Communities!

How does one build a community out of a large group of managers?

 

I am not talking of just setting up a body and asking them to meet in regular intervals. The members must feel they are a part of the community and they are invested in success/failure of community.

 

Well!  Over last few months we took our first steps towards creating a community of managers.

 

We have rallied leaders/managers around a common purpose. So relevance seems to be there.

 

There was high business involvement in creating community. Leaders and managers are actively involved in running community.

 

So basic design elements for a successful community - relevance and business ownership - seem to have been taken care of. This is getting manifested in predictable periodicity- community has determined frequency in which it meets and agenda items for their meetings.

 

 

So what next? What should be imperatives in remaining months?

 

A core managerial/leadership group has been involved in designing and launching the community.  How do we get even more managers invested in success of community? That surely is an upcoming agenda.

 

We have made decent progress in facilitating sessions. 

But I feel facilitator’s needs upskilling in facilitation skills. Additionally discussion need to be more conversational – this will ensure higher peer learning during sessions.. These two surely are focus areas for next few months.

 

I like the term go-dos. It's catchy and it brings in element of transfer of learnings to workplace. We have made go-dos a unit of conversation of this community. 

But how do we know whether these  go-dos are getting done? How do we enable community members to egg each other on in execution of go -dos?  Are go-dos actionable enough?  These are areas we could further look at.

Technology can play a role here. We can create a virtual community space where managers come together and exchange notes at regular intervals (how do we build consensus around frequency?) on progress against and further learnings from go-dos.

 

 

A related thought – manager community is a large group- consisting of around 90 managers.

‘Large group interventions’ is a separate field of study. I am not sure whether this means that I need to do different things for this community or do things differently. That's something I want to explore further too.

 

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Sourav

 

Diversity and Inclusion

Mid-year is a good time to pause and reflect on progress made and what to do ahead.

 

My blogs this month will be reflect this theme.

 

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is one space I have been working on.

 

First and foremost you need to be able to assess comprehensively as-is phase and to track progress. Hence necessity for creating and putting a calendar/rhythm around a reporting mechanism. 

I have managed to get buy in for such a reporting mechanism. I have created sustainable reporting structure.

The next steps are to ensure timely report preparation and using the reports to drive relevant conversations.

 

Second you need to be able to introduce D&I conversations in every HR process.

This is something I feel I have made decent progress in.  I have managed to introduce D&I conversation in almost every HR process. Different stakeholders (business and HR) are increasingly getting bought in to the idea of having these conversations too.

But then progress has mostly in space of representation in all HR processes. Either we are ensuring fair representation or keeping visibility on representation.

Next steps are in sustaining D&I conversations in HR processes and steering conversations towards inclusion too.

 

A related point is leadership and managerial buy in for D&I. We have kept conversation going in space of what’s and how’s in D&I.

Going ahead we need to surface and discuss the why with the leadership and managerial team. The discussion needs to also include an exploration of their beliefs/values around this space.

 

We are in process of setting up a D&I committee. This committee will consist of members across organization and is another step in integrating D&I into fabric of organization.  Getting this committee to action on D&I agenda will be another goal. Hence need to see them through to norming and performing stage within a month? We usually use the term onboarding for a new joiner – getting an individual employee ramped up quickly enough to do his/her job independently. In this case I have to ensure onboarding for a team.

 

Fourth, we need to have clarity on priority action areas in D&I. I think we treaded right path in using analytics/data to identify possible action/outcome areas. We now have clarity on priority areas. Next steps are how and when.

 

A few further related thoughts.

We already have a community where 'diversity' employees come together.  These employees do feel a sense of identification with this community. How can we leverage this group better to execute D&I initiatives?

I also feel that we can do more work in space of inclusion. We can look at beliefs behind our actions and how or actions can be inclusive/non-inclusive.   As shared earlier, we need to work with leaders and managers. But we also need to work with other employees/peers.

 

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Sourav

Dividing Limited Resources Appropriately!

How do we react to limited resources/win-lose scenarios?

Performance bell curve is a classic limited resource example. 

There are only a few slots for top performers- usually a manager wants just a tad bit more slots for his/her top performers and a tad bit less slots for his/her low performers.

What are different ways of dealing with this situation? Two obvious ways are:

• ·         Give limited resources proportionately to each team – everyone gains or loses equally.

• ·         Give limited resources appropriately to each team – some teams may get more than others.

Usually a leaders´ decision (1^st line of authority that both/multiple teams report up to) is required to drive non-proportionate/appropriate division of resources amongst different teams.

What happens when a leadership decision is not possible ?–maybe because leader isn´t there.  Is only solution to delegate decision higher up in hierarchy?

I would place responsibility on manager of each team. They have to come together and discuss allocation of resources. 

What are imperatives in such a process?:

• HR is facilitator in this process. I might be asked to recommend appropriate division of resources. But that makes it easy for managers to abdicate responsibility for decision taken. I would put responsibility squarely back on shoulders of managers – it´s your teams and you have to take a decision.

• Before we start discussion division of resources, managers have to debate and agree on principles on basis of which resources would be divided appropriately.  When there´s no principle, it´s difficult to find agreement.

But what does a facilitator do when he finds managers not willing to come on table and discuss?

• First, it´s a symptom of managers behaving ´territorially´.

• In such a case, discussion needs to be taken a notch higher. Discussion is no more about merits of coming to table and discussing.  Discussion should be about exploring with each manager ´why is s/he not coming on table and how might s/he being perceived because of that´. That is not an easy discussion but is certainly a necessary one. A Type A (go getter) person might respond to this process. Would a Type B person respond to this kind of a process? I think discussion with a Type B person would be about what is right thing to do.

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Sourav

Exceptions!

´Exceptions´ are multi-headed monsters that all of us detest or love (depending on whether we benefit from it or not) but none of us can avoid in our work lives. 

We create processes and quality systems and focus on their reliability but sooner or later an exception always does come up. 

A few manifestations of exceptions I’ve come across:

• Management by Exception: I used to work at a factory at a point of time. I found some managers managing only exceptions. They used to find exceptions only through excel sheet trackers or when a workmen raised a hue and cry.  If there was no escalation, everything was running ok and the manager was doing his job.

• Setting Precedent or Going Against Established Precedents:  A boss says ´Should I make an exception for you? Well! I can but then I would be setting a precedent that I might have to follow for others or go against a precedent already in place.´

• Policies for Exceptions: A boss says ´What´s policy for making exceptions? J I can´t act without a policy.´

• Feedback by Exception: This is another manifestation of management by exception. A boss says ´If an exception gets bubbled up to me; my reportee is not doing his job. He obviously would get dinged in performance appraisal for this. ´ Reportee responds ´Well! I´ll ensure you hear of no exceptions/escalations.´

I feel dilemma around exceptions comes from our discomfort with feeling ´we are standing out´ and with anything/one that ´stands out´.

Decision to be taken always is ´what´s correct response here?´.  Response to processes should be ´how will these aid me? ´ and not ´how will these replace me?´.

Exceptions can never be eliminated because our processes/policies/excel sheet trackers would only be for a specific set of general circumstances. Whenever a unique circumstance arises, an exception might be required.

What has been your experience with exceptions?

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Sourav

Employee Engagement Surveys

What do employee engagement surveys tell or not tell us? 

Over next few weeks, I would be supporting managers/leaders in interpreting results from an organization wide engagement survey and creating action plans from them.

I observe such surveys are taken seriously by even business managers. I wonder whether they are complying (a part of their assessment does depend on results) or whether they truly believe in the possible benefits from such surveys.

Well! I would not know till the time I am neck deep into exercise too.  Here are some initial thoughts on my mind

• Surprises – what conclusions can I draw if a manager/leader is taken by surprise by results of the survey? I would know that at the least he has not had his ear to the ground. He either has not picked up what´s been expressed, has discouraged the expression of possible concerns, or has not acted on what has been expressed.  If I observe surprises, I would want to explore ´What has been the manager/leader doing to understand pulse of his organization and consequently act? What needs to change?´

• Statistically Significant shifts in scores-  I have heard this term often. It is a criterion for deciding possible action areas/strength areas.  I do agree that  we should consider this criterion, but what other criterion we may be missing out on?  I think ´context´ is a relevant term here I need to  interpret scores in terms of larger ´context´ a team is in.

• Context –  I support a growing business with a large number of new employees. They obviously are in early stages of employee life cycle. Feel good factor prevalent in ´initial days´ might have bumped up scores. I certainly need to segment scores of employees as per their stage in employee life cycle.

• Segmenting Scores by Employee Groups– there is a need to identify trends for relevant groups (as per demographics, specific job types, specialist teams, etc). If I were to take only an uber level view of things, I might not sense some important under-currents.

• Qualitative responses –  can be a double edged sword. Subjective answers provide richer understanding of emotions behind the different scores, but I am unsure of their utility in confidential surveys.  If I come across a ´concerning´ subjective answer, I would  discuss the same with the leader/manage and give him/her a chance to respond. How s/he responds is what I would be more interested in.

• Why this survey? – What is primary objective of conducting such a survey? I am not sure whether allocating rewards for managers/leaders should be primary outcome. The intent should be to understand what we are doing well/bad at a certain point of time, and take a collective decision on how can we progress further.

• Action Plans – ´Best plans are best executed plans´.  Administering a survey (ensuring high participation rate and a safe environment for employees to respond authentically) and interpreting and sharing results don´t necessarily lead to increase in employee engagement. Co- creating action plans that have buy in of different stakeholders and ensuring their execution are the more monotonous, more difficult, but the most crucial aspects of ensuring  a successful employee engagement survey.

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Sourav

When do Self Evaluation Tools Work?

Do self evaluation tools help in an organizational context?

Or rather the question should be ‘When do self evaluation tools help in an organizational context?’

There are 2 requirements for ensuring effectiveness of self evaluation tools. Firstly, respondents must be willing to mark choices which genuinely characterize them instead of marking ‘more socially acceptable choices’. Secondly, respondents must be willing to identify areas for action and act on them. Often the usual response after taking a self evaluation tool is ‘I am of this type and that explains why I behave the way I do. I am ok with this and I don’t think I need to change anything.’

As Managers and Facilitators at workplace what can we do to make self evaluation tools more effective?

It is easy to say that we must administer these tools to individuals only when they are ready for the same. There is merit in this school of thought but there is also a danger. This danger is of managers/facilitators being passive spectators in the entire process; of absolving oneself of any responsibility to actively shape their workplace.

The question is ‘When are individuals ready to answer genuinely to self evaluation tools, identify action areas, and act on the same? What can managers/ facilitators do to create relevant environmental conditions?’

There are two ways of addressing this situation. You either create conditions for ‘safety’ or of ‘discomfort’. Do you remember the times when you experimented or when you felt you changed significantly? These would have come either from situations where ‘discomfort’ with status quo was so high that you had no option but to change, or from situations characterized by ‘safety’ where you chanced upon a better way of doing things while experimenting and adopted the same.

Which one is a better environmental condition to create – Discomfort or Safety?

Would you want to be in discomfort 7 days a week, 365 days a year? I am fairly sure most people would not want to be in discomfort continuously.

I do feel the challenge for managers/facilitators is to create conditions of ‘safety’ at the workplace. When an employee feels safe, he is willing to experiment. Self evaluation tools can work under such circumstances. Feeling safe is a state of being we are okay being in continuously – rather we would want ‘safe conditions’.

Does this mean there is no place for discomfort at the workplace? There is place for discomfort – but not continuous discomfort. You would not want your adrenaline pumping 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What should a manager do if he realizes there is no sense of discomfort within his team ever? I would contend it does not matter as long as from the safety domain within which the team is working, it is extending itself and performing well. And if you really want individuals to answer genuinely to self evaluation tools and act on identified areas, I doubt whether conditions of discomfort/non-safety are effective.

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Sourav