Stop having meetings, they suck up too much time

I blogged about meetings a few weeks ago, and provided some tips on how to approach them realistically. Let's face it, no one likes meetings.

Since I published that blog, I have been pondering an even bigger question. Why should we even have meetings? I'd say that very few meetings are necessary. Most of them could be easily replaced by collaboration tools, and accountability. Meetings are happening because people have always went to meetings. It's like sharing the pain. "When I was coming up, we had meetings! We'd all gather in a conference room, and talk. And then we'd talk some more!" It's a good thing smoking is banned.

There are some meetings that are highly valuable, and these are working meetings, where a deliverable is produced in the meeting. These generally focus on establishing or changing processes, or on planning. This needs to be done with everyone present.

Empty conference rooms rock

Most meetings are focused on leveling information across functions. This comes in the form of each person providing a brief (when we're lucky) update on what they are working on. Previous action items are updated, and new ones added. The meeting is really focused on making sure that stuff gets done, which is really just accountability. If you have a meeting coming up, and you were supposed to have something done for it, the peer pressure of showing up at the meeting with empty hands will probably motivate you to get the stuff done. Sharing information is a helpful part of the meeting also, it can validate the 120 e-mails we received since the last meeting. Attendees sit and think - yup, Bob got that done, it was in one of the 120 e-mails we had since the meeting last week.

If our meetings are primarily focused on sharing information and tracking action items, these can easily be managed using one of the many collaboration tools. Action items become assigned tasks, and "blah blah" updates become Wikis.

How much time do you spend in meetings that could have been eliminated by a few e-mails, a Wiki, or an task tracking tool? Would you still do your work if you didn't have a meeting to remind you to do it? Are meetings things of the past? 

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The dysfunctions of a heroic team

I love a good slogan, and one of my favorites is "There's no "I" in team!" What a bunch of baloney. My typical response is "You can't spell team without "me""! That always gets them.

Years ago I learned a very valuable lesson about teamwork. At the time I was a lowly sergeant in a National Guard training unit. We had primarily senior people in the unit due to the type of training we managed. Our commander, a lieutenant colonel from the Army, was the person who had the largest impact on my life trajectory. Many of the people I served with under his command have the same high regards for him.

He was full of appropriate, timely, and sound advice. It always came to us as little nuggets, and I have a folder full of them in my desk drawer. There was never a time I interacted with him where I walked away without having learned something. It was a great unit to be in, and it couldn't have come at a better time in my life.

One of the nuggets he tossed out there for us, is the concept of teamwork. He had a different twist. It was refreshing and different, yet it made so much sense once I grasped it.

It was so simple, yet so true. We are all sold on the heroic vision of teamwork. Everyone should do all they can to ensure a project is successful. Yet by doing this, we create an environment for failure. Roles become unclear, and work gets missed. Inordinate amounts of effort are exerted by the few, while the many wander around trying to figure out what to do next.

I was Infantry at the time, so this made sense. If our team is setting up a perimeter, we place our crew served weapons (the ones that are the loudest) to cover high speed avenues of approach. We then divide the perimeter into sectors of fire, where each person has a "lane" to cover. If one side of the perimeter is attacked, no one should be going to assist unless ordered to do so. Because if someone goes to assist, they are leaving their sector of fire open, unguarded, and vulnerable.

A few years ago, I was reminded of this lesson. I was working the foredeck of a 37 foot sailboat in a race. The spinnaker became fouled, and I was struggling frantically to fix it. I hadn't asked for help, and was surprised to find the person from the mast there to assist me. No assistance was needed, and once the spinnaker was ready to hoist, it couldn't be hoisted because the person working the mast was standing there. Offering me advice. Offering me assistance, and not ready to hoist the spinnaker. This wasn't teamwork.

I've carried this lesson with me, and often see organizations apply the heroic definition of teamwork. In doing so, they deprive people of learning. If a team member is struggling, it is in the best interest of the team to assist the struggling team member in learning their job better. This will ensure that the next time they are called on, they will be able to actually do their job. Doing a struggling team member's job perpetuates dysfunction.

What dysfunctional teamwork have you seen? Do you tend to help others by doing their by, or by helping them learn their job? Please use the comments below to share!


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Thanks Darry D., the lessons are still being synthesized and applied. 

Addressing a manipulative boss - disguised as a short story?

"Look at this. They're all gone. They must not have much work to do to be leaving this early." I tried not to show my confusion as my boss at the time surveyed the art department's abandoned institutional gray cube farm. "If they can all be out of here this early, I will decrease the head count. These people aren't committed."

He adjusted his tie with his thumb and forefinger, pinkie pointed out, as though he was sipping tea in a fine restaurant. He convulsed for a second, then abruptly turned, headed back to the soft glow of the end table lamp in his office. He was here to stay, and had furnished his office accordingly. I kept expecting to see a Persian rug delivered, but for now he stuck with the industrial gray carpet us plebes had. His lamp was to let you know he was someone. He had a lamp. We plebes had fluorescent tubes as our only light.

For a brief moment, I considered biting my tongue. That was a brief moment. I had just wasted over an hour with him in my office, discussing important business issues, like what his favorite sushi restaurant was. I'm all for extra effort, but I'm not for extra hours of anti-productive emptiness. "It's 7 o'clock, why should they be here?" I asked, my blood pressure rising, and my insides tightening as I waited for his response.

"Because this is their JOB! They can't provide for their families if they have no JOB!" He ranted, small globules of spittle cascading from his open mouth, his goatee giving him the appearance of a contrived character from an animated comedy. A face suddenly appeared down the aisle from us. The cleaning crew was already in the office, and someone emptying the trash cans a few rows into the cube farm peered warily around the corner, probably seeing if he should make a break for the fire escape before this descended into violence. When he realized it wasn't a fight, and no guns were about to be taken out, he walked across the aisle, tying a garbage bag, pretending not to notice us.

"This is a publishing company, not an advertising agency. People make choices in life, and every artist I know makes a decision early in their career. Do they want a family, or would they prefer the excitement of the advertising world? The people here chose a family. If they wanted to work past 7 at night, they'd have chosen a career in advertising." The words were out before I could catch them. Pure, unadulterated, and honest. There, chew on that awhile.

He stared back, unsure how to handle the situation. I looked back, sure that he was the problem in the organization, not the solution. "See you tomorrow" I said, as I turned and headed toward the elevator.

The next day, I had an invitation from my boss for a meeting that started at 6:30 that evening. I walked to his office. He wasn't in yet. I went back to my office. I repeated this every 15 minutes, wanting to get rid of the anticipatory stress I was carrying. The morning dragged on. I worked on projects, and underneath it all, I carried the tension of the impending conversation with me, the same weight as I carried every day there. Heavy, yet immeasurable. Like the after effects of a swift kick in the groin, not that I'd had one of those in years. It was there, not letting go. Keeping me distracted with the pain.

At around 11:30, just as I was about to go brave the wall of smoke to get outside for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, my boss wandered past my office. He was coming in early, at the crack of noon. This was typical. I took a deep breath, and straightened my tie. He was big on appearance. "Fred, do you have a second?"

He stopped, turned his head to look over his shoulder, and said "Can it wait for our meeting later today?" You mean tonight, don't you? This was an inside thought, not a sentence that left my mouth.

"No, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I have plans tonight, and can't stay after hours." I put a slight emphasis on "after hours", maybe more than was necessary, but that happens sometimes. "Can we meet today, during work hours?" I lightened up the emphasis, but it still came through.

"I have meetings all day, can't you change your plans?" He cold stared me. Now I was pissed off. That was rude. I was beyond being nervous. He continued on. "That's the only time I have available." He adjusted his laptop case, and looked toward his office, probably planning his escape from this random act of management he was being forced into.

I tried to hide my irritation behind the screen saver facial expression. I hoped it would work just this one time. "How about if we meet tomorrow first thing, I can come in early." I wasn't going to lose this one, he was just too oblivious to accept his impending loss yet.

"Gosh, I'd love to meet early, but I have breakfast with children every day. It's our ritual." Was that sarcasm, or did he have some intestinal distress while he talked? Either one was fine, because I just made Bingo, I hit pay dirt. He's going down. My brain quickly processed this tidbit, and came up with the perfect response.

"I totally get that, I'm all about family. See, that's why I can't meet after hours. I have dinner with my wife every evening. This is our time, a time for us to reconnect. It's what we've done for our entire marriage, and I have no intentions on changing this" I worked a smile into it, and used my soft library voice, the one I would use to ask "which way are the romance novels" if there were other patrons near the desk. At least if I read romance novels, that'd be how soft my voice was. I don't read them.

He twitched, and I could see I'd just overloaded the portion of his brain he utilized to win arguments with the maintenance staff. He was out of his league, on the slippery slope, and I had just given him a push disguised as a brotherly love tap. He was out of ammunition, the wind left his sails, pick your cliche, the discussion was over. "I'll look at my calendar and see what I can free up today." He never did. There wasn't anything to discuss. We never met after hours, I made it a point of coming in early to complete critical work, so I could deflect any urges he may develop to re-initiate evening meetings, or ambush my extra efforts with his dropping by to unload theories on why employees kept running their keys down his car when they left the office.

A few days later, I decided that this wasn't over, and I needed to put this issue to rest. I was in his office so he could regale me with stories of his meteoric rise in the advertising world, how he rescued every company he worked for, and how he would sleep in his office. I pretended I thought this was cool, and began to pity him for the things in life he chose to value. His two daughters and wife rarely saw him. Maybe they liked it that way. Maybe he liked it that way. But it was just wrong, fundamentally out of sync with what is important in life.

I waited about 45 minutes for him to pause in his story, and I quickly started with my topic. "Fred, I get the impression that being in the office is more important to you than productivity. It seems like face time trumps work time. If this is what you expect of me, to be here regardless of whether I have work to do or not, please let me know now so I can make decisions regarding my career path." He just sat there, his brain once again overloaded with confusion. He must have had everyone afraid of him throughout his career. Here I was, holding up the mirror, showing him for what he was. I wasn't going to play his game.

I continued. "If you are in any way dissatisfied with my productivity, please tell me so I can do what is needed so neither of us are disappointed. I hope you see by now that I will do what is necessary to deliver exceptional results, but I am not interested in sleeping in my office to show my dedication." Neither is my wife. I left that part out. Maybe I said it a little more pointed than that. Our minds have a tendency to smooth things over with time.

Fred picked his pen up, tapping it on his hand. He stared at the ceiling, then dropped the pen and leaned back in his executive chair. "No, that's not what I'm trying to have you do." His expression said something entirely different.

I won this battle, but the war would continue. It was the war for a life, and it had to be won. Losing was not an option.

Any resemblance to a person with a life, or without one is purely ... coincidental? You can determine if it's fact of fiction, either way, the point of the story remains the same.

Do you hold your ground when asked to do something that is against your principles? Or do you do what you are told to do, quietly seething, waiting for the chance to change the situation? Also, do you like this style of writing, a scene to make the point, instead of just an essay? Please comment below!

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When you're selling change, who's buying it?

I was reading an interesting article about the monetary system, and it contained a reference to how the kilogram is decreasing in mass - continuously. There's nothing that can be done to preserve the official kilogram measure, a hunk of iridium inside of three glass bubbles in France. It is decreasing in size - suck it up, you can't stop it. This got me thinking about change...

As soon as that shiny new car we just purchased is built, it begins its journey back to the elements it's made of. Carbon, plastic, water, or whatever. Entropy is all around us. Things fall apart. In course of a lifetime, many things grow. We see this in trees, kudzu vines, and the waistlines of Americans. At some point this growth ends, and everything begins to decompose. Life, and all that is around us is continuously changing. We as humans are continuously changing. We accept these changes, and continue to move forward in our lives.

A Soviet change committee

So why should we approach our jobs with an expectation that they won't change? Our jobs change, our organizations change, and we change. We learn more, find better ways to get our work done, and influence others, causing them to change. Yet we hear how much employees don't like change. I've often seen organizations go to great lengths to determine how the change can be packaged so it will be accepted by the employees. They think change is bad. They think change is scary. (umm, change is life). One organization I worked for bought everyone a copy of Who Moved my Cheese? As though we are all mice. Go ahead and move the cheese, the mice will still find it. Mice don't mind change.

In the course of my career, I've been employed in a variety of business structures utilizing many different revenue models. I've led many change initiatives, and focused on leadership in my MSM studies. What I learned is that there is never one correct answer in life. In spite of this, here is what I learned about getting buy-in for change:

• Fix what's broken - People can't stand doing things they consider a waste of time, or what doesn't produce tangible results. So listen to your employees and fix what's broken. Or better yet, let them fix what's broken. There's no better sense of satisfaction than showing up with a problem, and being asked to determine how to fix it. It's trust and empowerment rolled into one. Who doesn't want this?
• Don't tweak employee generated solutions - Studies show that when a boss makes changes to an employee's great ideas for change, the employee's support for the change decreases. It's okay to come back later and make more changes, but don't try to show how smart you are by tweaking it. 
• Give credit where credit is due - Don't be an idea thief. When someone comes to you with a great idea, don't run with it like it's yours. You will lose the employee's best efforts, and shut off innovative thinking across the team. People talk, and it will be about you. Being gracious, and giving credit will garner a level of support for your leadership that can't be purchased. 
• Communicate proportional to the change - Don't put a disproportionate amount of effort into the marketing of the change. If the change is that big, and took that much planning, you should have been making incremental changes all along to fix what wasn't working. Change should be intuitive, and doesn't need a lot of selling. Also, the more you communicate about it, the more training the people will think they need. Look at a smart phone as an example. The phones get more complex, and yet people figure out how to use them. They don't require slide presentations to figure out how to check on their Facebook friends from the new device. 
• Don't call it change if you don't have to - Some of the highest impact changes I've implemented in organizations wasn't called change. It was just something that made it easier for people to do their work. 
• Indecision is the key to flexibility - If you have a clear road map of exactly what must happen from now until you have reached the goal, then you are setting yourself up for failure. Be flexible, and if the changes aren't working, or you see that its really something else that's broken, be confident that changing direction will be completely acceptable, and a sign of your wisdom. Don't follow a plan just because a lot of hope and time were invested in it. Get lots of feedback from people around you, and you will succeed. 
• If it requires a complicated  plan to implement, it is probably too complicated - Good changes are intuitive. They resonate with the people doing the work, and aside from some communication of the change, it is easy to implement. If you need to develop lots of training material, then the change is probably not good. If it's not good, you won't get buy-in. 
• Foundations must be complete before the walls are built - I often see organizations try to implement Six Sigma before they have their processes documented. Or they adopt Agile methodologies, when their employees don't yet understand project management. One of my personal favorite project failures to observe (from afar) is when an organization tries to deploy an enterprise project management system for people who don't know anything about project management. So make sure that changes are completed in the right order, and the people who are expected to change have the skill set needed to make the change. 
• Know your people - Many of the people impacted by the change don't care how or why the change is coming. They don't want to be part of the solution. They just want to know how to do what they are supposed to do, and when they have to start doing it. This is okay. These are your solid performers, which are probably the cornerstone of your team. Don't force them to participate. Others may want to be involved in the implementation. Be happy for this, and include them. 
• Incorporate WIIFM - WIIFM means "what's in it for me?" I've seen some pretty interesting WIIFMs in my career. Don't tell someone that the company will prosper if they change. The next question will inevitably be "so what?" The best WIIFMs I've seen incorporate a better work life balance due to efficiency increases. 
• Make change a "win-win" - This is the foundation for the WIIFM, but I am referring to something else here. When we need to provide information to leadership to support decision making, don't send out a form. Find some way to provide your employees with a tool to work better, and use this to gather the data. This is the kind of change that is win-win. 

What interesting quirks have you observed related to change? Do you agree or disagree with my free advice? What would you add?

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Work life balance and the negative impact of organizational heroes

Show me an organization that has members who can't unplug their cell phones for a week, and I'll point out the dysfunctions of the organization. I know, I'm using strong words. I can back this up with experience, so please read on.

So many people don't take vacation, and even if they take it, they spend a large portion of their time scanning their e-mail. Look around you the next time you are relaxing somewhere. Set your crackberry down, and actually look at people. Many are staring at their devices, ingesting some highly important communication related to world peace, or anxiously pecking at the lilliputian keyboard, firing off an e-mail about global crop shortages while sitting next to the pool in a swim suit.

More than half of the working population in America don't use their vacation days. A vacation for many workers is just an opportunity to work from somewhere exotic. What's with that? There aren't any do-overs for a missed life.

Look closely. No crackberry here.

In a previous blog post, I wrote of how I served four years in an Army Reserve unit that trained the leadership of National Guard and Reserve units. We were in essence consultants, tasked with helping units become better at making war - before they actually have to make war.

We had a technique that was always effective in identifying a broken unit. We looked for the hero. That one person who could do it all, and was counted on to do it all. We watched her run around the operations center, receiving incoming problems, as she fired back the solutions. Almost every unit had one of her. She was easy to see. Everyone lined up to feed from her energy and intellect.

We'd usually wait for a critical period, and we'd kill her. Just like that. Dead. It was a simulated death, but the impact was pretty much always the same. There'd be loud protests, appeals to our good senses, and sometimes outright begging. I've heard stories that some people would pray for a miracle, but I never witnessed this. We'd take the person off-site, get them some of that good two day old Army coffee, and not let them back into the operations center. The operations inevitably and quickly came to a grinding halt, and the units often failed in accomplishing their mission.

What they gained from this failure was knowledge. Every unit we did this to, learned a valuable lesson. If you don't have someone ready to step in for each key person, then you were setting yourself up for failure. Attrition planning isn't something to do when a retirement is announced months in advance. It's part of a good organizational plan.

This lesson also applies to you. Yes, you. The person with the crackberry, sitting by the pool, banging out an e-mail when you should be rubbing sun block on your partner's back, or teaching your child how to do a proper cannonball into the pool. If you are so important that you can't get away from work for a week or two without checking e-mail, you are setting your organization up for failure. That's right. You are not a good team player if your work can't be covered while you are out. Taking an unplugged vacation is a controlled test to see if your team is competent. If they contact you, then you may need to spend more time training them on your return.

The reality is that within a few days of your permanent departure (which will happen), your responsibilities will be absorbed by other people, and you will be blamed for whatever is wrong for as long as this is reasonable. Eventually your e-mail address will return an error to the sender. Your life at the organization will end. In six months, few will remember what you did at the organization. Your favorite stapler will have a new home.

There. How's that for perspective? Now go ahead, book that vacation. In fact, take two weeks in a row. Tell everyone you're headed to some island with an unpronounceable name, and even if they had Internet, they have no electricity, so there's no way to reach you. Your job will be there when you return. This can be a validation that you are great team player, and that the people around you are competent enough to keep things running while you are out.

No one is irreplaceable. Not even you. Now go prove it. Maybe while you're on that island, you'll rediscover how nice it feels to rub sunblock on your partner, or have it rubbed on you. Stranger things have happened outside of the office.

What is the longest vacation you've taken? Have you ever lost a job for taking vacation?

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Sometimes the best defense is a good offense

I learned a valuable lesson while the First Sergeant for an Army National Guard infantry company several years ago. An infantry company has around 100 soldiers, and generally has some extra duties that are assigned to a few select soldiers in the unit. The soldiers in these roles are exempt from most cleaning details, since they would perform their duties while everyone else was cleaning weapons and equipment on our return from training.

Dealing with difficult colleagues

One critical role is the retention NCO. The soldier in this role is responsible for convincing people nearing the end of their enlistment to reenlist. Our retention NCO wasn't doing his job. I would often ask him who was up for reenlistment, and he rarely knew. I'd often see him hanging with his friends from other companies, and not with our soldiers. We had a few conversations about it, and what my expectations of him were. Nothing changed.

So one day I relieved him, and assigned a new person to the role. A short time after I did this, the soldier I relieved came into my office, and said that many people in the company told him I relieved him because of his race. He was thinking of filing a racial discrimination complaint. I was surprised, to say the least. The vast majority of the soldiers in the unit were minorities. I replaced him with another soldier from the same minority, not that this mattered. He went on to level additional accusations, and stated that if I reinstated him as retention NCO, he wouldn't file the complaint.

I asked him to sit down in my office, and closed my office door. I then picked up the phone and started to dial the battalion sergeant major, my immediate supervisor on the NCO side. As I dialed, I thanked him for bringing this issue up, and I told him I looked forward to the investigation. Would he like to talk to the sergeant major first, or should I relate the story for him? His face went slack, and he quickly back-pedaled, saying that everything was fine. I hung the phone up, and reiterated that he was replaced for poor performance, and if he thought I had acted inappropriately, he should file the complaint. If he didn't file the complaint, he should shut his mouth and do his new job. He was now an infantry fire team leader. The issue disappeared.

The lesson? Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. People will sometimes use the threat of an accusation to gain an upper hand in a given situation.

Fast forward a few years, and I was working at a company where a guy I interacted with on a daily basis had poor social skills. He continuously erupted at me (and most people) in open office areas. My manager mentioned that my issues with this guy - let's call him Derk (rhymes with Jerk) - was causing tension in the office. I asked if I had ever been unprofessional when dealing with Derk. I was told no, but I needed to resolve the issues. We were both at the same level, so I didn't get why I was being asked to resolve this, but when I am assigned something, it gets done.

The next day I asked Derk to meet with me in an office, and with the door closed, told him how much I enjoyed working with him. I valued his skills, and thought it would be best if we didn't engage in any disagreements in the public areas of the office. Derk then proceeded to tell me that he didn't like me, never would, and I should leave the company. I'd never last there anyway. He related how he is involved in all down sizing decisions, and would make sure I left the company anyway. I thanked him for his candor, and left the office.

I walked to my boss' office and related what I had done to resolve the issues, and what Derk's reaction had been. I then asked for advice on how to manage this issue, since my positive confrontation of the issue had failed. I was met with a face that looked like a screen saver. There was no help offered for the situation I was in. My boss then confessed that Derk was a jerk, and told me not to worry about it. Maybe knowing this up front would have guided me to modify my approach. Derk's stock began to fall.

I went on with my work, and a few months later Derk left the company after almost a decade there. I not only noticed that my job satisfaction increased, I also noticed that the office attitude in general became more positive.

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Sometimes we are used by our bosses to do the hard part of managing difficult people for them. But this latter topic will be covered in a future blog post.

How have you dealt with office conflicts? What is your favorite approach to dealing with difficult colleagues? What is your worst failure in terms of managing a conflict?

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The taste of project failure

The atrium between the office areas was filled with food. There were chafing dishes along one wall, surrounded by trays overflowing with pastries. Another table had urns of coffee and tea, and multi-colored pitchers of juice. People were gathered in clusters in the room, picking at the feast, and talking in low voices. The walls were covered in banners with the name of a program printed on them in big colored block letters.

The bitter taste of breakfast

"What's the party for?" I asked an acquaintance as I passed through the area, headed to my office. "It's for the Big Failing Project Team", he whispered, as though we were discussing a personal problem of someone nearby. I stopped, trying to connect a failing project and free food. "Why is the Big Failing Project Team getting free breakfast?" My acquaintance looked at me like I had suddenly sprouted a pimple between my eyes. "This is team building. Leadership is worried that they've been working too hard, and want to reward them so they will know they are valued." The gears turned in my head. "If they worked hard, why is their project failing?" Silence. "So if I want our project team to be recognized, I should encourage them to fail?" I've always loved asking the tough questions. I didn't wait for his response, I turned and left the atrium, adding yet another dysfunction to the list of organizational dysfunctions I'd never commit when I made it to the top.

A couple of minutes later, my boss came by my office. I related the story of the free breakfast for the Big Failing Project Team to him. He recommended I just go ahead and get some of the free food. I explained that I wasn't bothered by the free food, I was bothered that the Big Successful Project Team, the one I was on, was ahead of schedule and under budget. If a free breakfast was being offered, it should be for the successful team, not the failing team. We were rewarding the wrong behavior. It was his turn to be silent. I wondered if there actually was a pimple between my eyes.

At the time, I was finishing up a graduate certificate in project management at Stevens Institute of Technology, while enrolled in my first semester of a masters of science in management at Thomas Edison State College. If you've ever been in a masters program, you'll probably remember how your mind begins to view your job like a case study. Often times, the case study you are living has a strong resemblance to Scott Adam's comic strip Dilbert. This is why Dilbert is so popular, it hits close to home. I once tried to watch The Office, and had to stop. It made me feel very uncomfortable. The characters almost seeming to portray people I know, maybe in some ways who I am. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I reflected on why a team would be rewarded for failing, and never came up with a reason why this is good. The projects I was managing at the time, were the most difficult. Few of my team members were on site with me. I managed all of the off-site programs. My team on a project consisted of content developers in Illinois, editors in Massachusetts, and developers in India. Another project I managed had content developers in Illinois, video production in Massachusetts, a producer in Mexico, and video locations spread around the Spanish speaking world. No breakfast enchiladas for us, we used that time for communicating.

How did we avoid the free food? We talked and e-mailed each other constantly. We thanked each other for meeting deadlines, acknowledged extra effort, and when appropriate, we complained about the obstacles, but overcame them. Our success was dependent on each other, and we knew that the miles that separated us couldn't stand in the way of our getting the project completed successfully. Departmental politics were left out of our work. In that organization, success meant obscurity. Failure meant rewards. I'm proud to know our team didn't deserve a free breakfast. But I did sneak over and get some of it from the buffet table. I brought it back to my office so no one would think I was part of the failure. It didn't taste as good as it looked. Does it ever?

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Cleaning up a workplace mess

We've all done stupid things at work. Maybe it was a snap decision that placed our organization in a bad position during a negotiation. The stupid decision cut into margins, and was outside of the company policy. Or we completely spaced-out acting on something important, causing a late delivery, and the negative ripple effect it has on an initiative. We suddenly have that sinking feeling, knowing we screwed up, and that we need to fix it. How do we fix it?

I've seen people do some pretty strange things to get themselves out of bad situations. From my observations, there are actively wrong, passive, and actively right ways to clean up our mess. Which route we select, and how we approach fixing the mistake will have long term impacts on us an individuals, the people around us, and our organizations. I'd go as far as arguing that how we clean up our mess has a collective impact on us as a society.

One of the most common actively wrong ways I've observed colleagues try to cover up their mess is to lean on a vendor. They will usually try to manipulate the vendor into doing work outside of the scope of the contract. This manipulation was usually effective because the original statement of work was poorly written, and the vendor worries that if they don't step up, they may never get work from the client organization again. In some cases they may be correct. Some readers may be leaning back in their chair thinking "and what's wrong with this?".  If the mess is a result of the statement of work truly not reflecting the expectation of the attributes of the final product, then this may not be manipulation, and may not be a wrong approach. But I am referring to messes here. Manipulating a vendor to do free work is theft.

I've also seen project managers allocate expenses from one project to cover the costs of another. When this is done for a client project, it is often theft. It is no different than sending them an invoice for something they never ordered or received. The project manager is stealing from one client to pay for another project. In the process of reviewing the expenses of projects I was managing, I've found expenses from projects managed by other people, as well as administrative expenses allocated to my projects. I won't go as far as saying these were intentional mis-allocations to cover someone else's mistakes, but knowing the environment I was working in at the time, I certainly had good cause to be suspicious.

A passive approach is to not do anything, and hope the mistake moves through the process without being detected. I confess. I have done this in the past. The level of anticipatory stress becomes very high, and in the end, it was never worth it.

When we make a mistake, someone will generally be harmed in some way. When we cover up our mistakes, we harm others. Harming others degrades us in many ways. It damages our ethical compass, causes us emotional turmoil, which often manifests itself in our physical bodies, and when the mistake is eventually found out, trust is broken. Broken trust can't be put back together. Once broken, it stays broken. This trust may have been from our organization, our boss, our colleagues, or a vendor. It doesn't matter where the trust resides, it won't come back.

Early in my career I identified the actively right thing to do when I screw up. I throw myself on my sword early. I've found that the most effective way to make a mistake disappear is to be honest about the mistake. When we are honest about the mistake, people will generally rally around us to clean up the mess. Everyone makes mistakes, and the people around us will see some part of themselves in our mistake. It is a way for them to right a wrong of the past by helping you fix yours. We are all human. Working as a team to clean up a mess is the sign of a good team. It is also validation of a good relationship with our colleagues, including our boss. This approach also works with vendors. When we ask for help to fix a problem we caused, a vendor will usually do all they can to help us out.

By being honest, we will be harmed, but we are at fault, and as the person at fault, we are the right person to be harmed. This type of harm is usually very short-lived, and quickly forgotten. Being honest builds trust, it doesn't destroy it. I've found that if I state what went wrong, take the blame, identify what I learned from the experience, and ask for assistance in fixing the mistake, all will come out well. The humility we must display is an important part of growing, and it will help us steer clear of the same mistakes in the future. Throw yourself on your sword. It won't hurt that bad.

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Can we train our neighbors to fetch sticks?

This blog was originally posted yesterday, but Blogger went down, and took this post with it. If you already have this in your reader, I apologize for the extra post.

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All I wanted to do was spend a quiet afternoon working on our gardens. The weather was great. I was in the right mood, and the soil was calling my name. Max wasn’t sure digging was such a good idea, and decided he needed to scold me. As I walked from the house to the garage, Max ran back and forth, loudly protesting my presence. Maybe he resented the fun I was having, or maybe deep down inside he wanted to be the one digging in the dirt. Regardless, he protested loudly. I could handle Max making noise, it's what a dog does.

What I had a hard time understanding, was the multi-generational choir of noise directed at Max. Max is part of the family next door, and was visiting his owner's parents. As soon as Max started to bark, the cries of protest began. “Max, stop barking!”, “Quiet Max!”, “Sorry Bob, Max hates men!”, “Honey, shut that dog up!”. As I said, Max didn’t bother me. The family yelling bothered me. I could ignore the dog, but the tension level inside of me increased as the choir was hitting it's crescendo. I began to think that maybe I’d be better off hand splitting next year’s firewood instead of turning soil and sowing vegetable seeds. I didn't want to transfer the angst to the vegetables.

I decided to go ahead and turn over soil anyway. As I worked, I thought about situations people find themselves in during their life. We may see someone barking about something that upsets them. Their barking is enough to raise our tension level, and suddenly we are caught up in the drama created by someone else, and think we need to jump in and bark with (or against) them. Our attitude is directly impacted by someone else’s attitude. As we give in to the urge to bark along, we may suddenly find more people join the barking.

In some situations, barking is effective. If we witness a crime being committed, it's in our own best interest to collectively bark. The more noise we make, the more likely the crime will stop. But in most areas of our life, there is little reason to bark. Barking can quickly grow until it is just noise, and the noise alone becomes the reason to bark. Many forget the initial reason they started barking. Suddenly everyone is barking, and no one can be heard.

We can only control ourselves, and by controlling ourselves, we can influence others. Max barking at me didn’t get me to stop digging in the dirt. My neighbors and their family barking at Max didn’t get Max to stop barking. Was there a better way? Maybe our efforts should be focused on finding solutions, by identifying the issue that caused the barking, and making that go away.

I remained calm as I continued to think through the life lesson. I remembered times at work when people complained about their workload, yet never did anything to address it. Being a guy and wanting to fix things, rather than commiserate, I often had the urge to say "if you'd put effort into doing the work, instead of walking around complaining about it, you'd be a lot better off". I also wondered if they ever talked to their boss about the work inequity they were experiencing. Complaining to the crowd won't resolve these issues. Compelling others to complain with them won't resolve the issues. It would have been in everyone's best interest to not entertain the complaints, and move the person along to another topic. I found that if I changed the subject enough times with the complainer, the person would stop bringing the issue up with me, and move on to others. If everyone would do this, the complaints would go away, and maybe the person complaining would address the root cause of the issue.

After about an hour, the choir of barking continued. My tactic wasn't working. So instead of ignoring the choir any longer, I addressed the choir - nicely (really). I called through the hedges, “Max isn’t bothering me. He started barking because he was excited. He would have lost interest in me very quickly. When you started yelling at him, he thought you were helping him bark at me. So he got excited to see that he was doing the right thing. The proof that he was right in doing this, is that others were joining him in the barking - he truly can’t understand English - so he barked more. How about if we all try ignoring him, and see if he settles down?”. To be honest, I wanted to say the "English" part, but left it out. Our neighbors are great. Max continued to bark, and I imagined the family cocking their heads, and looking quizzically at the shrubs.

This started a conversation over the fence at the end of the hedgerow. I showed the neighbors our cold frames, the seedlings we started, and talked about our gardens. Miraculously, Max quieted down, I put my hand over to say hello, and he sniffed and licked it. Game over. No need to bark now. I was part of his pack, and as such, part of his choir.

I’m sure Max will bark the next time he comes over, but am confident that if we change our behaviors, he will grow tired of the role he assumed he has - barking. I’m just not real sure the family will grow tired of the role. Just as it’s in the nature of Max to bark, it may be their nature to yell at Max. I may have to refine my approach to creating peace in the neighborhood. Do you think I can get the family to fetch sticks? This will keep them occupied, and Max can hang out with me and watch. "Look Max, Grandma just knocked over little Timmy to get ... oh never mind, you don't understand English."

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Organizational Culture - balance between effectiveness and likability

I've worked for a variety of organizational structures in the course of my career. Something I've noticed, is that cultures vary from one place to another. There are tons of books out there explaining culture, how to pick and create the culture you want, and the importance of being in an organization with a culture that fits your work style. There are 263 books on Amazon.com that are about organizational culture. Don't read them all, I will summarize culture for you in this one blog.

I developed this theory one night while on a business trip, sitting in a hotel room, working on my masters. Culture is a continuum. On one side is "likability", and on the other is "effectiveness". Each organization is located somewhere on this continuum. The closer an organization gets to one side, the farther they get from the other side.

In the example above, I am using two organizations to show how the continuum works based on my experience. On the right, is the Army while I was mobilized. On the left is big book publishing before the Internet dramatically changed how they must do business.

The Army placed a higher value on individuals being effective than it did on individuals being liked. As a high performing organization, a unit would have high morale coupled with high effectiveness. The reason an organization can have both of these, is because the culture supports the enforcement of norms. Everyone knows how to act, and what is acceptable group behavior. If someone steps outside of the acceptable group behavior, anyone on the team will confront the person, and guide them back. I witnessed this in action many times, and rarely saw someone hold a grudge as the result of being corrected. This is how the culture worked.

In publishing, the focus was on being liked. When confronted with a decision related to a project, it was generally acceptable to either extend a deadline, hire more resources, or change the scope to meet the output. Rarely did I witness anyone be pushed to be effective. The value of the individual was how they interacted, and how nice they were. Everyone likes to work with nice people, but when it comes to getting stuff done, it was often difficult to say to someone "you had a month to do this 1 hour activity, why do you need another week?". That would be rude. It was better to hand wring, commiserate, and implement an alternate plan.

When starting at a new organization, it is very important to arrive on the left side of the scale, and determine where on the continuum the organization operates. Once you determine this, start working your way right until you are assimilated into the organization. If you start your new job on the right side of the continuum, and the organization is way on the other end, you risk damaging relationships. In the worse scenario, you may generate a "t-cell response" and be treated like an organizational germ. Now that isn't fun.

What other factors impact culture? Is there a vertical line to add, or additional aspect that is at the macro level?

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