Navigating the Territory: Good Ideas for Leading in Complex Environments
Volume 2, Number 2
March, 2010
Deborah ReidyGreetings!
 This issue of Navigating the Territory: Good Ideas for Leading in Complex Environments focuses on the theme of  what it takes to create a culture where people can do their best work. There are a couple of pieces written by me and a great guest article by Deborah Donahue, Executive Director of Onondaga Case Management Services. The section "What We're Up To" describes a couple of interesting engagements I've been working on recently.

For back issues of this newsletter, you can find them in the  archives:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs076/1102561682356/archive/1102700377250.html 

Thanks for your interest and support.

Deborah
Bringing Out the Best in Your People
Through Ongoing Performance Management
by Deborah Reidy
 
In service organizations, the quality of the workforce is the quality of the work. One essential responsibility of supervisors and managers is to create conditions that bring out the best in their people.   What do skillful supervisors and managers do to create these conditions?  In this issue's guest article, Deborah Donahue, Executive Director of Onondaga Case Management Services, reflects on how she works to create such an organizational culture.  In this article, I briefly describe some of the results of a famous Gallup study published in Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's book
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently.
At the time that book was published, in 1999, the Gallup Organization had conducted in-depth interviews of over 80,000 managers in over 400 companies.  By 2006,ten million interviews had been conducted and their lessons distilled in a follow-up book by Rodd Wagner & James Harter entitled 12: The Elements of Great Managing.

Here are some key ideas:

The role of a manager is to serve as a catalyst by:
  • Selecting the right person for a role by searching for their talent (not simply experience, intelligence or determination);
  • Setting expectations and defining the right outcomes (not the right steps);
  • Motivating the person by focusing on strengths (not on correcting weaknesses);
  • Developing the person by finding the right fit (not simply a promotion).
The aim:  for every employee's talents to be released into performance.

We often think of "performance management" as the responsibility of our organization's Human Resources Department.  Perhaps we participate in performance management on a yearly basis by conducting annual performance reviews on our subordinates and having such reviews conducted on us (in one organization where I worked, their system was called the PMS: an apt description for an onerous process!)  But imagine if, in keeping with the role of a manager described above, you viewed performance management as an ongoing process of building and sustaining a relationship with the people you supervise that facilitates their talents being released into performance?

Tough Love?
Performance Management at Chicago Public Schools
by Deborah Reidy
Check out this story aired on NPR's "All Things Considered" on March 10, 2010.  It's about the Chicago Public Schools' new approach to addressing systemic problems.  They call it performance management. 

The story opens with reporter Jay Field arriving on the scene: "There's the scary room. It's on the 15th floor of Chicago Public Schools' headquarters. Performance Management, reads the sign as you step off the elevator and follow the arrow pointing to the left."  Ominous enough already?  Sounds like the opening of a horror story. The story then proceeds to describe a performance management session and presents some perspectives on the hoped-for outcomes of this new approach and the wishes and fears of various stakeholders.  What captured my attention was the last statement in the story.  Reporter Field says:
"As it asks thousands of educators to embrace the process, the district seems to be going out of its way to highlight the spirit of civility. Performance management, the district stresses on its Web site, isn't a blame game. It's just a way to have a conversation about some brutal facts."

While accountability is essential, what results can you expect to get with the assumption that performance management is, at essence, a conversation about "brutal facts"?  Spare the rod and spoil the child, indeed!

Chicago Tries Management-Style on Schools
Leadership and Culture
An Interview with Deborah Donahue
Deborah Donahue is Executive Director of Onondaga Case Management Services, an agency in Syracuse, New York devoted to "assisting people with difficult life challenges to develop personally meaningful lives." I have worked with OCMS staff for about six years doing workshops, team retreats, and other kinds of consultation.  Every time I've visited the agency, I've been impressed by how positive, forward thinking, and genuinely friendly OCMS staff seem to be, even while they work with people who have difficult lives.

A couple of months ago, I asked Deborah what she has done to foster such a positive organizational culture.  Deborah has been the Executive Director for 15 years and has led it from an agency with a budget of $600,000 and 27 staff to its present size of a staff of over 160 and a budget of $ 8 million.   Her strong and thoughtful leadership has left a deep impression on the organizational culture.

Here is what she discussed in response to my questions:

What does a leader do, consciously, to influence the culture of her organization?
  • Keeps the vision and values in the forefront - connects them to key points in the organizational cycles - hiring, orientation, planning.  She commented that hiring is key: she stays very actively involved in hiring until a program "has it down." If the program has turnover problems, Deborah may again become more directly involved with the hiring process until things get on track.
  • Connects them to the direct work of each part of the organization and communicates those connections across the organization using, for the most part, natural opportunities.
  • Exposes employees to opportunities (e.g., educational opportunities, committees/projects within the broader community) that validate the culture.
What conditions make people want to come to work?
  • Being recognized as a person and as a contributor to the organization--Knowing that people in all levels of the organization have an understanding of the work you do and your unique contributions.
  • A physical environment that has options for sufficient privacy and personal space as well as for formal and informal connections with others (gathering spaces).
  • High expectations coupled with the belief that people who work in the organization are capable of meeting them.
  • Respect, courtesy and humor are valued.
  • Opportunities - for learning, for creativity, to participate in decision making, in the development of the organization.
  • Working in an organization with a positive reputation
What have you done at OCMS to deliberately create conditions where people want to come to work?
  • I pay them as well as I possibly can (and it's not as well as I'd like).
  • Develop only the policies and procedures needed to ensure basic structure, predictability, consistency and ease of organizational function for most people.
  • Honor supervision and use it as an opportunity to reinforce both the skills of the person and the vision and values of the organization.
  • Work diligently to ensure that people are treated fairly.
  • I'm rigorous in my communication and my expectation that performance issues, even when they rise to the level of formal disciplinary steps, are seen and handled as opportunities to improve performance (This does not mean that there are not consequences for failure to meet performance standards even with reasonable opportunities to improve).
How does culture get inculcated?
  • Accessibility: Everyone in the organization can connect with almost anyone else.  That goes a long way toward building trust.  Whatever people are told is real.
  • Having informal, shared spaces like the lunchroom.  The mingling of people from different programs helps.
  • We're a transparent organization as much as possible.  We talk about the thinking behind decisions.  We are clear about what level of input is being sought: "Am I willing to change what I do based on what people say?"  Not always, but I'm clear about the degree of influence the input may have.
Onondaga Case Management Services
What We're Up To
For the past couple of months, I've been working with two very different but equally interesting organizations.  One is an organization that focuses on peacebuilding in divided or fractured cultures.  This 15-year-old organization is in the midst of a significant transition with two big changes in the works: Organization founder and executive director will be assuming a new role and, at the same time, the organization is poised to grow quite dramatically.  My work has been a blend of organizational assessment and strategic plan, using a systems approach.  We've tried to focus on conserving the essence of what has made this organization successful for 15 years while also looking at the structural changes that will need to take place to position the organization for growth and change.

The other organization I've recently worked with is a local chamber of commerce undertaking its first-ever strategic planning process.  I conducted 20 stakeholder interviews then led a group of members, board and staff through a 1-1/2 day planning retreat.  It was a great opportunity to learn about the various interdependencies that must be balanced in order for a community to remain viable.  One common challenge faced by many communities, as an example, is how to maintain a vibrant downtown while accommodating the inevitable arrival of "big box" stores.  Another interesting question is the relationship between economic development and community betterment, and who is responsible for what.

It's been a delight to be engaged in such interesting projects.

Deborah Reidy
413-536-9256
Go to Reidy Associates website

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