A Management Theory I like

[pluckyduck]

Srsly!

(borrowed from a bunch of really funny cartoons, most of them nothing to do with business, here)

Here's the thing I have discovered in my old age. (We're up to 50 employees in my division now, boggle)

I've discovered that "management" really is nearly that simple. The trick is in the people that you hire and keep. The biggest demotivator for people who *do* want to "do their frickin' job" is their fellow employees around them who *don't* want to just "do their frickin' job".

Oh, teh Drama Queens! They fooled me for the first decade, they are tricky. They say they want to do their frickin' job and could if only..... you spend your time trying to fix if only, only to find out there's a next "if only" item on the list.

They likes the drama, not doing the job, silly duck!

We finally figured out that if you keep the people who want to do their frickin' job, and get rid of, no matter what $ or time cost, the people who don't really want to do their frickin' job.....eventually and painstakingly, you have a bunch of reasonably happy people all doing their frickin' job. Who guess what, don't need to be managed much at all because they are competent people who know what they are doing and just do it.

What do you guys think? Is it nearly as simple as all that?

[frazzledspice]

I think that most people want to do their friggin' jobs if they work in an environment where there is mutual respect and cooperation and they have the opportunity to make a positive contribution.

If you go back to the era before labor unions (an era, sadly, we seem to be returning to) you would see that there was a great need for advocacy and for workers to be accorded dignity, respect, and fair working conditions.

I am fortunate to work in a place where dignity, respect, and fair working conditions exist, and you don't find many slackers here....even those who leave to take other jobs will talk fondly of the one they've left.

[amykhar]

I think you are both right. I worked for a company a couple of years ago that, in theory, was the perfect job for me. And, I wanted to do my fricken job. But, the employer was not trustworthy. By that, I don't mean they were dishonest. I mean that I could not trust them to look out for me as part of their corporate family. Management cared that management stayed employed, not that they keep their people employed.

Now, I work in a company where we all do our thing AND the owner of the company is somebody I can trust. I know that I will be treated fairly as the company moves in the direction it needs to move to be successful. Because I know that I'm reasonably secure, I can concentrate on being the best programmer I can be. And, because I'm able to work independently, I don't need 'management'.

No stupid 'employee evaluations' or bogus nonsense. Just doing my job and working toward making a product I can be proud of.

[pluckyduck]

I have no working experience, in the last 20 years, beyond my own company walls. I have to depend on what other people tell me about their own jobs, companies, upper management, employees, etc. I spend enough time working closely with a bunch of other companies, though,that I think I can form some valid personal opinions about "out there".

The "just do your frickin' job" (elegant, yes) is for everybody in a company, hello, all levels of it. The most effective vendor we work with, the one who gets most of our sales dollars, is one where everybody, top to bottom spends their time and effort doing their jobs. Without posturing. I can solve problems with them easily. They are a great partner.

We also do business with a Very Large Multi National Company, and we're an important client of theirs, due to our volume. I had a series of excruciating problems recently that led me to have to go to the very tip top to try to get the problems solved...........and wow, I could write a whole book based on that experience entitled

How to Waste Everybody's Time Talking and Talking and Talking But Nobody Ever Doing Their Frickin' Job

After a bunch of effort on my part, it became clear that the problems started at the very top. The Very Top was interested in talking, scheduling conference calls, intimidating and belittling the employees in the conference calls, etc. The Lower than The Very Top was subsequently interested in covering their own asses, casting blame on other departments, denying the existence of problems, and nobody, but nobody was sticking their necks out to implement practical solutions. (Implement anything.) All anybody would ever suggest is MORE CONFERENCE CALLS. I am not kidding. Sorry for shouting.

Here's what amazed me. The Very Top thought that we were making great progress in these calls. Could not see that it was just a bunch of virtual papers being shuffled, but The Very Top was proud he was spending this much time solving...........nothing.

Finally, I backed out. "Ship my orders. Ship my orders on time. You guys figure out what you have to do. If you can do that, I'll stick with you, otherwise, I'll have to move on."

So yeah. If you don't start with people in charge who grasp they have to do their frickin' job, the rest of the organization doesn't have a shot.

(Job #1 for any level of management is making sure the folks you are responsible for have the tools to do their own job effectively. Otherwise you are not doing your frickin' job.)

[pluckyduck]

frazzledspice said

I think that most people want to do their friggin' jobs if they work in an environment where there is mutual respect and cooperation and they have the opportunity to make a positive contribution.

If you go back to the era before labor unions (an era, sadly, we seem to be returning to) you would see that there was a great need for advocacy and for workers to be accorded dignity, respect, and fair working conditions.

I am fortunate to work in a place where dignity, respect, and fair working conditions exist, and you don't find many slackers here....even those who leave to take other jobs will talk fondly of the one they've left.

I realize, belatedly, that I failed to make a pretty big distinction.

I'm not talking about hard work, I'm talking about people focusing on their actual job, and resulting effectiveness. It's possible to work very hard and be completely ineffective because you're working on the wrong things. It might even be common.

There's your garden variety de-focus, people who are so consumed with what their work neighbor is doing, they miss the rock in their own eye. Tattling is unprofessional and immature, but grown people do it all the time. Hell, some people get consumed in tattling about not just their neighbor's work time internet usage, but also what moldy stuff he or she has in the work refrigerator and the sloppy mess left in the microwave. I could prove a direct correlation between Work Tattlers and job ineffectiveness if I ever bothered to collect the stats. Seriously! The people who are focused on their jobs don't have time to be rankled or at least don't have time to file complaints on their ranklings. (Hint: the person who is covering the office kitchen in notes about what other people should or shouldn't be doing is 100 times more likely be less effective at their actual job than the next person.)


Beyond that, plenty of people miss the point of their jobs, even when its laid out to them. Imagine the sales manager who works hard. He makes beautiful reports, crunches stats, occasionally flies out to meet with important clients, etc. etc......but fails to spend the bulk of his time training his sales staff, working closely with them, teaching them how to sell better. The job is *sales*, not *reports*.

Or the sales person who makes tons of calls and visits, also makes great reports and power points, but fails to do the work and follow up necessary to actually close sales.

Not a question of not working hard. It's just missing the point. I find generally, that people generally, either get it or they don't, and an organization with people who get it is then effective itself.

[jgibson2[$]]

One of the major reasons I like working night shift is that the people who DON'T have a clue about what the job is aren't there.

Just do the frickin job. Works for me.

If I ever decide I could stand a job without babies, can I come work for you, Andrea?

[pluckyduck]

jgibson2 said

One of the major reasons I like working night shift is that the people who DON'T have a clue about what the job is aren't there.

Just do the frickin job. Works for me.

If I ever decide I could stand a job without babies, can I come work for you, Andrea?

Stick with the babies. They smell good and they need you.

Plus, this is a pretty simple concept that evaded me for years. What else am I missing?

[Prepoia[$]]

We finally figured out that if you keep the people who want to do their frickin' job, and get rid of, no matter what $ or time cost, the people who don't really want to do their frickin' job.....eventually and painstakingly, you have a bunch of reasonably happy people all doing their frickin' job. Who guess what, don't need to be managed much at all because they are competent people who know what they are doing and just do it.

Well, you see, this management code doesn't work for schools, teachers, and students. We can't get rid of those kids who have no work ethic and therefore our "product" using business terms is often times flawed. If I could pick those that were working for and with me (students) I could be continually successful as a teacher and they would benefit because they would be the students that want to do their friggin jobs as well. They (and I) would love doing the job we are supposed to be doing without the interference from those who don't care about their jobs and are "bored" and "act out". In real life, you do all parts of your job not just the parts you like.

And on top of teachers are administrators who only want to sell their schools as being perfect which means that whatever the parents want, they get. If the product is faulty (think China and Mattel or Fisher Price) still gets pushed onto the public market because they've made a profit (money per student and good reputation). They do NOT support the teachers.

Then their is their bosses (the clueless school board) who are not qualified or don't have qualifications (because the job doesn't have qualifications that need to be met) who want to run the schools like a business. That only works if the raw material is top notch and there's no quality control over the students who need to want to do their friggin job.

I'm sure I'm not stating it completely understandably but hopefully you all get the picture.

[Helen_B[$]]

The problem with school boards is that they have become confused about their product, which tradtionally was an educated populace. Instead, school boards are so consumed with budgetary concerns and where the money is, that cutting costs and saving money and getting money have become the product. Teachers and students are just a means to the end of keeping the school board solvent, and the employees "at the board" employed. That explains my theory of why, when funding for special education continued to be cut and cut (gifted ed, special ed, support for kids with learning disabilities, whatever), the special ed. department felt it incumbent on them to nose into local homeschoolers, in their spare time, just to prove they have an important job to do. Don't mind me being cynical here. And now, back to the topic of management....

[pluckyduck]

Wow.

What a cool perspective to bring to this conversation. Just assume I quoted Sandy and Helen's posts both in full here, and this is my response.

Sandy, my frustration at teachers not being able to "do their frickin' job" is the major reason I am bailing on the school system for education for the younger son. Forget "major" reason, *the* reason.

Addie had an exceptional set of teachers this year. Some years, not so much, but this past year, they were superb educators. (Well, except one, but that's not the point here.)

The woman who loved to teach young minds to write was locked into, for example, a vocabulary exercise book that had to be completed, back to front, throughout the entire year. She had to give this to her advanced eighth grade students...all she could do was apologize for it. "Imagination" was one of the words, if that gives you an idea of what she was faced with.

The woman's *job* is to *educate* the *students she is given*. Yet, she wasn't allowed to educate them. She had to focus herself, and the students, on something *pointless*.

That's broken management. In my day, a teacher could look at the class in front of her and make whatever adjustments she had to make to *educate* them, or even a smaller subgroup with different needs. It doesn't work like that anymore.

(Not to turn the thread to a long conversation about the schools, we have them all the time, but I think this is a great example of broken management. It doesn't stop at schools, by any means.)

Bestseller in the making here, folks, what do you think? Surely we can do better than those stupid cheese people. (Blech, what a horrible book that was.)

[thinkerlady[$]]

Please. I don't need to get started on the sad state of education in this country. I want to confirm and support everything that Sandy and Andrea said. If the "administrators" and "boards" would just take a day and actually enter the schools, and see these amazing kids who are thirsting for education, a chance to test their creativity, and a desire to know the past they would agree to throw out the damn vocab book!!

I think what has happened, in an attempt to "improve" standards, a plan on paper was created, and on paper it is great. However, the simple fact that we aren't dealing with a spreadsheet, we are dealing with human minds and human emotions was overlooked. Most teachers know this, and can to a point "play the system". But unfortunately more and more accountability is thrust onto us. When we try to "do our frickin job", and teach in the manner that actually educates children, well then we haven't followed our instructions.

[eris esoteric]

Somehow I doubt I'll ever work for any company that doesn't employ some version of Ninja Management.

[pluckyduck]

eris esoteric said

Somehow I doubt I'll ever work for any company that doesn't employ some version of Ninja Management.

Eris!

I was hoping you'd show up here.

Bother. I haven't figured out how the "Just Do Your Frickin' Job" theory works in an organization that doesn't value people doing their frickin' jobs.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I've worked under seagull management. "Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out."

[jgibson2[$]]

My sister just retired from a major multinational corporation. She's a software designer. She says that the pointy haired boss of Dilbert fame may have a different gender or hairstyle, but is quite real.

She was in a meeting once and had one of those "did I say that out loud" moments. Someone made a pointy-haired boss-worthy statement and she said, "Sounds like Qualicide to me."

She initially feared that she'd made a career-ending move, but to her utter amazement the suggestion disappeared and her career continued for many more years in the organization.

So 'Do the frickin job' sometimes works where you might not expect.

[Prepoia[$]]

I think that "qualicide" should be our next EA word! I love it!