Practical Developmental Ideas March 2004
This issue is about managing performance. A person's
performance depends on the person, their manager, colleagues, and the
organisation. I hope to provide a few ideas that may stimulate thought or
remind you of something you already know. I am also using this ezine to ask for
your feedback. I am sorry it is late getting to you this time.
A request for your feedback, please
This is the tenth issue of these ezines.
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any comments, please. I repeat this paragraph at the end of this post.
Managing performance
People and organisations are very
complicated. People are the most complicated things in the known universe, so
it would be very surprising if there were one simple thing that would help them
perform better.
One of the times I performed at my
best was when I was doing my PhD, in organic chemistry. This work fitted my values
and skills because I loved
finding things out, trying new things and thinking and the topic was clear and
fascinating. I had an excellent supervisor who listened and
was enthusiastic about what I
discovered and helped me make sense of it. My colleagues
were stimulating and fun. We had
enough resources to do what we needed to do and the systems for doing things helped rather than got in the way. These
good practices helped me work hard and effectively and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The bold items are about how the person,
manager, colleagues and the organisation can enhance performance. The rest of this ezine will give
some ideas about what people can do to help.
If you look at the times when you
performed best, you will find what is important to you.
Ø Talk
to someone
When you explain to someone else what you are doing and
that person listens, your thinking gets clearer. It is so simple. You are stuck
for a word or the computer programme won't do what you want. Ten seconds after
grumbling to a friend, you know what to do! This works for complicated issues
too, though it may take longer.
You may find it helpful to organise time where you take
turns helping each other in a slightly more formal way. I have written about
this "coconsulting"
on my site and in an earlier ezine.
Taking it in turns formally can help you learn about how to help by listening
and make sure the relationship is reciprocal, for fairness, and confidential,
for safety.
Ø Ask
for what you need
You often know what you need and sometimes just asking
for it can be very effective. A senior civil servant who is an excellent
manager had a boss that did not listen to her or involve her. We worked out
that what she needed was half an hour of his undivided attention now and then.
When she asked for this directly, she got it.
We cannot read each other's minds, thank goodness.
Everybody has blind spots. I can't always read accurately what my wife wants
after nearly forty years together, so what hope is there of reading the mind of
a colleague? It is very unrealistic to expect other people to notice what you
want, if you don't tell them!
Ø Ask
for feedback
We can't know how other people see us, unless we ask. We
may have strengths that we don't recognise and weaknesses that we are unaware
of, or deny. Feedback is hard to hear, even from people who we know care about
us. Even receiving positive feedback can be difficult. It is risky to say
modestly, "It was nothing" as the feedback giver may not bother
again.
I don't like the sick feeling I get when something has
not worked and I ask what went wrong and why, or think about those questions.
In my better moments, I think that at least something positive will have come
from the "failure" and that things going wrong are inevitable when you
are try something new.
Ø Encourage
people to take responsibility for their own learning
Managers can set a climate and culture that encourages
people to learn actively. This might start at induction. I would like to see
new starters going out into the organisation in pairs to find out what they
need. This starts people being responsible for their own learning right at the
beginning.
Consultants and trainers can use discovery and experiential
methods for almost any learning. Even "dry" subjects will come alive
when people do their own research.
Ø Provide
structures and processes that encourage development
Learning takes time, so in busy organisations we need
structures and processes that are easy to arrange and can easily fit in to a
normal working day. You will all have your favourites.
I quite like temporary task forces where people
from across the organisation, and at different levels, work together on a
knotty issue. These groups meet occasionally and can be quite informal. My
first OD experience was on a task force on career development. We came up with
an innovative solution, to set up an internal career counselling service and
then planned carefully about how to sell this to the management group. When
they said "yes", we were thrilled. We all learned a lot about how to
work together creatively and how to influence.
You already know about my interest in coconsulting,
where people take turns listening to each other. Many organisations use action-learning
sets too. Some organisations provide learning resource rooms with books and
audiovisual resources and there is much e learning about.
Senior people will often appreciate talking to someone
from outside the organisation who can listen, support, challenge and offer new
ideas and viewpoints. I think many consultants, including me, need to
appreciate more how valuable "just" listening can be.
Although organisations must have a way to ensure that
people are paid fairly, an "annual appraisal" should not be the only
time boss and employee get together to discuss performance. Regular, informal
friendly chats throughout the year are much more useful. You can supplement
casual conversations with more structured approaches like Role
Negotiation or Team of Two if
you like. In writing this, I realise I have not had feedback on my
performance as a consultant for many years, except about particular
successes or otherwise. Do you have these conversations?
Ø Offer
support
We all are stuck or confused sometimes and like to talk
to someone who is interested and does not judge us. Most of us like to hear
when we have done a good job or that people enjoy our company. Listening
and appreciation are simple things to give and make a big difference.
Happy organisations probably have a lot of this informal support in place.
We ran a counselling course and ended it with an
exercise where every person wrote down what he or she had valued most about
everyone else on the event. I saw one of the people after the event. Tom was
very dour normally but just as we finished chatting, he opened a drawer and
pulled out his "appreciations". He said, "I was very sceptical
about the exercise, but since then, whenever I feel down I pull out my sheet
and realise I am not so bad after all!"
Ø
Offer feedback
Appreciation, above is positive
feedback and this is the easiest to hear and to give thought neither is easy.
Sometimes things don't work out and we make mistakes or bad judgments or are
grumpy. People can give critical feedback bluntly
but still be caring. A few
managers will say things like, "You are technically excellent but you
won't get any further in this organisation until you learn how to be less
aggressive in meetings". This is a firm clear, critical message but
tempered by "But I know someone who may be able to help you with this,
would you be willing to talk to him?" In this way, the manager showed he
cared, even if the person did not take up the offer. This is a real example and
she did take up the offer and changed her behaviour.
The above is an example of a manager
offering feedback, but we can also help our colleagues with the combination of
a very clear message about behaviour and unambiguous caring for the individual.
Ø
Ask them what they need and give it
No one can read another's mind. Many
people are scared to ask for what they need because they fear rejection. If we
can take a little time to ask the people we work with or offer a service to,
what they need and give it this make everything goes well.
Ø
Do and encourage all of the above by
example
"Organisation" means the
senior management of an enterprise. Their example is a very powerful influence
on performance. If they do all the things in the short list above, people will
get the idea that improving performance is important and valued. Example is far
more influential than argument.
Ø
Link improving performance to the
reward system
One company I know has
"developing people" as a criterion in the performance assessment of
managers. Managers knew that their ability to develop their people directly
influenced their salary. This is a very direct way to encourage people to take
development seriously.
They also get people interested in performance
by giving every manager down to first line supervisor the right to give someone
who has done an exceptional job a night out, with partner, on the firm. This
has much more impact that an extra few pounds in the pay packet, apparently.
Ø
Run some workshops
You could run workshops to look at
the specific factors in the organisation, or part of it that influence
performance. You might use appreciative enquiry
or open
systems planning or some other holistic creative
problem solving method to search for them. Then you could decide together
which ones to progress. Every organisation will be different. I have an article
about the creative organisation that lists some, but these draw from
experience, not research. It might give some initial ideas though.
Ø
Critically examine your systems
Deming has claimed the systems that
people work with are what determine their performance. He even argues that
performance appraisal, with its focus on individuals, damages the performance
of the organisation by encouraging internal competition and devaluing teamwork.
I do know that a company examined all
the systems they used and asked what they cost and the benefit they gained from
each and eliminated half of them! You can also run workshops
for the people operating a system and have them think about how to do their
work more simply. People will get rid of whole chunks of work and streamline
their system so everyone's performance improves together.
More information
You may find the articles on Influencing
Skills, Designing
Learning Events and the pieces on Listening
and Appreciation
useful.
The ideas above come from on my limited thinking and
experience. I know the issues are important. You will have found different and
interesting ways to help others do perform and to do so yourselves. If you
email me your thoughts and experiences about how to do this, and then I will
send something back to the list that will give a richer picture to us all.
Feedback please
Please will you let me know if you want to continue
receiving them or not. I would also appreciate your comments on what you are getting
from the ezines and and/or any ideas on how to make them better.
If you would like to continue receiving them, please
click YES and send the email, with
any comments, please. If you don't want to receive them any more, please click NO and send the email, with
any comments, please.
I hope you have found the information in this issue
interesting and useful. The subjects I might cover in the next
issues are: -
Conflict resolution
Designing learning events
Developing your people
Improving working relationships
Removing emotional blocks
Stimulating creative thinking
Thinking tools and processes
If you have any particular developmental interests, you
would like me to cover, please let me know. I will try to respond if I
can.
Commercial
I enjoy helping clients think through real issues
involving people. I like to stay in the background as coach or consultant and
sometimes work with people to help them design and deliver developmental
events. If you need to know more please refer to www.nickheap.co.uk,
email info@nickheap.co.uk or give me a
call on +44 (0)1707 886553.
I have had one request recently to coach someone, by
email and phone through the Influencing skills material on the site. If this,
or face to face coaching, appeals to you about any of the material, I would be
glad to hear from you.
Many of the readers of this newsletter are
consultants themselves. I have learned a great deal from other consultants over
the years so I am glad to have this opportunity to offer something back.
Using these materials
I am entirely happy for you to use or draw on
any these materials in any way you think will be helpful. I am keen to have my
work, and the work of the people I have learned from, used.
Please will you say where you found them? One way might be to give a link back to the web site, www.nickheap.co.uk or email info@nickheap.co.uk. This will help these positive ideas to spread, and help my business, too.
Best wishes,
Nick
Heap
43 Roe Green Close
Hatfield
Herts AL10 9PD
UK
01707 886553
Web, with many resources: www.nickheap.co.uk
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