Metaphors for wrong management

METAPHORS FOR WRONG MANAGEMENT

ALI ANANI, PHD

I dedicate this presentation to Rajendra Grewal for being an inspirer and provider of ideas, relevant published work and timely comments.

The story of an employee who reports early to work is funny.

The DG walked early morning in an employees’ office. The employee was not in but his jacket, lighter and eye-glasses were there. The dg thought the employee was in the bathroom. He sent him a congratulatory letter. It turned out that the employee deliberately left these items in office the night before so as to give the illusion he was at work.

THE WRONG EMPLOYEE

My friend never smoked a cigarette and yet he died out of cancer. So, smoking doesn’t cause cancer

TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE RIGHT

My friend never smoked a cigarette and yet he died out of cancer. So, smoking doesn’t cause cancer

A student answers a question correctly- the new teacher draws a line that he is smart.

TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE RIGHT

My friend never smoked a cigarette and yet he died out of cancer. So, smoking doesn’t cause cancer

A student answers a question correctly- the new teacher draws a line that he is smart.

Give a questionnaire and get one response- draw conclusion that 100% of the surveyed approved or disapproved a certain issue.

TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE RIGHT

A friend told me that the best time to publish on slideshare is tuesday afternoon, based on the success of his only one presentation.

I took his advice. I got views well belowMy average

PUBLISH ON TUESDAY

TUESDAY

Worker performance in one month Retreated- warn him/her Wrong assumptions based on one month performance

WRONG DECISIONS LEAD TO BIGGER MISTAKES

TUESDAY

Performance has a peak curve. Little changes near the peak cause drastic changes in performance

Stressing the employees to assume improved performance is misleading

Even worse is the assumption derived from one month result is extensible to a peak-shaped performance curve.

TIPPING POINT OF ERRORS

LEVEL OF STRESS

OPTIMALPERFORMANCE

PERF

ORM

ANCE

TIPPING POINT OF ERRORS

CONSEQUENCESWrong decisions based on one measurement lead to wrong conclusions

Even straight lines may bifurcate(Branch out) into two or more lines

Human performance might bifurcate into different paths at certain tensed situation.

Assumptions of straight line Continuity is wrong.

TIME

PERFORMANCE TENSION POINT

STABLE

STABLE

UNSTABLE

STABLE

PERF

ORM

ANCE

LINEAR PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE SWINGING BETWEEN TWO LEVELS

1ST LEVEL

2ND LEVELTWO LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE

There is no predictable correlation between the past behaviors of the

system to its future behavior.

UNPREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE

The performance of employees doesnot progress necessarily in

A linear fashion

Interaction of employees may lead to the emergence of new behaviors and attitudes.

FURTHER CONSEQUENCES

Interaction of employees may lead to the emergence of new behaviors and attitudes.

For example, a new team member may not produce his best initially.

He/she has to acclimatize with the new work environment. His/ her early performance is below bar. Extending this performance linearly to the future will be misleading.

FURTHER CONSEQUENCES

EXTENSIONTO TEAM MANAGEMENT

May be we need to look at teams in a new perspective that is not based on the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages (tuckman’s model)

TEAMS ARE SOCIAL PHENOMENAA MODIFIED TUCKMAN’S MODEL

CLOSENESS

AWARENESS

CONSIDERATION

PERFORMANCE

CONVERSION

Awareness Of The NewWorking Climate

ConsiderationFor Other Team MembersAnd Work Requirements

Conversion Of Attitude

Closeness Among TeamsMembers Strengthens. And So

Performance Builds Up

COMPLEXITY OF TEAMSInteractions of team members are complex. Some team members have the ingredients of pulling information and sending it to others

Some are experts in pulling information, but not in sharing it

Some are poor in pulling information, but good at sharing the little information they pulled

Some are poor in pulling and sharing information

COMPLEXITY OF TEAMS

A

C

BC PUSHES OUT INFORMATION C PULLS IN IN

FORMATION

Even paul allen, the cofounder of microsoft, wrote in his autobiography, "a great programmer can outproduce an average one by ten to one; with a genius, the ratio might be fifty to one."

I would reinterpret this as a 'power law view of employee value'.

Http://cavqm.Blogspot.Com/2011/12/normality-assumptions-and-power-law.Html

How team members use their time affects individual

and overall team performance

In a learning team,when a team member gets smarter,all team members can get smarter.

SMARTNESS HAS A RIPPLING EFFECT

In a learning organization individual performance is linked to team

performance

How team members use their time affects individual and overall team

performance

Interruptions follow a powerLaw distribution as well

TIME BETWEEN INTERRUPTIONS2 HOURS 0 SECONDS

THE TWITTER CURVE

WID

ESPR

EAD

ADOP

TION

2007

1980

We are entering increasingly into power law distribution.

Paradoxically, some base their evaluations on one measurement- and draw conclusions from one point.

This is management by wrong assumptions

Thanks to MAR AL-HUSSENI

For his help in the graphics