Rightplacing

RightPlacingVince KellenSenior Consultant, Cutter ConsortiumCIO, University of Kentucky

© Vince Kellen

CIO, University of Kentucky

Agendag Knowledge worker productivity

I d i f th d i t i Inadequacies of the dominant regime

An alternate approach

Transformational leadership

Impediments Impediments

Summary

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Problem Knowledge worker productivity varies wildly

• Programmer A produced clean code 3X faster than programmer Bg p p g• Architect A engineers similar solutions at half the cost as Architect B• Project manager A requires 1/10 of your time as Project manager B• Call center agent A completes calls in 3/5 the time as agent B• Call center agent A completes calls in 3/5 the time as agent B• IT team A completes projects in 1/3 the time as Team B• IT division X consumes twice the budget as division B for half the

outputoutput

Why is this?• Business culture business context the history of the firm• Business culture, business context, the history of the firm• Influence of management • Individual differences in mental abilities, motivation

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Observation

A few employees are ON FIRE and progressing rapidly

Why is this?• Cognitive development?• Training?• Training?• Practice and experience?• Role or organizational alignment?

Or are they simply madly in love with what they are doing?

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How Do You Know… If you are MADLY IN LOVE with your work?

• Your spouse, family tells youp y y• Your friends tell you• Your co-workers tell you

Maybe. But perhaps a good guide for this answer is• Your body tells you

Addicted to work? Is this a good thing or bad thing?• Depends on the outcome• Good stress versus bad stressGood stress versus bad stress• Growth in skills and expertise versus stagnation

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How We Learn Things…g

L tLong-term memory

Working memory

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InformationInformation

Implications p Relative to long-term memory, working memory is tiny

The font of deep expertise (and hence great knowledge worker The font of deep expertise (and hence great knowledge-worker productivity) lies in highly structured and interlinked long-term memory

Some of IQ is a function of working memory capacity, which can vary g y p y, ysignificantly between individuals. IQ is part innate, part developed in childhood

S hi h IQ l ill h t ibl j b ti Some very high IQ people will have terrible job expertise

Some not-so-high IQ people will have darned good job expertise

The rate at which information gets stored and codified in long-term memory is a function of time, difficulty of the task, and effort

D t i d t hi h IQ l d l t j b ti

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Determined, not-so-high IQ people can develop great job expertise

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Effort Passion precedes effort

Wh t i i ? What is passion?• It is more than engagement, job-fit, organization-fit• A strong desire, an emotional bond• An identification of the self in the task• It can transcend the organization and the role• It can be cultivated• It can be cultivated• It can look obsessive• Is it another word for an addiction?

How can we cultivate and channel motivation, determination and passion in knowledge workers?

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Do We Have the Wrong Approach?g pp To effectively manage knowledge workers in the 21st century, we

may have the wrong regime of practices in place

Dominant regime• Identify strategy, tactics• Design the org structure• Identify units, then roles• Hire people to fit the roleHire people to fit the role

Problems• Activities are often arbitrarily packaged and defined (look at EAActivities are often arbitrarily packaged and defined (look at EA

methodologies, TQM frameworks, industry job descriptions)• Designers have very imperfect knowledge of the breadth and depth of

activities in IT work

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activities in IT work

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The Dominant Regimeg

Organizational St tStrategy

Business Unit Strategy

Objectives,Tactics, Capabilities

Functions/Units/StructureFunctions/Units/Structure

Skills, Knowledge, Ability

Roles

RecruitRecruitActivities

Responsibilities

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Question

While this approach simplifies life for executives who must quickly design and implement organizational structuresquickly design and implement organizational structures, does it materially affect the productivity of knowledge workers?

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Another ApproachppLife mission

Passion

Roles

RolesTailor

Personality, traits, values

Skills, abilities, experience

Roles

Roles

Functions/Units/Structure

Objectives,Tactics, Capabilities

Functions/Units/Structure

Organizational

Business Unit Strategy

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Strategy

What is Different in This Approach?pp Rather than recruiting a person to a position, recruit a position to

the person• Assemble a role fit for the qualities of the person• Look at the set of people/roles and derive an organizational structure• Determine the right way to match people to the structureDetermine the right way to match people to the structure

– Manager assessment– Let the employee pick the team he/she wants!

One must decompose the human spirit • Our ability to discuss the structure of human motivation and expertise

development does not advance much past 7th grade• Our penchant as managers is to discuss things other than sociology,

psychology and emotion• Natural leaders have skills in these areas that usually developed

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y punknowingly

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Features of the Approachpp1. Person first, role second

P i i t i l i l2. Passion inventories, learning plans

3. Flexible position descriptions

4. Modular, changeable organizational design

5 Lateral moves5. Lateral moves

6. Multiple assessments and assessors

7. Improved self assessment

8. Planned exits

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Person First, Role Second,

Why are you here on this earth? • Just sucking up oxygen? Or are you doing something meaningful?Just sucking up oxygen? Or are you doing something meaningful?• Cows alongside a barn…

Get deeper Get deeper• Recruit the right people based on level of motivation, capacity to learn

quickly, demonstrated high expertise or capacity for high expertise developmentdevelopment

• Over time, understand the person’s passion and life mission. Provide coaches who can help shape their life mission

A person who knows why they are here on this earth and placed rightly in an organization behaves differently than a person confused as to why they are here on this earth and placed wrongly

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confused as to why they are here on this earth and placed wrongly in an organization

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Why are you here?y y

What you are

What you canyou are

passionabout

you canbe thebest at

WhatWhat the world

needs nowGood spot to be?How does one find their place?

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place?

Passion Inventories, Learning Plans, g See last year’s presentation

S t th i t Spot the passionate person• Watch what they do with their free time• Watch their level of work activity. More hours may indicate more

passion• See what they proudly display• Hear what the commonly talk abouty• Check their education history, current activity• Look for level of attainment and commitment• See if they engage in long term skill development activities• See if they engage in long-term skill development activities

Passion can change over time. Lifestage and lifestyle changes can affect passion

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affect passion

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Positions and Organizational Structureg Flexible positions

• Need job descriptions that are less specific j p p• Need to consider how to handle pay grades and more generic job

descriptions• Need to work closely with HRNeed to work closely with HR

Flexible organizational structure• Need a structure than can change not just to dynamic market g j y

conditions, but also to dynamic passion and skill development conditions

• Be prepared to alter the structure to fit the people, versus trying to fit p p p p , y gthe people into the structure

• Change the structure for the right people!

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Lateral Moves Premature upward promotion can kill the careers of promising

leaders

IT is complex. Rotations across different aspects of IT and business helps new leaders deal with greater complexity

Most IT people’s passions lead them to more lateral moves than upward moves. New toys, new technologies, new challenges…

Can the organizational structure accommodate lateral moves when the employee’s skill development calls for it? Or do capable people sit waiting and waiting and waiting?sit waiting and waiting and waiting?

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Multiple Assessments, Multiple Assessorsp , p Assessing and shaping people’s passion, life mission and deep expertise

is difficult and prone to errorPlan for multiple assessments a few a year perhaps• Plan for multiple assessments, a few a year perhaps

• Use multiple people to assess. We all have our biases in viewing other people. Have the assessors talk about their biases with each other.

Plan for difficult conversations• Miswanting (Gilbert & Wilson)

• Inaccurate self assessments– What if they aren’t good at what they want to do? Is it hard to tell them this?

• Inaccurate assessor assessments

Help people improve their self assessment Help people improve their self assessment• Develop cycles of self data collection, self assessment, detection of gaps

between data and assessment. Over time, some individuals will get better at detecting their own gaps

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detecting their own gaps

The story of the “bad” boss about to get fired and how he got ON FIRE…20

Planned Exits If you want a good fireplace, you need a good chimney

If i d kill ill t k t id th i ti If passion and skill will take someone outside the organization, don’t fear it, celebrate it

The next great passionate person will look forward to this person’s The next great passionate person will look forward to this person’s exit. It may represent an opportunity

Develop a plan for how the person will exit Develop a plan for how the person will exit

Failure to do this results in• Hidden agendas angry departures decreased motivation for many• Hidden agendas, angry departures, decreased motivation for many,

disruption, etc.• Some day you may work for this person?

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RightPlacing Requires a Certain Type of Leadershipg g q yp p

Transformational leadership…

James MacGregor Burns, Bernard Bass, and others

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Transformational Leadership Breeding Groundp g

What values do leaders

What values do followersdo leaders

profess?do followers see in use? Gap

The gap between principles (values professed) and practice (values in use) gives rise to

tension. Transformational leaders close the gap.

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Breaking Transformational Leadership Downg p Idealized influence (II)

• Leaders behave as role models that followers wish to emulate• Leaders are admired, respected, trusted with high moral/ethical conduct, are consistent rather than arbitrary• Followers believe leaders to have persistence, determination, extraordinary abilities• Leaders are willing to take risks

Inspirational motivation (IM)• Leaders behave in ways that motivate and inspire those around themy p• Leaders arouse team spirit• Leaders get followers involved in envisioning attractive future states• Leaders demonstrate commitment to goals

Intellectual stimulation (IS) Intellectual stimulation (IS)• Leaders stimulate followers efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions and reframing problems

and looking at old situations in new ways• No public criticism of individual member’s mistakes• Leaders solicit new ideas and creative solutions from followers, who are included in the process

Individual Consideration (IC)• Leaders pay special attention to each individual follower’s needs for achievement and growth• Leaders act as coaches or mentors• Followers and peers are developed to successively higher levels of potential

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p p y g p• Individual consideration is practiced when new learning opportunities are created• Leader’s behavior demonstrates acceptance of individual differences in followers

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Other Leadership Stylesp y Contingent reward (CR)

• Leader assigns or obtains follower agreement on what needs to be done with promised or actual rewards offered in exchangeor actual rewards offered in exchange

• Rewards can be transactional (e.g., bonus) or transformational (recognition, praise)

Management by exception (MBE)• Can be active (MBE-A) or passive (MBE-P)• In active MBE, leader arranges to monitor potential deviances from standards, mistakes

or errors in follower assignments and takes corrective action (e.g., action in anticipation of deviances))

• MBE-P implies leaders waiting passively for deviances or errors first and then taking action (e.g., only action after a complaint)

Laissez-faire (LF) Laissez faire (LF)• LF is the avoidance or absence of leadership• Necessary decisions are not made• Leadership responsibilities are ignored

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• Authority remains unused

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Full Range of Leadership Stylesg p yEffective

The 4 I’s(II, IM, IS, IC)

ActivePassive

CR

MBE-A

MBE-P

LF

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Transformational Leadership, Bernard Bass, Ronald Riggio. 2005.

Transformational Leadership Implicationsp p RightPlacing frequently means personal transformation. Leaders

need to be aware of their role in effecting transformation

For IT people, intellectual stimulation is relatively natural. Idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and individual consideration sometimes take work• This requires continual feedback and review of their leadership

behavior• Feedback is difficult at first. Be prepared for pushback

– Story of a “better assignment” taken as a “demotion”

L d hi b i d Leadership can be improved• External programs, mentors and coaches can help• These skills become critical for assisting in helping to place people

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correctly

Preconditions, Impediments, p Preconditions

• A supportive enterprise culture, HR departmentpp p p• Experienced, mature management interested in helping others• Time

Impediments• Lack of trust• Insufficient time• Insufficient time• Overly rigid, “defensive” HR practices• Relentless, mindless reorganizations

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S i iSummarizing…

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Productivityy

B fit++

Team Expertise Team Expertise =

Benefit Superior Solution

++ Passion++ Passion/role alignment++ Team/passion ensemble++ Team self-assessment

Can individuals and teams accept being average?p g g

Cost++0

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Cost

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Balance

B i fid t th tBeing confident that you are in the right place at the right time helps youthe right time helps you navigate turbulence

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Impactp

Mastery lies in aligning aspiration individuals andaspiration, individuals and

organizations

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Questions?Vince [email protected]

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