Six Simple Rules

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“Magt er hverken en direkte funktion af position, individuelle færdigheder eller formel autoritet. Den udspringer derimod af én persons mulighed for at influere på emner der betyder noget for en anden.”

Yves Morieux & Peter Tollman, 2014

Kort om bogen

Til trods for hvad bogens titel giver sig ud for, så er det ikke en bog der er let at læse og forstå. Morieux og Tollman deler en meget dyb og meget bred forståelse af organisationer, set ud fra et ledelesesperspektiv. De anviser seks ”simple” regler for ledere, som angiveligt forhindrer at organisationer bliver komplicerede:

Rule 1: Understand what your people do (Forstå, hvad dine medarbejdere laver)

Rule 2: Reinforce integrators (Styrk integratorerne)

Rule 3: Increase the total quantity of power (Øg den samlede mængde magt)

Rule 4: Increase reciprocity (Øg gensidigheden)

Rule 5: Extend the shadow of the future (Forlæng fremtidens skygge)

Rule 6: Reward those who cooperate (Beløn dem, der samarbejder)

 

Mest relevante pointer i kontekst af transparent mødepraksis

På tværs af de seks regler deler forfatterne mange guldkorn. Herunder har jeg grupperet dem i temaer ift. relevansen for transparent mødepraksis, og tilføjet en kort kommentar. Længst nede har jeg en længere liste af citater, jeg vil kalde for guldkorn i denne kontekst.

 

Magt

Specielt deres definition på forskellen mellem magt og autoritet, har givet mig nogle vigtige indsigter ift. ledergruppens ansvar ift. organisering.

“Authority provides the legitimacy to exercise power, not power itself.”

Altså, tildeling af formel autoritet giver ikke nødvendigvis den magt, der kan være nødvendig for at kunne drive tværorganisatoriske initiativer i komplekse organisationer.

 

Organisering

De udfordrer (hyppige) omorganiseringer som et et utidssvarende greb der ikke løser samarbejdsproblemer. De kalder denne tilgang for ”the hard approach”. Kontrasten er naturligvis ”the soft approach”, der inkluderer indsatser direkte rettet mod f.eks. trivsel og motivation. De promoverer i stedet samarbejde som en vigtig målsætning for organisering, og taler for tillid til menneskelige evner til at træffe beslutninger under modstridende målsætninger, frem for 100% klarhed i roller.

“In an environment of complexity, whether a particular task is contained in this or that box in the org chart has become less important. Performance increasingly depends on the cooperation between the boxes.”

“When you define roles with too much clarity, it often has the opposite of the desired effect because it allows people to avoid recognizing their interdependencies. Instead, they just adhere to the specification and check the box next to that responsibility, rather than working with others to find ways to deliver the desired output.”

 

Ledere (managers)

Hele bogen handler sådan set om hvordan vi kan se organisering på en ny måde. Specielt aktuelt for ledere i komplekse organisationer.

“There is a lot of loose talk these days about self-organizing systems and the end of management. Let’s be clear: we believe in the essential role of management. But we contend that traditional methods, developed for a different, less complex era, are obsolete or fast becoming so.”

 

Præstationsmålinger

De gør en del ud af at forklare hvordan man ikke kan måle personers bidrag til rigtigt samarbejde. Derfor skal man være forsigtig med hvordan vi måler præstationer.

“What gets measured gets done, yes. But if we only use measurement to reward performance, what gets done is at the expense of what cannot be measured: cooperation.”

 

Kompleksitet

“The human factor isn’t the weak link – something to be minimized and worked around. Rather, it is the key resource for coping with complexity. Companies need to invest in – and trust – the intelligence and ingenuity of their people by expanding their autonomy and room for maneuver. Only then will employees be able to make judgements, balance complex trade-offs, find creative solutions to new problems, and do the right thing, making the best use of the available information and interpreting the rules to fulfill the spirit and not just the letter of the law.”

 

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Yderligere citater fra bogen

Herunder en samling guldkorn fra bogen, organiseret efter emner, og med sidehenvisning.

 

Power

• “Power isn’t a necessary evil or source of coercion. It is a critical resource for the individual in organizations and for mobilizing collective action.” s.22
• “Power is not a direct function of position, individual skills, or authority. Rather, it derives from the possibility for one person to make a difference on issues that matter to someone else.” s.86
• “Authority provides the legitimacy to exercise power, not power itself.” s.87
• “Another way of putting it is that power comes from having control over uncertainties that are relevant to others and to the organization.” s.88

 

Organizing

• “In an environment of complexity, whether a particular task is contained in this or that box in the org chart has become less important. Performance increasingly depends on the cooperation between the boxes.” s.11
• “Yes, the organization must be in the service of the strategy, but it is also true that the organization – because of its design and way of working – determines the very content of strategic choices, not only their execution. This is why the line that separates strategy from organization has become increasingly blurry, especially as competitive advantage derives more and more from agility, flexibility, and adaptiveness” s.139
• “Accuracy of understanding creates conditions such that fewer and more effective structures, processes, and systems can be established in the organization design.” s.51
• “Resist the pressure to clarify roles, decision rights, and processes. Try to keep appropriate fuzziness and overlaps between roles.” s.114
• “When you define roles with too much clarity, it often has the opposite of the desired effect because it allows people to avoid recognizing their interdependencies. Instead, they just adhere to the specification and check the box next to that responsibility, rather than working with others to find ways to deliver the desired output.” s.112
• “The effect of escalation can be pernicious. As decisions are escalated to higher and higher levels, the decision makers are farther from the concrete reality of the work situation and more deprived of rich and fresh information. So whenever arbitration takes place at a level above that of the real action, the decisions are bound to be of lower quality than that which could have been achieved through the direct cooperation of the people directly involved.” s.178
• “Starting in the 1980s, many companies introduced a new role – the project manager – to improve their product development and customer-service capabilities. This evolution made the matrix structure much more common. The goal of the project manager role was to get teams composed of members from many different line departments to cooperate on the development of new products…” s.102

 

Managers

• “There is a lot of loose talk these days about self-organizing systems and the end of management. Let’s be clear: we believe in the essential role of management. But we contend that traditional methods, developed for a different, less complex era, are obsolete or fast becoming so.” s.23
• “I don’t think many people fully understand the value of observing. I came to see observation as a critical part of my management skills. Sir Alex Ferguson” s.82
• “What value is the managerial position supposed to add? What is the manager supposed to make teams do that the teams would not do spontaneously on their own?” s.74
• “Blame is not for failure, it is for failing to help or ask for help.” Jørgen Vig Knudstorp s. 168
• “An organization is much more resilient when people know that it is in their individual interest to help others and to be transparent than when people are judged and rewarded on their ability to avoid mistakes in their own area.” s.168

 

Performance

• “Rich objectives help organizations increase reciprocity. They are comprised of three elements: collective output objectives, individual input objectives, and overlap objectives. Together, these elements make interdependencies more visible to people, so they recognize the need for reciprocity.” s.111
• “Performance is the result of what people do – their actions, interactions, and decisions.” s.52
• “We often hear managers say things like, “How can I be held responsible for results that depend on the performance of others?” The third misconception is that we can be accountable for our work only if we are the sole authority over it and control all the resources necessary to accomplish the task. But it is possible for a person to be accountable without having exclusive control over the resources needed to deliver, as long as others who partly control those resources cooperate.” s.113
• “What gets measured gets done, yes. But if we only use measurement to reward performance, what gets done is at the expense of what cannot be measured: cooperation.” s.122

 

Complexity & human factor

• “The human factor isn’t the weak link – something to be minimized and worked around. Rather, it is the key resource for coping with complexity. Companies need to invest in – and trust – the intelligence and ingenuity of their people by expanding their autonomy and room for maneuver. Only then will employees be able to make judgements, balance complex trade-offs, find creative solutions to new problems, and do the right thing, making the best use of the available information and interpreting the rules to fulfill the spirit and not just the letter of the law.” s.13
• “Remember that organizations have so many problems, not because people are stupid, but because they adjust very effectively and intelligently to the counterproductive context that management unwittingly creates.” s.176
• “The real curse is not complexity so much as “complicatedness”, by which we mean the proliferation of cumbersome organizational mechanisms – structures, procedures, rules, and roles – that companies put in place in an effort to deal with the mounting complexity of modern business.” s. 5

Forlag og link

Harvard Business Review Press, 2014

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