Culture
· Practice
mutual trust and respect throughout the organization
· Run
an organization which does some things that might fail, but reward
people who recognize and react in time
· Build/maintain
a decision-making (as opposed to decision-avoiding) culture and hold
all levels to the standard
· Solicit
and act on suggestions for improvement
· Invite
to participate in a “higher-up” strategy/planning session (we want
your input/perspective)
· Ask
them to propose solutions or fix a problem they raised
Rewards & Recognition
· Celebrate
team accomplishments
· Meaningful
rewards; Provide recognition that matters to the one being recognized
·
Regular feedback on performance
·
Reward with Time Off
·
Allow flexible work schedule and/or location
Infrastructure
·
Provide adequate space for work
·
Provide adequate Quiet space
·
Provide great tools (that work)
·
Co-locate teams when possible or provide tools to enable a real sense
of team
Learning
·
Life-long training (both job related and career development)
·
Provide continuous learning opportunities
·
Career growth opportunities
·
Have opportunities for cross domain socialization (like weekly
pastries and coffee or wine and beer)
·
Mentoring opportunities
Alignment &
Communication
·
Communicate x 3 – why things are the way they are, and why/how
decisions are made
·
Communicate clear goals that have a well articulated rationale
·
Clearly communicate changes, with rationale and in advance when
possible
·
Written goals and objectives
·
Explain how the Team’s work fits into the Big Picture.
·
Be
sure people understand the goals and how they can support them
Focus
·
Minimize/eliminate bureaucracy
·
Set up R&D organizations away from the flagpole
·
Shield individual contributors from budget process
·
Provide support functions rather than loading them onto professionals
as an extra layer
·
Do
some garbage/paper-pushing work instead of pushing it down
Observations
·
~18-200 people is a breakdown point for a company; transitions from
relationship-based to system-based
·
How to deal with very good people – high value but high irritant;
“managing the real leverage” by Bill Curtis; Manager has to figure out
how to keep that person and minimize effect on team
·
What is you think you are doing this but people are still “whining”.
·
How do you react to who is the bearer of the message
·
Are your people having to work too hard – no light at the end of the
tunnel; Identify it
·
You tell me after it’s done – Sarbanes Oxley may make this worse
·
Identify the whiners and ask them to propose a solution |