Let workers manage themselves

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The Future of Work [link broken] refers to a CBS TV report on how people work in this 24/7 world, with computers, cell phones, and all those other gadgets. Jim Ware states that:

A world of “any time/any place” work may be wonderful for those of us doing the work, but it’s sure as heck going to complicate the world of management (final point: in spite of those complications, I think it’s well worth it).

I would go a step further and say that in a ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate world, we need less management, not more. If organisations become more transparent in their requirements, such as clear deliverables or outputs, then less management is required.

My advice – give workers a job worth doing, the tools to do it, recognition of a job well done and then let them manage themselves.

On Naked Conversations

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Jay Cross recently sent everyone in his Informl Unworkshop (thanks, Jay) a copy of Naked Conversations – how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. I didn’t find a lot that was new, but this is the kind of book to pass on to others who want to know more about this “blogging thing”. The authors are evangelists but they give a fairly balanced point of view.

I found that the section on culture, comparing blogging in France, Germany and China had some interesting insights. My favourite parts were the anecdotes about specific people blogging, especially in non-Internet fields, like the tailor at English Cut. I’ve been keeping my own list of small business bloggers, but I haven’t come across many new ones lately.

The book is a fast read, which appears to be how it was written and published, and will be a review for any dedicated blogger. You may want to purchase it as a record of where we were in 2005.

The main message I found in this book was that, if hyperlinks subvert hierarchy then blogs subvert corporate business as usual.

RESPECT

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When the sales rep is giving you the specs on the steel pipes or the consulting services, challenge him. Ask hard questions. Figure out what he knows. If it’s worth you having him come over, it’s worth discovering what he knows.

When the sales call is over, tell the truth. Don’t say, “we’ll get back to you,” unless you intend to. If you’re going to meet with your boss on Friday, tell him. If it’s not your decision, tell him.

So says Seth Godin on Going to Meetings. Just like Aretha sang, it’s about RESPECT.

Blogging is about being open, exposed, or naked, and so is any long term business relationship. To keep things open, I’ve used a form, built on the Performance Technologist’s code of ethics and guidelines in Strategic Planning for Success, to try to start business relationships on a common understanding of responsibilities. Sometimes it opens up conversations, other times I get blank stares and am told to stick to the company’s contracting guidelines.

Here they are, and feel free to modify them to your own circumstances.

My Responsibilities, as the consultant

  1. Base recommendations and actions on an objective needs assessment conducted in partnership with the client.
  2. Define, justify empirically, and achieve useful results that can be aligned with both the client organization’s mission,
    objectives, and positive contributions to society.
  3. Focus on results and consequences of the results. Measure performance based on results, not on procedures performed for the client.
  4. Set clear expectations about the systematic process to be followed and about the expected outcomes.
  5. Add value by serving the client organization with integrity, competence, and objectivity.
  6. Respect and contribute to the legitimate and ethical objectives of the client organization.
  7. Help the client organization move to where it needs to be in the future.
  8. Prevent problems from occurring rather than solve problems that could have been predicted and avoided.

The Client’s Responsibilities

  1. Provide adequate expert knowledge on the client organization.
  2. Arrange for direct access to the information, people and resources necessary for the project.
  3. Make no changes to the procedures recommended without taking over responsibility for the results.
  4. Have the final decision on implementation.
  5. Make explicit the turnaround time for approval and/or negotiation of any changes to the project plan.
  6. Not insist on any solution, process, intervention or method when there are no performance data to indicate that these will not measurably add value to what the client organization uses, does, produces and delivers to external clients and stakeholders.
  7. Publish or print all reports regarding the consultant’s work in full, and not omit any parts without the consultant’s consent.
  8. Be willing to terminate the contract with the consultant if there are any deviations from this conduct agreement that the consultant cannot, or will not, remedy.

Sustainable Local Economies

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I believe in local economic sustainability even in a flattened world where your competition may be in Asia. I think that you can have both – locally sustainable economies that are also connected to global networks of partners and customers. That’s why I’m involved with the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, which is developing a regional wildlife emergency response network to ensure good science-based common standards and practices. I’m also a member and supporter of our local Green energy investment cooperative, Renew Co-op.

At the same time, my clients are all across Canada and my long-term strategy is to grow my network outside the country. Most of my work is via the Internet so that my travel/energy footprint is relatively small. All of my revenue comes from outside of the region, so I would say that I add to the local economy, where I purchase most of my goods.

From the Dominion, I just found out that we have a local flour mill in western New Brunswick, one more piece of the economic sustainability puzzle:

The organic grains and cereals produced by Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville New Brunswick are not available outside the Maritimes. Although having more people in British Columbia or Ontario eating food produced in Atlantic Canada might increase Speerville’s profit margin, Grant does not see it a choice the Mill can justify.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from field to table. Almost one third of transport trucks on Canada’s highways are carrying food. Less than one per cent of the Atlantic region’s available cereals and flour are actually produced in the region.

Having a diverse local economy to meet our basic needs, while exporting value-added goods and services seems to be a rational, long-term economic strategy. Any economists have anything to add?

The Restrictions of Print

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I’m currently developing an article for inclusion in a newsletter. As I go through the editing and re-write process, I have realised how limiting the print medium is, especially when transferring what was originally a series of blog posts to create the basis of the article. Added hyperlinks are now more natural to me than using the APA format, which I have used for many years, but I now view as a relic of a bygone era. What originally changed and flowed is now just a piece of static content. As a blog post, this article built on previous posts and was open to comments and additions. With this print article, it seems as if my learning process has been frozen in time.

“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror”

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A post in the Silicon Republic shows that Irish tiger has similar economic issues as many other Western nations, and that it cannot rest on its recent successes in information technology. The author states that the success of the IT sector stems from investments in education that were made in the 1960’s. Similar investments must be made now if the Irish economy is to remain competitive. He cites Seaghan Moriarty, “a former primary teacher who also works in the third-level sector and who has worked as webmaster for the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the Irish Primary Principals Network”:

“Not only should Irish pupils be learning technology but they also should be learning through technology. The Government is doing a huge disservice to the economy by having an ad hoc vision. The technology is here and the Irish are just not prepared,” Moriarty warned.

As I noted in my last post, it is obvious that agricultural work has tanked at below 2%, manufacturing work is decreasing and knowledge work is increasing. That means that knowledge workers will soon be the largest, and best paid, segment of our workforce. Local economic sustainability will be dependent on the presence of knowledge workers and almost all of these knowledge workers will use the Internet as an essential part of their business.

However, this Province and other regions are still graduating students without the necessary skills for the Internet Age. Schools still have outmoded computer labs, when no one in any workplace today goes to a lab to use a computer. Connected computers are essential for work today and should be an integrated part of all schools. If not, schools will continue their slide to irrelevance in the minds of most students and many parents.

Current initiatives, such as the New Brunswick government’s Quality Learning Agenda fail to address the critical issues of preparing our students for life and work in the Internet economy. Of the stated challenges to our education system, the report does not include the need for specific Internet Age skills, such as the ability to work in a virtual collaborative environment. Neither does the Department of Education intend to put a computer in the hands of every student. How then will our graduates be able to prosper in a flattened world without even the most basic of skills?

I’ll close with some words from Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian who saw where our education system was going as print was being replaced by electronic media:

The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.

McLuhan also accurately described how, “We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.“

Update: Just over the border in the State of Maine, they have announced the purchase of about 36,000 Apple iBooks for Grade 7 & 8 students, at a cost of $(US)289 each. One reason for the low cost is the use of open source software, such as the Mac version of OpenOffice, NeoOffice, as well as the Gimp image manipulation program. Looks like a sweet deal.

Viable Open Source Business Model

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In 2004 I noted that Spikesource looked like a viable business model for open source development. The company now has a certified solutions program for 13 different open source applications.

“We have a few dozen paying customers today, which is in line with our business plan,” Halsey [VP] said. “It’s all about getting mass penetration and converting a percentage of those into paying customers.”

Of the applications listed, there is no learning application, but the time may be coming soon that this business model would work for a mix of Moodle, ATutor, Elgg, Drupal, etc.

Knowledge Work and Schools

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I’m finally reading the book Nine Shift after subscribing to the blog for the past year. It’s one of my preferred reads and the book puts much more of the blog in perspective.

One reason it has taken so long for me to read the book is that my local bookstore gave me a price of $(CA)90.00, which I confirmed two weeks ago at Amazon.ca as $(CA)89.00. I finally checked Amazon.com and the list price was $(US)18.97, so I purchased the book from the USA. When I received it, the jacket price was “USA $29.00 – Canada $34.00 (go figure).

I won’t do a complete review now, but I highly recommend this book, which describes how 75% of our working days (nine hours out of twelve) will radically change by the year 2020. The signs are all here.

Shift One is that “People Work at Home”. As we shift from the Industrial Age to the Internet Age over the next decade, there will be more knowledge than manufacturing workers. I really like the definition of a knowledge worker, as it does not equate to someone working in an office.

Knowledge workers:

1. Are paid by their outcomes, what they produce, not by the time they devote.

2. Are only paid for products or projects that are valuable to the organization for which they work.

3. Bring something unique to the organization for which they work. Their value is not in being like other workers, but in being different.

4. Have a marketable set of skills.

If this shift to knowledge work is a certainty, and I believe it is, then our education system is woefully inadequate for what will be the majority of the workforce. Our schools are still designed for declining and soon-to-be-obsolesced factory workers. Teachers and students are not rewarded according to measurable outcomes; if they were, many teachers would not get paid, some students would graduate in less than 12 years and others would never complete their schooling. Students are not valued for being different but for conforming to the standard curriculum. Many, if not most, teachers are fearful of Internet technologies even though most high-paid work already requires Internet savvy. This is most evident with boys:

The Internet terrifies most teachers, and some boys know more about the Internet than do many educators. Boys also exhibit those accompanying attributes which go with a future dominated by the Internet, like taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being collaborative. Thus they are leading society into the Internet age.

The one-size-fits-all school is a twelve-year sentence with no eligibility for parole, but the good news is that as the workforce changes there will be demands for more relevance in the education system and it will change. Unfortunately for those with children in our current outdated education system (as the one room schoolhouse was outdated 100 years ago), we have to work with what we have. So how do we keep our children motivated and help them develop skills for the Internet Age, when we all know that the education system is obsolete?

Another factor in selecting a university

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Last night a number of fourth year veterinary medicine students from AVC visited us at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute. They were a very keen and motivated group, ready to embark on their new careers. This morning, faculty at the University of Prince Edward Island (where AVC is located) went on strike. Many of these students are only weeks away from graduation and some of them feared, with reason, that their final courses may not be credited and that they may not be able to graduate.

A couple of things have struck me since. First, I’m wondering how long the university monopoly can insist on payment of tuition up front, without a requirement for delivery of the service. If students were able to withhold some of their tuition fees until the course is actually completed, then they too would have some leverage in these events. As it stands, they are helpless bystanders. Secondly, I’m thinking about the time when we decide which university may be best for our children. One factor that I had not considered was the state of the collective agreement at any given institution. Knowing that a contract may be renegotiated during one’s period of study may have you reconsider a certain university. I know that I will use this as factor in evaluating universities, especially since our local university has had a few strikes in recent memory.

Does anyone know of a database that shows when university/college collective agreements are up for negotiation? Would it be a relatively simple bit of programming to create a wiki/matrix/DB to which this kind of information could be added? Perhaps this could be an additional service of Rate My Professor.

Estimating the Performance Situation

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Last week I mentioned a few communication tools that I learned how to use in the Army. One of these is the Estimate, which is a problem-solving tool. As young officers, we were constantly told to “estimate the situation and never situate the estimate”. In many cases, when training is prescribed for a work performance issue, it is a case of situating the estimate. I can think of two recent examples in my own business experience.

In one case, e-learning was prescribed to address the performance needs of nurses changing to a new nursing care methodology. In that instance, I was able to convince the client that a quick performance analysis could be used to confirm the assumption that e-learning was the solution. As a result of the analysis, we changed the intervention to the development of an online diagramming tool, because we determined that nursing staff already had 80% of the necessary skills and knowledge, but they didn’t know how to use the new diagramming and reporting procedures. The initial e-learning program was greatly reduced.

In another case, training was prescribed in order to get staff up to date with a new organisation-wide policy. Each person received an average of 17 days classroom training. As an observer for part of the training, I would estimate that all of the training could have been done in less than a week, had the new procedures and some job aids been first developed. The total cost of training approached millions of dollars, plus the cost of missed work.

Recently, David Maister stated that training is often prescribed in the “hope” that performance can be improved, when a few pointed questions might better get to the root of the issue:

The correct process would be to sit top management down, ask: What are people not doing that we want them to be doing? – and then figuring out a complete sequence of actions to address the questions  – how do we actually get people to change their behavior? What measurements need to change? – what behaviors by top management need to change to convince people that the new behaviors are really required, not just encouraged? – what has to happen before the training sessions to bring about the change? What has to be in place the very day they finish?

A more detailed process is shown below. It shows that training only works in certain circumstances and that there are a number of other factors to look at first; such as barriers to performance and mismatched rewards & consequences.

A macro view of this process is that triage (sorting out priorities) should initiate the process, followed by a diagnosis (analysis), which can be as short as Maister’s questions, before prescribing some kind of treatment which may or may not include training. Using this method, I continue what my instructors told me many years ago – don’t situate the estimate.

performanceanalysis.jpg

Finally, here’s a job aid that I use in determining what the causes to performance problems may be:

  • Causes, Enablers and Obstacles:
    • Question the assumptions and potential solutions.
    • What is causing the problem?
    • What will prevent a solution?
    • What will make a solution easier?
  • Focus on Key Sources:
    • Find and focus on the people who are close to the problem and have perspective on the issues. Don’t try and reach everyone, especially in an initial performance analysis.
    • Focus on facts and results
  • Look for data, through observations, records, experiences:
    • What evidence is there?
    • Is it consistent?
    • What does it tell us?
    • Is there more?