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

Staying at the Top

An organization has done things right (in retrospect all successful organizations seem to have got things right) and succeeded beyond expectations. It is now widely recognized as a success story. What next?

The road to the top is exciting, but staying at the top seems a bit trickier. You don’t necessarily have someone to benchmarking against. An oft used strategy when an organization reaches the top is to ‘Defend its territory!’.

But does only territorial defense lead to success in the long run? What were the behaviors which enabled success in the first place? It was about exploration and gaining territory. Given that there were larger players around, survival required exploration and hence the company focused on it. But when you are the largest player around, not exploring doesn’t visibly threaten your existence in the near future. If you happen to be in an industry not characterized by sudden technological breakthroughs or obsolescence and customer preference changes the temptation to maintain status quo becomes higher.

How does a market leader attempt to maintain status quo?

It might try to ‘standardize’ everything which it thinks led to its success. The focus shifts to ‘reliability’ – everything must be predictable. How do you ensure reliability? Implement stringent systems/procedures. Page loads of process manuals are created and an army of audit processes are instituted.

What happens to the focus of management in such a scenario? Think of a situation where not much happening is in the external environment and consequently not many organizational changes are required within. In such situations, the focus of management exclusively shifts to figuring out errors/deviations and correcting them.

Hence you have a system where in search of reliability and predictability, systems replace people instead of supporting people in their work. Status quo is maintained and with not much harm because the winds of change are not there.

Let us delve deeper into what happens to peoples’ behavior in such cases. The system runs definite risks:

• Of ‘filtering in’ only particular kind of employee profiles during selection. One manifestation of this might be that the system would filter in people whose natural competence/preference lies in ‘defending’.
• Of ‘filtering out’ quickly anyone who doesn’t fit the bill. ‘He didn’t fit our culture’ is what is said in such cases.
• Of behaviors undergoing standardization. You might subsequently create clones who over a period of time get institutionalized and soon start glorifying their institutionalization. ‘If you are not like us, you are worth nothing’; ‘We are the best’! are oft heard statements in such cases.

There is a difference between a successful company and a company that exhibits success enabling behaviors.

Are the behaviors listed above representative of a company that exhibits success enabling behavior? At the least, the company (the market leader) would undergo a tumultuous phase when the winds of change arrive and its survival depends on doing something more than just defending/maintaining status quo!

What are the success enabling behaviors that a company can exhibit – behaviors that increase the odds of a company succeeding even under adverse external conditions?. That’s something I would delve into in a subsequent post.

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Sourav

A Rising Tide!

“When the water level rises, all that is floating rises too!”

I have been going through my posts over the last few months.

There has a been a question on my mind “Is there a pattern to what I am writing about?”. I realize that there are patterns.

I am writing frequently about:

• human behaviour and the assumptions, beliefs, values, and feelings that underlie it.
• how we influence and are influenced by the institutions, structures, and processes that we co-exist with both at and outside work

But is that all? Does it just end with understanding?

It also strikes me that I have been writing with a view to finding alternative courses of action that result in both we, human beings, living a life of fulfillment and institutions excelling in their results.

We don’t exist in a vacuum. Our institutions, structures, and processes would remain. We can live a life without them or we can live a life enmeshed with them – a space where each impacts and shapes the other in search of fulfillment/excellence/perfection.

I have a visual!

Visualize you are standing at the edge of a stream. Look at its surroundings. Hear the noise of the flowing water. Observe the colour of the water, and the speed at which the water is flowing. Look at the boats on the river – whose on them, what are they doing? Observe the stream as it meanders through its surroundings.

Now visualize that suddenly there seems to be more water flowing in. The river is slowly breaking its banks. You are walking back; else you would be swept away. The water is flowing much faster now. The water level is rising fast. But hold on – you still see the boats on the river. Because of the growing expanse of the river, the boats now have more space to meander around in.

If the water level were to be our sense of fulfillment/excellence/perfection in our lives, I am trying to search for solutions that raise the level of water in the river continuously.

Who benefits? All the “boats” in our social milieu benefit – you, me, our friends, institutions, processes, and structures, all move towards perfection, fulfillment, and achievement.

So I would focus this space towards this end.

But then would the name “Talk the Walk” be descriptive enough?

Writing inspires reflection!

Reflection inspires ideas!

What would we call a space where we explore ideas? “The Thought Laboratory” appeals to me!

So here goes a small but significant change in my blog – “Talk the Walk” has retreated while “The Thought Laboratory” has emerged.

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Sourav