#73-9/22/08: Generational Profiling
Generational Profiling!
“Forget generations X, Y, and Z.”
Posted by Steven Cerri on Monday, September 22, 2008
Hello everyone!
There is no doubt that we can put “groups” of people into certain “groups”.
The simplest group, of course, is Homo sapiens. We are all part of that group.
Then there are the groups of men and women. We can go further, such as male child, female child, female adult, male adult.
In business management these distinctions are less useful and even less acceptable than the Myers-Briggs categories, or the DiSC categories, or the Enneagram categories. Many people find Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and the Enneagram useful in providing a false sense of how people move through the world, how they want to be treated, and what management approach is best. They all work, to varying degrees, in varying situations. But then again, sometimes they don’t.
These “systems”, Myers-Briggs, DiSC, Enneagram, and others, are all attempts to allow the grouping categories to supersede thinking and to assist managers who don’t really know how to manage well, to feel they can manage. I’m not saying these systems are not useful for broad, general management decision-making. They are… just not for day-to-day management.
You see, if a manager knows that a direct report is a Myers-Briggs “INTJ” then the manager can treat the direct report in a certain way and abdicate their responsibility as a good manager.
For example, if the direct report is an INTJ and the manager treats him or her accordingly and the direct report doesn’t respond the way an INTJ is “supposed to”, or if the direct report responds in ways that are “in addition to” INTJ behaviors, it’s now the direct report’s fault. The manager is off the hook. “I thought you were a INTJ and you just didn’t respond like a good INTJ is supposed to”, is the managers position.
Of course the latest categories to hit the “management street” are represented by Gen-X, Gen-Y, and Gen-Z (I’ll stop there). These are all attempts by demographers and others to figure out “broad implications” of certain large populations. It makes perfect sense in the grand scheme of things. I’m all for it.
However, what do I do if I’ve got a team of ten people. Lets say five are baby boomers, two are of Gen-X and three are of Gen-Z. Now what do I do? How do I manage the team? Do I treat each “group” differently? Do I “expect” conflict between the groups?
If I use the current, generally accepted descriptive behavioral information provided for each group, I’m going to be in big trouble. Hence, why many managers have difficulty managing people in generations not their own. If you want to be successful managing teams across generations you must treat everyone as an individual, not tied to any specific generation. There is probably as much variation between people WITHIN generations as there is BETWEEN generations.
By treating each person based on his or her behavioral traits, the generational generalizations disappear. They vanish. And if you know how to manage people based on their behaviors, maps of the world, and focuses of attention, then cross-cultural, cross-generational, and cross-gender management becomes a much easier process.
My suggestion, if you are a manager, forget whether you have baby-boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Y, or Gen-Z on your team. Start treating them as individual people and your management process will be much easier and much more successful. I’ve done it. It works.
Be well,
Steven Cerri
By the way. If you’d like to leave a comment, and I’d sure be interested if you did, I’ve changed the comments software. Only your comment and your name will show up at the end of the comment. I have modified the software so that your email address will not show up anywhere.
“What would it be like to be as successful with people as you are with your technology?” Steven trains, coaches, and facilitates engineers and technical managers to BE the answer to that question. More information can be found at the:http://stevencerri.com/index.php/Home/index/
Copyright©2008 STCerri International and Steven Cerri. You are free to pass this information on to others and to reproduce it. If you reproduce it in whole or part please give attribution to Steven Cerri. Thank you.
Posted by Steven Cerri on 09/22 at 08:48 PM (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
#72-9/15/08: Drop the Schedue!
Drop the Schedule!
“Working in today’s environment.”
Posted by Steven Cerri on Monday, September 15, 2008
Hello everyone!
I just read an article in the August 25-September 1, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek, that summarizes the next wave of work environments as follows:
1. People want more flexibility in their work processes.
2. People don’t want to come in to work as often to save gas.
3. People who think they are “leading edge” are saying that schedules and face-to-face work environments are no longer necessary. Work should be broken into “deliverable packages”. And work can be done anywhere.
I agree with numbers 1 and 2 above. But I’ll be laughing as people try to get number 3 into practice.
Here are my management tips.
Nearly every task a worker performs can and is broken down into a deliverable package. So breaking tasks into discreet units is nothing new. I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve always managed my direct reports to deliverables. Nothing new there.
So what is new? What is the new paradigm for managers?
First: Whether the product is being delivered by an employee down the hall, or in a city down the road, or in a country half way around the world, the deliverable must be quantifiable; clearly, unambiguously quantifiable. That requires specifications and requirements defining the deliverable so that a Martian reviewing the delivered product against the requirements would be able to determine if it is indeed what was expected. This is a challenge for some managers, but not all. The mistake most managers make is that they don’t go far enough in defining expectations. My process is to define expectations so clearly, where possible, that, as I stated earlier, a Martian would be able to tell if the product is delivered.
Second, the process by which the deliverable will be developed ought to be discussed clearly. This is an assessment of the competence of the employee(s) doing the work. Most managers handle this pretty well because they often rely on the repeatable experience of the employee or employees who will be doing the work.
Finally, the monitoring of the process between the beginning of the task and the delivery of the product must be clearly understood by all parties. This is where much of the current management discussion is going on, and frankly, it seems to be conducted often, by people who haven’t managed many projects or many people. It all gets back to what I call “Contextual Definition©”, which means that different situations require different management approaches.
I have a client who is working with several contractors, most of whom are in the United States but a few are over seas. Current management theory would have us think that my client can just ask for what he wants, trust the contractors to deliver, and let them do the work and deliver the project.
He hired me precisely because this approach wasn’t working. It’s just ridiculous to think that because people can communicate from anywhere in the world, that management is just breaking the tasks into quantifiable pieces and waiting for their delivery.
What saved my client with his contractors was, are you ready for this, managing them! That’s right, he resorted to good old management. Regular meetings and contact, by phone, by email, by internet. Deadlines. Estimates. And requirements documents and rigid change processes. And real communication.
The real key to management in this day is not abandoning schedules and milestones. It’s knowing when to use which management approach in order to be effective. My process of Contextual Definition© leads to the use of eight different management styles. Each management style is best suited to a specific situation. How can it work any other way? One management style can’t fit every situation, especially in today’s environment.
So perhaps, if I’m dealing with a very creative task, one that doesn’t seem to bend to a schedule, I might suggest a very loose work process, such as; “Go to the beach for a week and come back with the answer. And the answer ought to look like ‘this’. Are you on board with that approach?” On the other hand, I’d hate to try to send a satellite into orbit without milestones and schedules.
To all the technical managers out there… my bet is that if you adopt the latest management theory 100%, you’ll adopt another within a short time, and none will prove to be the answer. The answer is that to be an effective manager in a wide variety of situations requires flexibility, across a broad spectrum. You want many tools in your tool box not just the latest.
Be well,
Steven Cerri
By the way. If you’d like to leave a comment, and I’d sure be interested if you did, I’ve changed the comments software. Only your comment and your name will show up at the end of the comment. I have modified the software so that your email address will not show up anywhere.
“What would it be like to be as successful with people as you are with your technology?” Steven trains, coaches, and facilitates engineers and technical managers to BE the answer to that question. More information can be found at the:http://stevencerri.com/index.php/Home/index/
Copyright©2008 STCerri International and Steven Cerri. You are free to pass this information on to others and to reproduce it. If you reproduce it in whole or part please give attribution to Steven Cerri. Thank you.
Posted by Steven Cerri on 09/15 at 09:53 PM (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
#71-9/10/08: The Next Fad Is Here
The Next Fad Is Here.
“It’s not about morale.”
Posted by Steven Cerri on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hello everyone!
Are you ready for the next management fad?
One of my clients, for many years, has been a high technology company. One of the members of the training department (now retired) used to tell me that he was always on the look out for the latest management fad. His goal was to avoid them. He said he liked my work because it got results and it didn’t change with the wind like the latest fads did. I considered it a compliment but didn’t pay much attention to fads or to what anyone else was doing. My work got results and that was that. I didn’t follow the fads much and therefore, I didn’t think they were very common.
Well, I’ve now changed my mind. I’ve just run into the latest management fad. And it is truly a fad. Here it is.
I was reading BusinessWeek’s SmallBiz magazine dated August/September 2008 when I came upon an article titled “That’s the Spirit! How to energize your team and why it matters”, by Eileen Gunn. (It’s not a very useful or enlightening magazine actually except it gives me ideas for my blog!)
In the article, Eileen writes about John Eldred, the co-founder of the Wharton School Family Business Program. John doesn’t think managers should worry about “employee morale”. He doesn’t even like the word, apparently. John says that “It’s arrogant to think that you can influence someone else’s morale.” He says that sort of mindset reflects misguided paternalism by employers, and outdated dependence on the part of employees.
Well, I’ve got news for John. He’s using semantics to market a new fad. Because anyone who has worked with and communicated with other people, or lead or been lead by other people, knows that, in a very real way, the people we interact with and work with have some level of impact on us. Call it influence, management, leadership, or heaven forbid, “morale” it’s what it is. To say that managers should not worry about employee morale is to say that managers should not believe they have any influence over their direct reports.
But John doesn’t want to make that statement. Instead he just wants to “package” employee morale under a new name so he can sell it as some new type of management approach.
So what does he suggest. Here is what he says; “Employers should be thinking about spirit, engagement, and energy. It’s appropriate and necessary for a company to want its employees to be inspired, engaged, and energized by their work. And it’s reasonable for employees to expect their work, their bosses, and their colleagues to help them reach that goal.”
“The question I like to ask,” says Eldred, “is: ‘How can you have a high-energy environment, so that when employees are down they can pull themselves up, instead of waiting for their employer to do it?”
Good question. But here are a few examples of John’s suggested processes actually applied to companies. The following examples are supposed to indicate an approach that is not about morale but rather about energy, engagement, and spirit.
Case One:
Sonoma Partners: A 35-person, $4 million consulting company in Chicago.
The challenge: Helping employees adapt to a lean, fast-paced, small-company culture.
John’s solution: A mentoring program.
My conclusion: Sounds like a morale booster to me.
Case Two:
Right90: A 30-person, $10 million software company in Foster City, CA
The challenge: Integrating new staff at a fast-growing company.
John’s solution: Small, routine social events suggested by employees and supported by Right90
My conclusion: Sounds like a morale booster to me.
Case Three:
Sprout Group: A ten-person, $2.5 million marketing company in Salt Lake City, UT
The challenge: Keeping employees motivated
John’s solution: Movie day
My conclusion: Sounds like a morale booster to me.
There are several other examples in the article but they all sound like morale boosters to me.
The point is that John’s approach is just semantics. Trainers and consultants are constantly trying to “re-package” their offerings because they are concerned they won’t look “cutting edge”.
If you are managing software or managing nano-technology or managing IT you must know something about software, or nano-technology, or IT. AND when you are managing people you must know something about people. While software, nano-technology, and IT change very rapidly, people don’t. Generation to generation they learn to cope with different environments, (think baby boomers versus gen-X). And yet generation to generation they still want to achieve, they still want to be unique, they still want to have an impact. There is no use substituting energy, engagement, and inspired for morale. It’s just a new gimmick.
Instead, lets understand human motivational forces. Lets understand the people we lead and then they will be successful.
All you have to do to understand what I’m saying is look at the current presidential election process in the United States. If anyone is going to be at the cutting edge of understanding human motivation it’s the political organizations. What has changed in the political election processes of each party in the last 50 years? Nothing but the technology and the granularity of the information they gather regarding the electorate and the sophistication of the analysis of that data. The electorate is still motivated by their financial well-being; by their security, both at home an abroad; by a sense of independence; and by a sense of community. That’s it. Those four forces have been ruling the US political process for the last 50, maybe 100 years. All that’s changed is our ability to get information about those motivational forces.
So you managers or want to be managers, there’s no need to climb on to the latest management fad. Learn and keep learning the fundamentals of human interaction, the interpersonal people skills, and you’ll do just fine. In fact, you will excel.
John Wooden took the UCLA Bruins to 10 NCAA championships in 12 years. He focused on the fundamentals of basketball, over and over and over. You can focus on the fundamentals of human motivation over and over and over.
Be well,
Steven Cerri
By the way. If you’d like to leave a comment, and I’d sure be interested if you did, I’ve changed the comments software. Only your comment and your name will show up at the end of the comment. I have modified the software so that your email address will not show up anywhere.
“What would it be like to be as successful with people as you are with your technology?” Steven trains, coaches, and facilitates engineers and technical managers to BE the answer to that question. More information can be found at the:http://stevencerri.com/index.php/Home/index/
Copyright©2008 STCerri International and Steven Cerri. You are free to pass this information on to others and to reproduce it. If you reproduce it in whole or part please give attribution to Steven Cerri. Thank you.
Posted by Steven Cerri on 09/10 at 08:00 AM (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink