More from "Break all the rules"

It's not hard to guess why the following paragraph resonated with me...

"The manager role is the 'catalyst' role. As with all catalysts, the manager's function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, thus creating the desired end product. Specifically, the manager creates performance in each employee by speeding up the reaction between the employee's talents and the company's goals, and between the employees talents and the customers' needs. When hundreds of managers play this role well, the company becomes strong, one employee at a time." - First, Break All the Rules

Breaking all the rules - 12 questions

From the chapter in First Break All the Rules entitled "The Measuring Stick":

"Measuring the strength of a workplace can be simplified to twelve questions. These twelve questions don't capture everything you may want to know about your workplace, but they do capture the most information and the most important information. They measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees."

Initiated by my director, these twelve questions were asked of all US Campus Ministry operations staff, both full-time and intern, at the end of October this last fall (low=1, high=5). The results are below.

(The 14 Greater Northwest respondents are those on my office operations team as well as operational leaders in the field that report to me.)

A few of my thoughts:
- The lowest numbers, relative to the national average, were the first two. This is troubling, but makes sense; we haven't had operations leadership in our region for the last couple years. Hopefully these numbers will improve this spring when we do the survey again, though I suspect number two relates to funding. This may take longer, and more effort, to turn around.
- The lowest number for both our region and the nation was the "best friend at work" question. Why would that be? Is that unique to operations? To Campus Crusade? To non-profits? Or is that the lowest in other industries, too?
- The highest number was the mission/purpose question. Gladly, people in the GNW (and US) feel their job is important.
- This information will get increasingly helpful as we ask these questions again in the future. Patterns and trends will emerge that will help me/us know what we are doing well and what needs attention.
- For the immediate future: I'd love to get question number one quickly up in to the 4-5 range. I want my people to know what is expected of them, both by me and the organization. Not knowing what is expected at work is a recipe for frustration.

What do you think of this info? Have you ever used these questions in your workplace? Any tips/insights you want to give?

"Never pass the buck"

Over the next couple days I'm going to be communicating out a change related to financial policy with which some of our staff may take issue. This change was initiated by those several levels up from me organizationally, and while I think the change makes sense given the information I have, there is a temptation to distance myself from it in order to engender allegiance from those I lead and work alongside.

The timing then was appropriate, and perhaps providential, for my starting in tonight on the book "First, break all the rules - What the world's greatest managers do differently". In the introduction, an interview with a very successful restaurant manager is recounted in which he shares a few helpful management tips he has picked up during his 15-year career. All of the tips were insightful; one struck a particular chord...

"And especially important: Never pass the buck. Never say, 'I think this is a crazy idea, but corporate insists.' Passing the buck may make your little world easy, but the organism as a whole, sorry, the organization as a whole, will be weakened. So in the long run, you are actually making your life worse."