Towards the end of my last post about Plain Talk, I made a comment about how Ken Iverson wanted to encourage an environment of regular experimentation within his organization. Today, let’s look a little closer at some of the strategies he recommends for managers who wish to replicate this environment in their own workplaces.
The most important step is for managers to continually bring ever-increasing responsibilities to their employees. Managers who fail to do this will end up running stagnant teams where they feel overburdened while their teams feel unchallenged. A manager should find some time every day to look at his or her own work and identify tasks or responsibilities that can be safely delegated or reassigned within the team.
Of course, the process of increasing an employee’s responsibilities will likely lead to errors (1). This creates an interesting opportunity for a manager – should the response be immediate and direct? In some cases there is no question that the manager must step in. However, if the manager is able to let the employee figure out the resolution then it is probably best in terms of the team’s growth and development to allow the employee to do so. A manager in these situations should simply direct attention to the error but hold back from offering solutions unless asked directly by the responsible employee.
The final and most important consideration comes in the aftermath of an error. A manager who criticizes or questions employees after things turn out badly is reinforcing a subtle but significant message – don’t try anything new in the future. To avoid sending this message, the best approach is to study the failure with the team and learn from the mistakes so that the errors do not occur again.
Footnotes / most people fall off the bike while learning to ride it…
1. The fine line…
In fact, a good manager who wants to challenge employees should expect errors because if there are no errors then it is a sure sign that the new task or responsibility was not challenging enough for the employee.
