|
|
|
|
|
|
Understanding psychology was one of the four areas of Dr. Deming's management system. Too often managers seem to forget the human aspects of the systems they manage. Recommended posts: Respect for People (Understanding Psychology) - Stop Demotivating Employees - The Psychology of Too Much Choice - Write it Down - The Illusion of Understanding - Managing Fear
To Motivate or Not to Demotivate
Note: Frederick Herzberg also tells us that motivation is an intrinsic thing, which means that you actually cannot directly motivate a person. You can only try to influence their motivation. That’s true. But it also applies to people’s demotivation. And therefore I only consider it just a semantical issue, that bears no relationship to the motivation-vs-demotivation issue.
I still think eliminating de-motivation is the better way to look at it.
I still see far to many managers thinking in a theory x way - 50 years after McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise. If there was not such a systemic failure to apply effective management practices and such a desire to substitute motivation for management I wouldn’t see this as a big deal. The issue is important to me because their is a huge amount of poor management based on how people view the need to fix how people are motivate instead of fixing what management really needs to fix (see all the links in the related section at the bottom of this post).
“eliminating demotivation” is a too simplistic view
I would say a party doesn’t really motivate people. But it can (taking psychology into account) gain advantages by helping bond people to each other, letting people feel good as they form social relationships, build trust with others… They can be good things that can build a stronger work environment. And by building social ties we can create an environment where people are more interested in working toward common goals.
(more…)
Guest post from John McConnell, Wysowl Pty Ltd
Dr. Deming opened his first Australian seminar in 1986 with the question, “What are we here to do”? After some discussion he answered his own question with, “To learn”, and “To have a good time”.
He repeated this opening at subsequent seminars.
The Fifteenth Point
Mr. Murray Mansfield of Melbourne has what I believe to be the only completely up to date version of Dr. Deming’s famous Obligations for Top Management. After a long discussion with Murray during his last Australian seminar, Dr. Deming agreed that there ought to be a fifteenth point. He took Murray’s notes turned to the page containing the fourteen points and at the foot of the page wrote:
15. Have a good time!
Related: I Don’t Know - Find Joy and Success in Business - posts on respect for people - Destroyed by Best Efforts - Lets Play Work - Seven (plus 2) Deadly Diseases of Western Management
Gojko Adzic provides a nice post on Mary Poppendieck’s presentation at Agile 2008 on bonus, compensation and motivation: Paying programmers: are bonuses bad and what to do about it?
As usually Mary Poppendieck provides good advice: Mary Poppendieck webcast on Leadership in Software Development. The idea that bonuses are bad management is one of the more difficult management improvement ideas for people to accept. See related posts for much more on the problems with them and what to do instead.
Related: Interview with Mary Poppendieck - The Defect Black Market - Deming on the problems with targets or goals - Incentive Programs are Ineffective - Problems with Bonuses - Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
The problems with multitasking are becoming more and more well know, thankfully. Here is another article on the lower productivity multitasking produces - Multitasking Madness Decreases Productivity by Barbara Bartlein:
These findings are similar to those of David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” said Meyer. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”
…
“Many people delusionally believe they’re good at this,” he says. “The problem is that we only have one brain and it doesn’t work that way. In reality, nobody can effectively do more than one remotely complicated thing at a time.”
Related: The Siren Song of Multitasking - Multi-Tasking: Why Projects Take so Long - Flow (the opposite of multitasking)
Meetings are perennial problems. People sit through meetings and then complain about how big a waste of time it was. Here are a couple very simple tips to try and actually improve (instead of just agreeing that meetings are wasteful, but doing nothing to improve).
I would strongly suggest if someone thinks they need to answer emails… instead of pay attention to the meeting they should not be in the meeting. Some people love to multi-task and act like they are too important to focus on something. I don’t find that true, instead they are just people that like to seem busy but not actually accomplish tasks. If your staff are doing this stop them. If you are subjected to working with such people, try to exclude them from the meeting and deal with people that actually care to focus and get things done.
Critical people on the other hand I find valuable (while others don’t want to deal with them). Encourage people to be open if meetings are not an effective use of their time. Talk to them about how to improve the meeting process. I take as true the idea that meetings are a problem and so those willing to state this and help make them better should be valued.
The Team Handbook also has good information on running effective meetings.
Related: Most Meetings are Muda - Programmers see meetings as wastes of time - Arbitrary Rules Don’t Work - Be Careful What You Measure
“You have to treat your employees like customers”
“There isn’t any customer satisfaction without employee satisfaction,” said Gordon Bethune, the former chief executive of Continental Airlines, and an old friend of Mr. Kelleher’s. “He recognized that good employee relations would affect the bottom line. He knew that having employees who wanted to do a good job would drive revenue and lower costs.
Well said. Related: Focus on Customers and Employees - Airline Quality - Respect for People - Curious Cat Management Improvement Dictionary
Sense of Fairness Affects Outlook, Decisions
If people cared only about absolute rewards, then Person B ought to accept whatever Person A offers, because getting even $1 is better than nothing. But experiments show that many people will reject the deal if they feel the first person is dividing the money unfairly.
Related: Obscene CEO Pay - Respect for People and Understanding Psychology - Why Pay Taxes or be Honest - The Illusion of Understanding - The Psychology of Too Much Choice
If a company is dependent on one (or more) people to perform then it is in danger. Processes should be in place that don’t risk the success of the company on the performance of a specific person. If your organization is dependent on a person start taking actions to place the success of the company in reliable processes instead of individual stars.
In many instances the start is as simple as starting to document processes using flowcharts. Another benefit of doing this is that you can then make sensible improvements. It is hard to make reliable improvement hen processes are not documented and instead remain the mysterious realm of individuals within the organization.
Do your outstanding people think their importance is in getting through another day with through hard work and individual expertise. While those qualities are good most important to the success of the organization is improving the system not getting through one day. If those seen as the stars are not improving the system and processes then get them to work doing so. They might miss the feeling that the organization is dependent upon them. But it is more important that the organization not improve. And there contributions will still be worthwhile but the organization will be much stronger.
Performance dependent on specific individuals is not robust and not capable of continuous high quality performance.
Related: Bring Me Problems and Solutions if You Have Them - How to Improve - Management is Prediction
Guest post by David Kerridge (originally posted to the Deming Electronic Network):
This is part of a series in which I recall striking or thought-provoking things that W. Edwards Deming said, but did not put into his books.
I remember taking a manager to his first Deming 4-day seminar. Afterwards my friend said to me “I was very impressed with that man. He said ‘I don’t know.’”
Something in our culture makes us ashamed to admit ignorance. We expect quick, slick answers, whether from politicians, managers, or consultants.
Deming said “I don’t know” more often than anyone I have ever known. Sometimes you heard the answer about two years later, in his seminar.
I also remember him saying “I have learned more in the last six months than in the previous ten years.”
Maybe one quotation explains the other.
Related: Dr. Deming quotes - Instant Pudding - Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts - Where to Start Improvement
David Heinemeier Hansson Talk at Startup School 2008 (Paul Graham’s Y-combinator school). It is helpful to appreciate the importance of some simple ideas. Working on web focused businesses people often get carried away with the huge potential and sometimes lose touch with reality. While the ideas are more obvious when looking at web related business their is plenty here for many companies (the second half might be more helpful for many).
In this talk David does a great job of explaining how 37 signals has chosen to work. They are not concerned with becoming large. They focus on doing what they want to do - creating great software solutions (see: Systemic Workplace Experiments). And on making money to allow them to stay in business.
Some tidbits of advice: create great applications, charge people money, make a profit. Yes to those outside the web world this might seem obvious… He discusses a very similar idea to the idea of 1,000 true fans. He mentions to bring in a $1 million, all you need is 2,000 customers paying $40/month. 37 Signals has done well focusing on small business. Don’t be in such a hurry.
Related: Why is 37signals so arrogant? - Complicating Simplicity - Joy in Software Development - Great Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation
McDonald’s Branding Makes Food Tastier for Tots
The study had 63 children, aged 3 to 5 years old, tasting five pairs of identical foods and beverages — one in McDonald’s wrapping and the other in unbranded packaging. The researchers then asked them a simple question: “Which one tastes better?” An overwhelming number of the children said the food in the McDonald’s wrapping was tastier.
Oddly enough, this applied even to vegetables and milk. Sixty-one percent of the children in the study preferred the taste of carrots and 54 percent preferred the taste of milk if they were reminded by the packaging that it came from McDonald’s.
This is another reminder that tackling problems directly is not always the best strategy. The packaging doesn’t actually change the taste, but really it is not the taste that is likely a concern but rather the perception of taste. To me this is very similar to the studies on people preferring wine they are told costs more.
Ignore psychology at your peril: in marketing and in management. Deming’s management system include 4 interdependent areas: understanding variation, systems thinking, theory of knowledge and understanding psychology.
Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preferences (I think this is the study referenced in the article though it was published in August 2007 - John).
Related: Indian researcher shows most people do judge a drink by its container - Marketing in a Lean Company - The Psychology of Too Much Choice - Be Careful What You Measure
Does it surprise you to learn traders would cover up losses to protect bonuses? It shouldn’t, it happens over and over. Would it surprise you that almost any bonus (or quota) scheme increases the odds that the data will be doctored to meet the goals? It shouldn’t. Intelligent measures to make such doctoring difficult can help reduce the practice. But it is a likely risk of any such goal. As we have quoted Brian Joiner as saying: there are: “3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is the most difficult.” So it is no shock that distorting the data is often the tacit people use (especially when the rewards are great or the punishment for missing is severe).
Of course the people that take unethical or illegal action are responsible for their actions. But managers that set up poor systems and then get poor results should not be surprised. You mainly read about the exciting distortion of data - but there is much more such distortion that doesn’t seem interesting enough for the press.
Traders at top investment bank ‘covered up losses to protect their bonuses in £1.4 bn scam’
Shares in the bank, which is based in Zurich, tumbled 7.5 per cent yesterday. Credit Suisse admitted it had discovered intentional “pricing errors” by a small number of traders involved in complex investments linked to the mortgage market.
Related: Problems with Bonuses - Be Careful What You Measure - Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations - Another Quota Failure Example
Why is 37signals so arrogant? by Don Norman
I don’t agree. Not compromising leads to solutions that are unlikely to be all things to all people. But with an intelligent and knowledgeable leader will lead to excellent solutions for those that share desires. Now I don’t think this is the best strategy, especially for growth. But it can be an excellent strategy for startup, innovators and those seeking 1,000 fans.
(more…)
Part of the deal is that if 37signals helps you pay, you have to share what you’ve learned with everyone. Not just everyone at 37signals, but everyone who reads our blog. So expect to see some blog posts about these experiences.
…
We just ask people to be reasonable with their spending. If there’s a problem, we’ll let the person know. We’d rather trust people to make reasonable spending decisions than assume people will abuse the privilege by default.
Dr. Deming proposed supporting education of any type for employees (point 13 in the 14 points). That is not often done, but 37 signals is not alone in doing this. Great stuff. Create a great environment for people to work in and you can get great things done. Also good old PDSA at work - try things on a small scale and then institute those experiments that succeed on a wider scale.
Related: Google Experiments Quickly and Often - Vacation: Systems Thinking - Getting and Keeping Great Employees - Joy in Work - Complicating Simplicity - Workplace Management
There are those rare companies where interacting with them is not a dreaded experience: Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton, Crutchfield, Cannon, Groovix. There are not many. And even just providing something that just works is seen as a treat. The all too common dis-service, combined with the internet, leads to Consumer Vigilantes:
Pretty lousy systems thinking (or really failures to think systemically). Pay executives obscenely and cut service until customers literally can’t stand you so much they don’t just want to avoid you they want you out of business.
And then instead of fixing the system, just burn the toast (follow the link for an explanation). Then wait from those that get the burnt toast to tell everyone that you sold them burnt toast. Then, after they do that, go scrape it for them. This is not what Dr. Deming meant when he encouraged companies to eliminate the need to inspect for quality. Of course you know that (you are reading this blog after all). Maybe the business schools decided to cut down Deming’s ideas to just eliminating inspection and a couple other sound bites. And then tell the MBA’s not to bother reading all the rest of that… we have to get on to the cost reduction strategies that will make sure you move into the c-level and get the real money.
But some companies just push people so far they have to let people know about how poorly they have been treated. Some past posts highlight the frustrating experiences bloggers, including me, share about how badly we have been treated: Ritz Carlton (good) and Home Depot (bad) - Incredibly Bad Customer Service from Discover Card - More Bad Customer Service Examples - Poor Service, an Industry Standard? (HP) - Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful
Consumerist, is a great site, doing what it can to counter some of the horrible service.
Last week their was a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in the USA. Lets take a short systemic view at what is going on. The public has an interest in a safe food supply which is difficult to enforce through caveat emptor (buyer beware). So this is a natural situation for government regulation (to protect the public interest) - plus it relates to public health which is another natural for government regulation.
The USDA regulates the industry and puts in place rules as new threats emerge. So a few years ago they instituted rules that if an animal can’t walk after the USDA pre-death inspection they be re-inspected “largely as a precaution against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease .” It seems hard to argue with that plan. If the pressures to maximize profits (assuring every cow is processed) exceed the desire to take precautions to ensure the safety of customers the risk of losing the trust of consumers is great.
There have been several instances, that have been made public, which call into question how effective the system is at preventing self interest from endangering the food supply. That then calls into question the safety of all meat that is part of that system. Many in the industry seem not to realize that they will be judged by the failures of any in the industry. And in my view, it is in their interests to have strong protections industry-wide.
The export market for meat is large. For political reasons some countries aim to protect local farmers and ranchers (the USA is a huge subsidizer of farmers and ranchers - Sugar Industry Quotas). And when the system continually shows that bad practices are allowed to continue it makes it a very easy decision to not allow the import of meat. Why would a country want to import food from a system that fails to follow food safety standards (especially if politically that is what they want to do - this provides them a pretty darn good reason to do what they want).
(more…)
A fun read on What motivates programmers?
The tips in the post are worth reading. Yes, real world situation are always more complex but there is a great deal of truth in the post. Also, I will repeat my statement for all managers for all employees: your job is to eliminate de-motivation not to motivate.
If you really want to manage programmers well, read these blogs and take action to prevent yourself from becoming a pointy haired boss: Signal vs. Noise - Joel on Software - Paul Graham - Coding Horror - Scripting News - xkcd
Related: Joy in Software Development - Hiring Silicon Valley Style - Most Meetings are Muda - Metrics and Software Development - Amazon Innovation - Two Screens Are Better Than One
I like to continue to push for some things that might not seem achievable to many. It is too easy to accept that things have to stay the way they are. Several of Dr. Deming’s list of Seven Deadly Management Diseases are now accepted as serious problems by most. Performance appraisal is a strange disease: most people agree performance appraisals are not effective and indeed are harmful. Yet, most still don’t think anything can be done about it. But we can, and should, take steps to improve. Just don’t do it.
Managers are from Mars, Performance Appraisals from Venus discusses Mary Poppendieck’s recent presentation - Appraisals and Compensation: The Elephant in the Room
Mary went over the false assumptions behind individual pay-for-performance (money, motivation, individual assessment), and the negative effects they have on the system.
She finished by a case study done by HP across 13 organizations over a year 4 year period where each division implemented a different type of incentive plan. The results are just mind boggling. They all failed and got canceled.
I strongly suggest chapter 9 (Performance Without Appraisal) of The Leader’s Handbook, by Peter Scholtes, for those thinking about this topic.
Related: Righter Performance Appraisal - Problems Caused by Performance Appraisal - Performance Without Appraisal - Find the Root Cause Instead of the Person to Blame
Another interesting experiment from Google: Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from Google
Interesting paper. I would guess most readers of this blog won’t be able to apply prediction markets to there workplace in the short term but never-the-less I find the paper interesting.
Related: Management is Prediction - Google Experiments Quickly and Often - Secrets of the World’s Best Companies
This is a pretty counter-intuitive statement, I believe:
But some simple math shows it is true. If you drive 10,000 miles you would use: 667 gallons, 556 gallons, 200 gallons and 100 gallons. Amazing. I must admit, when I first read the quote I thought that it must be an wrong. But there is the math. You save 111 gallons improving from 15 mpg to 18 mpg and just 100 improving from 50 to 100 mpg. Other than those of you who automatically guess that whatever seems wrong must be the answer when you see a title like this I can’t believe anyone thinks 15 to 18 mpg is the change that has the bigger impact. It is great how a little understanding of math can help you see the errors in your initial beliefs. Via: 18 Is Enough.
It also illustrates that the way the data is presented makes a difference. You can also view 100 mpg as 1/100 gallon per mile, 2/100 gallons per mile, 5.6/100 gpm and 6.7 gpm. That way most everyone sees that the 6.7 to 5.6 gpm saves more fuel than 2 to 1 gpm does. Mathematics and scientific thinking are great - if you are willing to think you can learn to better understand the world we live in every day.
Related: Statistics Don’t Lie, But People Can be Fooled - Understanding Data - Seeing Patterns Where None Exists - Optical Illusions and Other Illusions - 1=2: A Proof
Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog curiouscat.com 2005-2007 powered by WordPress - lean manufacturing directory
