Goal driven horizontal micro-feedback is a competency that is necessary and essential to create a high performance culture. This competency will ensure a better connection between business strategy and organizational effectiveness.

Managers (as well as everyone else) tends to confuse the map with the territory. The map is not the territory. When a person makes this mistake, they fail to see how they contribute to a given problem. For example, if my map says that people with a college degree should be able to do X job. I will tend to expect that. What happens when someone comes along with a college degree who cannot do X? The tendency will be to blame the person rather than look at my own map. Careful attention to my map might reveal that it needs fine tuning. How many times have you seen an employee wither under one manager and thrive under another. Chances are the first manager did not have a map that was sufficiently detailed enough to manage that person.

If you want to be a good manager, you must constantly update your map. The territory is always changing. A 1930s map of the U.S. would be almost useless today. The map you had about management last year may be just as out of date.

One of the best indicators that someone has an inaccurate map is when they use the word “should.” A manager says, “She shouldn’t have told the customer that!” has just revealed a hole in their own map. The reality is that she already told the customer and her own map seemed to have that behavior on it. The question now is, “What part of my map and her map do not fit the territory?” Once we figure that out, we have a better map and can solve the problem rather than blame the person. In the future, listen to yourself when you use the work “should,” then back up and look at your map. You may find a lot of new territory to map out.

Organization silos help leaders set goals, measure performance, and recognize development needs of their group. Being grouped with others who have similar skills is reassuring to new hires and gives employees an opportunity to see a distinct career path. Organizations grouped into silos also have some unintended consequences.

I teach in a graduate school of business. When MBA students are asked about the consequences of this structure they report poor communication and competitiveness between silos. They also say conflict is a by product. Much of the conflict seems to emerge because of different priorities and expectations between groups. Who hasn’t heard sales organizations complaining about production groups who fail to meet a deadline for an order a sales person has committed to a customer? Likewise, who hasn’t experienced the technology group creating scope creep when asked to do a project? But why?

We have concluded through observation that the silos often don’t feel a sense of accountability to one another. Some organizations declare “the customer comes first”. But we see little evidence of that expectation being extended to internal customers. We label this as a lack of horizontal accountability (HA). Through our work in developing high performance teams we have observed the incredible upturn in productivity when team members feel accountability to one another as well as other teams. Possible between silos? Absolutely!
Darrell and I recently wrote an article about HA and have it posted on our website.

David Elder

A vast amount of information can be found in the observations of peers in sports or business, but the information must be put into a useful and non-threatening format. In an organization with strong horizontal accountability, the manager still evaluates performance but day-to-day performance information comes directly and systematically from peers in the form of micro-evaluation.

A great deal of energy is locked up in conflict and manager focused behavior in many organizations. Release this energy by teaching team members to critique performance non-defensively, tying micro-evaluation directly to goals. Conflict is eliminated and customer and goal focused behavior increases dramatically.

Horizontal Accountability is an untapped source of information and energy in most organizations. Email me to receive our full article on HA™

In a performance culture, horizontal accountability is the woven into the very fabric of the organization. Every individual at every level and every position receives direct and open performance feedback on a regular basis. In our work with organizations we recommend a specific approach to developing this valuable process. An approach that rapidly shifts the onus for feedback from the manager to the team. That is not to say that the manager is not involved, they still play an important role, but the focus is on creating a flow of communication and accountability between people at a given level with less need for management gate keeping

Teams that can give open and honest performance feedback to one another in real time produce high performance outcomes Timely feedback is the foundation for horizontal accountability and greatly reduces the need for management supervision. Developing these skills in all employees releases management resources for more important activities. Instead of dealing with petty conflicts and minor performance issues, the manager can focus on planning and high level direction.

see our new video on results in manufacturing.

In the 1920’s it was politically incorrect for a Black man to approach a White woman in any way except with the most careful of manners. Until the 1960’s it was politically correct for Whites to refer in the most ugly terms to other minorities even in their presence. Until the 1960’s it was politically correct for Blacks to sit at the back of the bus.

Political correctness is a function of who respects whom, who is socially or politically superior or thinks they are. Today’s political correctness shows the leveling of the field. It emphasizes the dignity of all people regardless of social standing, birth, race, religion, etc.
I prefer not to think of it as political correctness but to think of it as a new emphasis on respect and manners in human relationships.

I certainly would not want to go back to the old definitions of PC that were around in 1700’s or even 1950. The old forms of PC were a social demonstration of power and social standing with the purpose of maintaining social classes and keeping minorities and those seen as socially inferior out of the main stream.

The next time you feel constricted by today’s political correctness, ask yourself if you would prefer to have the old style of political correctness.

The most intelligent top 25% of China is greater than the entire population of the US.
The most intelligent top 28% of India is greater than the US population.
China will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world.

I would be glad to send the presentation to you if you simply email a request to this address:

drdray@teaming-up.com

Put: “Request Power Point Show” in the subject line.

All to often we see the world from an extremely narrow view. In our daily lives we don’t see the big picuture or feel the changes that are slowly reshaping our world. Seeing the big picture occasionally can give perspective and understanding. While we are a long way from China or India, as a consultant working with international companies, I see the impact of these countries. One of my clients says that they will soon be selling more product in India than they sell in the US! As a result they are shifting a lot of their engineering and manufacturing processes to India. This creates an outcry among some who do not understand or refuse to see the internationalization of commerce. It is the same dynamic that motivates Toyota to build auto and truck factories in Ohio and Texas.

We can learn to live with this new world or pretend it doesn’t exist till the day it overwhelms us. Small countries like Singapore, Finland and Thailand have had to deal with the reality of living in a world of giants for decades. We will soon have that reality thrust upon us. We have been the giant for a century but it may not be much longer and we will have to live with other giants that are even larger than ourselves.

There is a paradox on management that if you “manage people,” that is manipulate them into doing what you want, you, the manager lose respect for them. They in turn sense this loss or lack of respect and become less manageable.

One observation he makes is profound and well worth understanding. Listening to people changes them far more than talking to them. When people feel heard, they can move to new conclusions. When they are talked at, they simply withdraw to their defensive positions.

These observations are as true for managers as for parents. Parents might want to understand that all the parenting books on earth are of little value if a child feels manipulated and poorly understood. Getting away from techniques is generally difficult for Americans. We seem to be quite attached to the idea that technology can save us and that techniques can make us good managers, parents, therapists, leaders, etc.

If you are insecure about a relationship, treat this as a gift. The gift is telling you to bring this insecurity to the surface, talk openly about it with your partner and let the cards fall where they may. Relationship insecurity is an opportunity to practice and learn new communication skills. If you let the fear of losing the relationship paralyze you from effectively communicating, you have already lost the relationship and more.

Insecurity is inside you, not in your spouse, your boss or children, etc. It is an indicator of unfinished business. If you deal with an insecurity, you learn tremendous things about yourself. You also set yourself up for dealing with other insecurities as they present themselves in your life.

If you are intimidated and insecure with your boss, that says something inside you is responding to him/her in a way that does not help you deal effectively and assertively with the boss. Look inside yourself and learn the skills needed to behave assertively and confidently with him/her. If you are afraid of getting fired, there is a fear to deal with. If you are afraid they won’t like you, there is another one. The list goes on and on. These are just mental viruses that replicate as fast as you let them.