I believe this is how we ought to manage... by controlling processes and growing people. In practice, managers too often get this rather backwards... they strive to control people and ignore processes.
Where does this strong, and apparently universal, desire by managers to seek to control people come from? I am not sure. But I believe it is largely a habit of mind. it is certainly not a fact. As the academics would say, it is a "socially constructed" view of reality, not reality itself. I have labored, myself, under a false construction of the primary role of management for quite a while.
Today I see things differently. Here's how I've gradually come to a change of mind:
In my workshops with managers, I often begin by asking, "What is the biggest management challenge you face in your work today?" The most frequent answer I hear is usually expressed in the form of another question. That question is: "How do we hold people accountable for results?" I've come to call this the universal managers' lament.
In fact, I used to like hearing that lament because I had many good ideas about how to instill accountability in people. You see, the lens through which I was comprehending that question disguised from me the deeper meaning of it. Upon hearing, "How do we hold people accountable for results?" I used to think that the operative word in that question was "accountable". Now I see it otherwise.
Today, I believe that the most revealing words in that question are "hold people". How can we expect people to accept responsibility when our view is that we have to "hold" them to do it? It reveals an unspoken, and most likely unexamined, habit of mind that says, in effect, that a manager's job is to control people.
Today, I advocate that a manager's role is entirely different. If anything needs to be controlled, it is work processes, but not people. In order to accept accountability, people need the freedom to grow. This requires freedom from excessive controls. It requires what systems theorists call the concept of minimum specifications. In order to assume accountability, people need some wiggle room to bring their own uniqueness to the task at hand, to try new things, to make mistakes, to experiment, to put their best foot forward. Too many controls drain the life force out of people's work, eroding their willingness to assume accountability.
Next time you ask yourself, "How can I hold my people accountable for results?" question your own question and the thinking that lies behind it. You may be amazed at the difference re-framing the question can make. As Virginia Satir once wrote, "The hardest thing is to see that we do not see."
Cliff
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