Yesterday I talked about the importance of pragmatism (good) in your culture. Today, it’s surprises (bad). Surprises—from slipped schedules to resignations—often cause problems and they can happen anywhere, any time. Good people can generally work around problems if deadlines aren’t looming or they have the time to adjust to the situation. Therefore, it’s a cultural matter of very high priority to make sure problems are exposed in time to do something about them. The surprise factor stems from two basic causes:

Problem: People want to prove that they’re competent enough to fix a problem without help, so they don’t report it.
Solution: Acquire information through actions such as management-by-walking-around and process it fully—don’t put your head-in-the-sand. Doing so will help you prepare for most eventualities—and even avoid some of them.

Problem: People believe they’ll be “shot” for making a mistake, therefore they don’t report it.
Solution: Make sure that people are not punished for mistakes, i.e., the messenger is never shot, and they’ll report them much sooner.

The right culture yields the desired result: No surprises.

Pragmatism is an attitude (part of your MAP) should permeate both your culture and its infrastructure. Like culture, pragmatism should act like stain as opposed to paint—sinking in, not just covering the surface. By practicing as well as preaching it, you encourage a reality-based culture.

• Setbacks are easier to deal with because they are recognized and acted on quickly.
• Employees speak up because they are assured that the messenger will not be shot.
• Helps eliminate rose-colored glasses.
• Encourages growth and change of the culture without corrupting it.
• Reduces “not-invented-here” syndrome.

Pragmatism is best implemented as a habit that everybody is encouraged to embrace—that helps to create a company in which not only can everybody see what the Emperor is wearing, but they also have no compunction about discussing it.

Today I offer you the first of two management Keys that are short, sweet, simple—and require constant vigilance to do. (I’ll post additional Keys in the future.)

Decisions should be made

• first for the sake of the company,
  
• second for the sake of your group, and
• third for the sake of yourself.

Don’t micro manage, empower your people to use their intelligence and experience to do their jobs.

Read a deja vu article Sunday on how companies are, once again, using personality and other tests to take the guess work out of hiring decisions. Tests to determine intelligence (can you think—not do you bother), skills (can you do the job—not is it really of interest to you), personality (can you fit in—not will you want to); the same old arguments pro and con—and, of course, the lawsuits are already flying. What really got to me was something new, “…two groups are creating MRI technology that they say shows “hot spots” on the brain when someone is lying.” Wow, using that test should really pad legal wallets on both sides!

I know tests first hand. I had to take a personality test when I applied to Management Recruiters (now MRI Network) in the late seventies. The test said I couldn’t sell, wasn’t good with people and should be a writer. Fortunately (I needed the job), the manager went with his gut, hired me anyway, and for the next twelve years I was in the top 10% (of around 2000 MRI recruiters) nationwide.

When will companies learn? Tests may not a total waste, but they aren’t a hiring silver bullet.

• A great personality doesn’t make a person synergistic with the culture.
• Intelligence guarantee creativity or innovation.
• Having the skills to do a job doesn’t mean the person really wants to do that job.

Staffing should be a core competency in any company. Too bad they don’t invest the same time, effort and money that’s spent on software and recruiters teaching their managers (at all levels) better recruiting and hiring skills. The pay off would boggle their minds!

Back in early 2003 I read an article in the Wall Street Journal called Multitasking Makes You Stupid and I cheered. Why? Because it’s always nice to have one’s opinion confirmed through scientific study by experts with lots of credentials—especially when most of the people around you are bragging about how well they multitask.

I got to thinking about that and did a bit more searching to see if anything’s changed. There’s one study that looked at gender differences and came to the conclusion that whereas productivity is about equal, women have a slight advantage in accuracy. I’m certainly not claiming I read all 250,000 pages returned on a search using the terms, multitasking study Dr university, but scanning through the first hundred I didn’t notice anything that contradicted what I’ve always thought—multitasking is not productive!

So what’s happened since the original article appeared? More ways to multitask; more managers demanding that their people do it; and more people bragging about their skill at it—more errors, accidents and loss of productivity.

Don’t believe me? Think about

• what it’s like talking to someone who is reading email or doing other computer tasks during the conversation;
• how close you’ve come to creaming someone, or being creamed, while talking on a cell;
• the last time you didn’t notice the sirens ’cause you were listening to an iPod or talking on a cell.

And before you write all this off with the famous “but me” argument ask yourself: are you really that different from the rest of the human race?

For more insights read HBS working Knowledge columnist Stever Robbins (among many others), then read my Think, Dream, Innovate, and then really think about how you want to run your life!

TGIF everybody!!! And in honor of this wonderful day I thought I’d share some laughter on how communications and spin are everything.

Spin is everything!
A distinguished young woman on a flight from Switzerland asked the priest beside her, “Father, may I ask a favor?”
“Of course. What may I do for you?”
“Well, I bought an expensive electronic hair remover that is well over the Customs limits and I’m afraid they’ll confiscate it. Is there anyway you could carry it through Customs for me? Under your robes perhaps?”
“I would love to help you, dear, but I must warn you: I will not lie.”
“With your honest face, Father, no one will question you.”
When they got to Customs, she let the priest go ahead of her.
The official asked, “Father, do you have anything to declare?
“From the top of my head down to my waist, I have nothing to declare.”
The official thought this answer strange, so asked, “And what do you
have to declare from your waist to the floor?”
“I have a marvelous little instrument designed to be used on a woman, but which is, to date, unused.”
Roaring with laughter, the official said, “Go ahead, Father… Next!”

Think before you speak!
A woman executive was golfing with her boss and two clients. One of the men asked if she had any golf tips he cold pass on to his wife to improve her game. Her mind on the game she responded without thinking, “I like playing with men’s balls, she might want to try it.”

We never forget!
My sister and I were at the mall and passed by a store that sold a variety of candy and nuts. As we were looking at the display case, the boy behind the counter asked if we needed any help. My sister replied, “No, I’m just looking at your nuts.” I started to laugh hysterically; the boy grinned; and my sister turned beet-red and walked away (no sense of humor). To this day, I’ve never let her forget it.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend; I’ll see you on Monday!

As we all know, the course of business isn’t smooth and even the most successful enterprises have hiccups along the way. Employees not only know this, they often foresee trouble more clearly than management would like and are quick to act—whether their information is accurate or not. The upshot is that, as boss, you need to communicate bad news effectively and completely if you expect to retain employees’ confidence, or, for that matter, the employees themselves.

Sadly, the tendency of many bosses, from Fortune 100 companies to mom and pop-owned small businesses is to clamp down, say nothing, run scared, freeze, bluster, or some combination of these.

So what/how do you handle it? Here are basic guidelines to follow—although they might not be totally comfortable!

• Bad news must be communicated—just like good news.
• Employees aren’t dumb—they know something bad is happening—and if they’re not explicitly told what it is, rumors will make any difficulty a catastrophe and a catastrophe a death knell.
• Management must be explicit about the ultimate potential consequences.
• Everyone hates uncertainty. The worst case outcome of any problem must be anticipated and addressed.
• Employees must be told of management’s plans for the outcome, whatever they may be—layoffs, plant closures, project cancellations, etc.
• Successful turn around plans are, in part, dependent on how well they are communicated to achieve employee buy-in.

Any solution to a crisis must be seen as fair, reasonable, and businesslike. If management’s reaction is illogical, petty, slipshod, unrealistic, draconian or any combination of these, then it’s likely that employees will conclude the ship is about to sink and leap off.

People understand that difficult situations demand difficult remedies, and they appreciate that management must at times step up to harsh challenges. But if solutions are irrationally or whimsically applied, they become a demoralizing factor, increasing the difficulties that people encounter in trying to do their jobs.

Lastly, management should attempt to find a positive note to leave with employees. Everyone already knows that things are bad, and its management’s job to find a potentially favorable course of action. However, don’t carry this to absurd lengths. Employees will easily spot propaganda masquerading as a solution. Predicting an impossibly favorable outcome will not only demean management, it may also bring a lawsuit.

Let’s face it, I’m really hung up on the importance of communications as the basis of great management and an absolute necessity in managing today’s workforce.

Workers today are highly educated, innovative and, at all levels, questioning.

They not only want to know what their job is, they want all the information required to decide how to do it, as well as why they should do it (other than a paycheck, which often isn’t enough)—what value does it add to their world and the much larger world around them?

These aren’t questions that managers can fob off with canned answers or the classic, “Because I said so!”

Today’s managers must realize that it is only by providing their people with the most complete information possible, including relevance, that they can enable them to be creative, innovate (not the same thing), carry out their jobs effectively and do it all at the speed required in today’s competitive world.

Great managers know that any fool can follow orders, but it takes world-class communications to build a world-class workforce.

All people interactions, whether short or longer, are, in fact, “relationships;” and successful communications goes a long way to sustaining a successful relationship. Ideally, when the people are peers, as in a marriage, good communication is both their job, however, when one person is subordinate to the other, such as parent and child, it becomes the higher ranking person’s responsibility. Human interaction in companies are also relationships with basic responsibility.

So, as a manager how do you make sure you are heard? Actually, it’s pretty simple, the more difficult part is always remembering to do it!

Recognize that all people have a mental model through which they hear, so the meaning of what they hear may have little to nothing to do with what was said. It’s a major error to assume that the person to whom you are talking has the same model as you.

• Start by carefully explaining your model and your assumptions when giving direction;
• give your people clear, complete information on the subject (what you want done, project outlines, etc., you do not want them to have to keep asking for more); and then
• check to be sure that they have actiually heard and understood your information, rather than their version of it.

Do it today, do it all the time; it may feel a bit akward at first, but eventually it’ll become second nature. Your payback will come in rising productivity, more motivated people, and lower turnover—all positively affecting your bottom line.

When she was three my niece asked to play with her father’s antique train set; he said no, but that she could play with it when she was older. A couple of days later she asked again and when he again said no she became very put out and informed him that he had said she could play with it when she was older and she was older. (Thirty years later she’s still a literalist.)

I’ve always found this story to be a great illustration of the communications minefield that exists between a literalist and the rest of us. For most managers, whose communications style is a bit more figurative (like me), a literalist is one of the most challenging human interactions they face, because a literalist hears and interprets each word with it’s exact dictionary meaning.

Literalism is part of a person’s MAP and there is no way one person change’s another’s MAP—even when that one is the boss—she can only change her own.

Which takes us back to awareness and the need to be totally conscious of exactly what words are being used along with their “real,” i.e., dictionary, meaning. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. For those of us (me) who love words, and like to play with and on them, the effects of not being aware of our words can run the gamut from annoying to disastrous.

Learning to speak so you’ll be heard is all part of the fun(?) of being a manager; more on that tomorrow.