Blog posts on respect for peoplePosts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs - Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts
Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage. Think of the chaos that would come if everyone did his best, not knowing what to do.
W. Edwards Deming
continue reading: Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts - “Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea
The idea of a merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for; motivate people to do their best, for their own good. The effect is exactly the opposite of what the words promise.
W. Edwards Deming continue reading: “Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea - Give People Enough Rope (and the Right Rope) to Succeed
 You want systems that let people take on challenges without too many restrictions but with enough support and training that you don't leave them hanging.
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the ropes should suit their situation. A tightrope over a chasm is fine for a trained acrobat with a balancing pole. It is foolish for someone without the right training or tools. They would be better served with something else - a rope bridge with railings. continue reading: Give People Enough Rope (and the Right Rope) to Succeed - CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts
Today, in the USA, CEOs are basically win the lottery when they start and then either win some more and stay or don’t win and are let go. The lottery performance appraisal aspect Deming talked about (rewarding whoever random variation or macro economic and micro economic trends smiled upon during the period). So if a market (housing, oil, steel, investment banking, microchip, hotel…) is booming why give all the CEO’s in that market huge payoffs? continue reading: CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts - Psychology – Managing Human Systems
People are not cogs in a machine. Everyone brings extraordinary talents and abilities to the organization. Dr. Deming sought to maximize the value people bring to the organization. This requires giving them pride in their work, freedom to use their brain, tools to be effective and systems that allow people to practice continual improvement.
Creating an environment where people flourish is key to Deming’s thinking. Deming understood what John McGregor put forth in the Human Side of Enterprise (1960) that people have an innate desire to take pride in what they do. Management’s job was to allow people to fulfill this need, not to attempt to manipulate behavior through external motivation. continue reading: Psychology – Managing Human Systems - Toyota Execution Not Close to Being Copied
- Cool Workspaces
 - Shared Principles for Managing People Engaged in Diverse Tasks
 ...I do agree that the system within which people are operating determines how they must be managed. There are definitely features of software development that are significantly different than manufacturing scalpels or basketballs or tables. As there is a difference between a surgical team in an operating room, road construction, mining, editing books, investment banking, manufacturing industrial robots, researching new drugs, manufacturing drugs, teaching in a university, maintaining plane engines, coaching an athletic team...
I see universal principles of management (respect for people, customer focus, continual improvement...) that cross all different human enterprises. How those principles should be manifest in a particular situations depend on the work being done, the management system that is in place, the individual people involved, the specific focus of the effort right now... The way those principles are manifest will look very different in all the varied types of organizations we create and the different work and processes used within those organizations.
... continue reading: Shared Principles for Managing People Engaged in Diverse Tasks - People are Our Most Important Asset
ideally the organization would be providing all employees excellent coaching opportunities, all employees would be paid more than fairly, all employees would have the opportunity to develop along their desired plan, all employees would have great leadership, all employees would not be subject to continually annoyance of management system failures, all employees could count on the support of the system when needed…
But in organizations that I have worked for we are have not reached that point. So while working to move the organization closer and closer to that goal, I believe making some extra effort to focus on those people that are helping move the organization in that direction. But it is risky if done without an understanding of systems, variation, psychology, etc. Providing extra coaching, advice and attempting to protect people from the management failures you can’t get fixed seem like pretty safe methods. continue reading: People are Our Most Important Asset - Tilting at Ludicrous CEO Pay
I continue to tilt at the robber barron CEO pay packages. Hopefully, at some point, the people approving these obscene pay packages can be shamed into stopping or replaced by people with some sense of decency. I was taught in the days of robber barrons the business world was seen as an amoral place (morality did not belong in this area of human endeavor) but that over time society decided that in fact morality did apply there. It is hard to reconcile that change with the behavior of CEOs and board approving ludicrous pay packages. continue reading: Tilting at Ludicrous CEO Pay - No Excessive Senior Executive Pay at Toyota
Toyota’s 32 top executives received just over $12 million in salary. Toyota made something like $13,000,000,000 in profits. With the top 32 executives getting about $20,000,000 that is .15% of earnings. Even if there are some other benefits not included in the total that .15% figure for the top 32 executives doesn’t really compare to ludicrous pay of many CEOs in the USA. Toyota has a different paradigm than the others (they believe in the organization as a system not hero worship practiced by USA companies to justify ludicras executive salaries). continue reading: No Excessive Senior Executive Pay at Toyota - Failure to Address Systemic SWAT Raid Failures
- Focus on Customers and Employees
- The Joy of Work
 We spend much of our life at work: we deserve to have pride in what we do and even enjoy it (shocking I know). Read the respect for people posts for some ideas on how to make your workplace better. continue reading: The Joy of Work - Respect for People – Understanding Psychology
I see building improvement capacity of the organization, which largely means building the capacity of the people, as an extremely important focus of improvement efforts. It is, at times, important to slow down the pace of change to ensure that people can adopt and incorporate the new concepts fully. If not, the improvements tend to only take effect on the surface.
Improvements in results are important but it is also critical to have management improvement concepts adopted as the natural way of doing business. continue reading: Respect for People – Understanding Psychology
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