you have at your company to make life easier for you and those around you? If you are totally miserable with your job, I would seriously consider living and reassess why you’ve stayed for so long and I would sit down and try to find what else you could do to reuse the skills you have and find a new job where you will be able to continue to pay your bills but do something more fulfilling.

No company will ever benefit from an employee who’s miserable, this person cannot be at their best no matter how many hours you put on. No company will benefit from an environment where everyone is stabbing each other to grow up in the hierarchy.

And no, not advocating everyone to resign right here right now because I’m sure there are things you can implement now. For instance I take a great sense of fulfillment by ensuring my team enjoys working together and that everyone feels respected and that their voice is being listen to. I enjoy when I am able to share my own personal experiences to someone more junior than me so they can relate and take their own lessons out of it (some would call it mentoring). If you are into sports then why not create a sports team in your group? Arts? Same thing. Don’t restrict what your work is to the deliverables you have to achieve day in and day out or what your oulook tells you that you need to be doing. Find what you can implement right now to make you part of something bigger where all of you will benefit from it, find your own ikigai.

About Work, Life, Balance

Ah, I have to say this is probably one of the most discussed topics ever. Starting from the term itself, as a colleague pointed out: does that mean we can’t have life at work?
Actually couldn’t agree more. How many of you make friends at work? If I didn’t I probably wouldn’t be working there. Not that I’m there to make friends, but it’s just easier if I do. In my opinion if you’re not happy with what you do for work, I would reconsider if you should be having that work at all. (Although I understand not everyone can really stop what they do even if they hate it).

But even if you like what you do, many times you feel that you live for working rather than work for living (while enjoying what you do). So I’ll start with a video

First it seems the guy didn’t had a sex life (not really relevant for this post). He actually points out some interesting things:

* Step back and think about what really works for you, and if you find it doesn’t, then what actions you need to take to improve it

* Social-formal-company-get-together can be perceived badly by the employees. People feel forced to go, because they believe that if they don’t go, the company will not “be happy”, so they go… and feel upset they have to use their free time to have some drinks.

On this point, I remember when in my company some people were fired, and many others had no salary increase because it was a very bad year, therefore we all had to save. Then we had this very expensive Christmas party and it was really badly perceived: “so it’s better to spend the money on the party than recognize the employees”. Many people ended up leaving the company after that (this was just 1 of the reasons)

So definitely this is something the companies struggle to get it right. Forget about casual Friday’s, or blunt social drinks, try to do something meaningful with your team. For example we play badminton together on Wednesday. On one hand, it’s a good time out of work, and on the other we’re doing something together that we enjoy doing. It’s so much easier to discuss any other topics in the office on the following days.

Contributing for this balanced life in the company it’s everyone’s job! So line managers stop being lazy and try to understand what can help your team to feel connected, and feel they can approach you more easily. After all, we’re humans and not machines (last time I’ve checked).

Me, myself and I

In our society it seems we are becoming more selfish, it’s all about me me me and me. We only remember about the others and to work together when something really bad shake us down. Since companies are the reflection of the people that work there. They are the reflection of their emotions and their behaviors. In the struggle for survival everyone fights for their own skin. Many times indeed it becomes a political jungle, everyone wants more power and be well perceived, because that what guarantees a promotion up to the next level. So why would you think about the others?

No company whatsoever would publicly recognize this as a culture: work your ass hard, understand the network, promote yourself and you’ll get there. (Although there are some well known companies where a candidate may not be hired, because he’s not arrogant enough, but let’s assume these are the exception). But this is there. I thought for a long while it was just a cultural thing from south European countries. But it’s just as simple as this. Human nature.

And then it comes the time for Performance feedback, which is supposed to be all about meritocracy and who has contributed the most for the success of the company. Ah! How many lone workers out-there, the team players feel let down by the results because someone else was recognized? Because he was not visible enough? I’m sure many.

I’ve always struggle with this: “should I spend more time showing that I work or should I work?” It’s also important to recognize the backstage guy, who has done a lot of the work, and without whom the team would have not performed well. Even the guy that serves your morning coffee with a smile. Did you thanked him? Without him, you would have no coffee, neither a smile. How would that have affected your work? Yap, little things that we can’t take for granted. Therefore it’s important to recognize everyone’s role.

On this topic, I’ve just read an article (for the full article click here)

Instead of being the one to share good news, let others receive the public glory. Sure, maybe you really did do all the work. Yeah, maybe you really did overcome every obstacle. Okay, maybe you really did lead a diverse, cross-departmental, multifunctional, high-performance team.

It doesn’t matter.Give someone else the glory. Pick a key subordinate who played a major role. Pick a person who could use a confidence boost from public acclaim. Everyone already knows you were in charge, so celebrate the accomplishment through others.

Stand back and let your team shine; the fact you lead such awesome people reflects well on you.

So next time, don’t forget to say thank you and recognize others as well. (ahhh the old saying: treat the others the way you would like to be treated). Again, one of those obvious thinks I’m sure every manager knows and applies, right?