Froehle's Rule of Management #1:
If you're considering a new organizational policy in order to get M employees to stop doing something you don't like, and the policy will affect N employees in total, it's probably a bad idea when N/M ≥ 2. Just deal with the M employees and let everyone else do their jobs.
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I thought that's how you decided it was time to do said thing. The more people inconvenienced, the better.
ReplyDeleteAs a rule of thumb, "stopping people doing something you don't like" is usually a bad idea, unless the people in question are some sort of criminals or troublemakers. Management is about removing obstacles. Not about making more.
ReplyDeleteSakari Maaranen Sometimes you need to draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Two-hour, 3-martini lunches on company time, for example, may be difficult to justify in most organizations.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle I disagree with it being off topic, but I will comply.
ReplyDeleteSakari Maaranen It's surprising how few people, even those who have been to business school, understand that. Yes, there's a leadership side, with guidance and instruction, but I always told my people to think of me as a bulldozer. If you run into a problem that slows you down or stops you, come to me. It's my job to bulldoze roadblocks out of your way. And if I can't handle it, I take it to the next guy up, and it escalates until we solve it.
ReplyDeleteThat's more like it Phillip Landmeier.
ReplyDeleteIt completely depends with who you works with.
ReplyDeleteI remember Statoil people coming to Nigeria and putting in place Scandinavian management. It led to hilarious situations. There are no rule no1 of leader, there are 10s of rules you need to combine depending on who and where you lead.
For example, I know I am good in Africa, pretty good in southern Europe and average in northern Europe and USA. For China or Indonesia, I will probably be very bad leader.
On the lighter side, here is the management matrix.
ReplyDeleteimg.pandawhale.com - img.pandawhale.com/post-2876-when-top-level-guys-look-down-kPR3.jpeg
Sakari Maaranen Just to be clear, eliminating barriers to getting work done should be the FIRST role of management. But, as anyone who has ever worked in an organization knows, one of management's other roles is dealing with employees who aren't contributing to the level they're expected to be.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I heard of an organization that had a problem with someone taking other people's food and drinks from the break room refrigerator. In a shocking display of managerial incompetence (and one this rule tries to address directly), it decided to remove the refrigerator. Instead of just dealing with the trouble-maker directly, they punished everyone. Another example is where a person went to a conference and decided to add on some personal days to the front of the conference. The person partied too hard and ended up missing half the conference. Instead of just dealing with the one employee with the bad decision-making, the organization made a policy that no personal travel could be appended onto work trips. It turned out to be infeasible to implement, but the fact that it tried to do so suggests that people often want to deal with individuals by setting group policies rather than just dealing with the individuals directly.
Not exactly the same context, but an example of the same general phenomenon. ;-)
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3rvsYGdOsSmU-aAZ9eDZ_OVKLSaPx1EfK10kvQv9q1-yVknoCR_b5Z3-JnLjdC-FeboNiYyXeQep-SSP-z31ZtV6QTK8bzKb83OW=s0
I enjoy bulldozer bosses, but they're rarely any good at my worst obstacle: impossible deadlines from above. Of course, who is.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle that's actually considered an old school army style leadership error. In Finnish we say "yksi mokaa, kaikkia rangaistaan". Literally that translates as "one screws up, everyone gets punished. It's even in the lyrics of some songs. It's considered an archetypal bad management practice. Nowadays it's prohibited even in the army where they used to have that style of "leadership" decades ago, as a form of hazing (that is no longer accepted).
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle - ”The fact that it tried to do so suggests that people often want to deal with individuals by setting group policies rather than just dealing with the individuals directly.”
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's just me, but doesn't that sound a bit like common law?
Patrik Hanson Laws for a nation (or state, etc.) are different than policies for an organization, at the least in terms of scale. Not a close parallel.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle - I know. My point was that I don't find it surprising that a manager act in such way when someone violates a rule or an honour system doesn't work as planned, if that's the legal system you are used to. I don't appreciate it, but I don't find it to be strange either. I guess the analogy wasn't as good as I thought.
ReplyDeleteDespite it being t-shirt weather here, Finland keeps sounding better and better...
ReplyDeleteFinland has a model which adapts to Finland and other similar countries.
ReplyDeleteNo one will claim to bring the japanese democratic monarchy or the indian federalism in Sweden or Norway.
It should be the same with so called Scandinavian model which is basically not transferable to anywhere else in the world.
Olivier Malinur, in time you will see that the Nordic model does not depend on location or ethnicity. It does depend on the culture of trust though. Cultures take a long time to mature, but ultimately all cultures mature in roughly the same general direction, towards openness and responsibility - instead of secrecy and power games. It's about the basic difference between trust and fear based thinking. The former has a constructive future whereas the latter has people locked in irrational conflicts.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, stop that patronizing attitude towards other cultures. Like cultures being "mature" vs other "immature" reminds the worst time of colonization.
ReplyDeleteBecause you think Norway has a "more mature" culture than China or India ?
Nordic model is totally cultural, obviously. And Nordic culture is far from being perfect.
Secondly, it needs a certain level of economic development to have the Nordic model. Remember, economy IS NOT culture.
Third, if all cultures are moving towards the boredom of Reykjavik or Copenhagen, I do prefer to live in Abidjan, Addis Abeba or Dakar.
Sakari Maaranen So much for a culture of trust: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-finland-refugees-asylum-seekers-afghanistan-somalia-iraq-safe-to-return-a7036501.html
ReplyDeleteindependent.co.uk - Finland just ruled two of the world's most dangerous countries as 'safe'
Olivier Malinur, you are confusing perfection and maturity. Maturity is about understanding nobody's perfect, especially not oneself. I did not say Nordic cultures are unique. I said they are not unique. I said culture of trust does not depend on location or ethnicity. I said all cultures mature roughly in the same direction. You seem to somehow interpret everything I said in the opposite meaning. Please take my words as I said them. You seem to be annoyed by your own misinterpretations. I said openness and responsibility - not colonization. You seem to be also confusing what belongs to the category of openness and what goes under power games. Colonization is power games. Nordic culture emphasizes inclusive democracy, power of the people for the people. I am happy to help you understand these concepts better, if you like. Please feel free to ask anything.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle asylum seekers' applications are handled case by case. The decision only means that the possibility to return people to safer areas in their home country is now available. It does not mean people from those countries would be categorically rejected. The grounds for granting asylum did not change. Finland aligned the policy with Sweden, for example.
ReplyDeleteI will just leave the article speak by itself.
ReplyDeleteI don't misunderstand you. Rather you should read yourself again and look at the patronizing tone you are employing.
I am just saying that the nordic-style management is not working everywhere, that it was a disaster in some countries.
You said previously "_cultures take a long time to mature, but ultimately all cultures mature roughly the same direction towards openess and responsibility_"
So it means Nordic culture is "mature" and the others immature ? Do I misread you there ? It means you are evolved to the status of Homo Maximus and the other are kind of Australopithecus ?
It means chinese culture is immature as it does not emphasize openness ? After 4000 years, it is immature... OK ...
It means yoruba culture, putting a huge weight on hierarchy and respect is immature, after 1000 years... OK !
Please, just recognize that there is nothing like a convergence towards a "Nordic model". This is plain bs.
Cultures have various patterns, shaped by environment, language, history, geography. They will not "converge" toward a mature state of openness.
Maturity does not equal age. A much younger culture can be more mature, if they have learned from their conflicts and now know how to live together without consuming each other. It doesn't take many troublemakers to ruin the whole experience for a lot more people. You should know that I am in part kidding you Olivier Malinur - with good intentions - and I am also making some sincere points. Please do take a look at various independent comparisons to get as unbiased picture as possible of how well the Nordic countries are doing. I am sure you accept third party analyses of your own choosing, even if you don't appreciate me saying it. Yes, I am happy and proud to live in a country where people care, and I don't mind talking about it. I'm afraid I can't help, if that is a problem for you. I do sincerely appreciate culture of trust and cooperation, and have every intention to keep saying it and discussing it.
ReplyDeleteMy only point is : don't impose your model to other. There are different way of managing people.
ReplyDeleteKeep it and try to learn there are various way of resolving conflicts, not all through consensus. That they are not all "evil", just because they don't fit your model of thought.
That's for sure Olivier Malinur. You're right. There are different ways. Especially children and juniors need more direction than grown ups. Not many of us are comfortable completely without direction by others, even if we didn't acknowledge that.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree.
ReplyDeleteEach culture has its way to manage people. We are talking about a company in this post.
Children are usually not working.
I simply noted that Statoil, in Nigeria, tried to impose a Nordic style management. It failed and actually led to some funny situations. I regret this tendency of Nordic culture, to think their model is universal and impose it.
No model is universal. The only model which is working is adaptation: water has no enemy...