I learned something today.
Yesterday I had a meeting with the director of my program in which we agreed to make some minor changes in my unit. Today I broke the news to my team and they weren't welcome very cheerfully, especially by veteran staff. Why? Obviously (now that I have time to think), people doesn't like being told what to do. They are not kids (kids don't like it either). Even if you say it in the nicest tone, in them it's going to resonate as if you were howling orders. People who occupy the lower levels of the organizational chart often know and are aware of things that the management levels can't see. There's a problem of distance. As you go up, your scope gets more macro and with this comes a loss; you start losing detail. The micro stuff starts to become more difficult to see and directly control. Sometimes, when we are pursuing a lofty goal we lose sight of the elements that give shape to that plan, thus crippling its efficiency and efficacy. Losing the feedback and cooperation of the people in the lower links in the chain of command is something that can't be afforded.
While attempting to communicate the new bearing I made two big mistakes. First, I gave a command. Secondly, I left no space for constructive feedback or dissent. I dis-empowered (if the word exists. If it doesn't; Mr. Webster, please add it to your book) the people I work with every day. So I've decided that from now on I'm following this 4 simple steps.
Next time I'll do things differently. In fact, a lot of times I do things differently but only now I'm fully conscious of the importance of being aware of this at every second. The first thing to do is State the problem/challenge. Then ask for opinions.Communicate what wants to be done and ask for ideas to achieve it. What do we get with this? Commitment, pro-activeness and motivation. Can you ask for anything else when you need something to be done? People need to own their jobs in every conceivable way. But more importantly, they need to feel they do. From the things that people higher up in the chain of command may consider trivial to what can radically change the way a job is done. Neither this is rocket science nor I was enlightened today, it's the good old empowerment. We often talk about it but we never get to really internalize it as second nature. After all, it's easier to give orders and direct people to do things. So why should we bother taking the long way? Because it's going to expose us to the unknown, the ideas of others, enriching our own and also giving value to your co-workers job.
After months of planning and testing we finally rolled out a behavioral support system in our unit. The system got a lot of traction from the start. It's still performing well in an environment so unpredictable that trying to crystallize things sometimes scratches the impossible. So why is it faring so well? The reason is simple; everyone was involved, it's everybody's baby so everyone will take care of it because it's their own.
Only today I realized how present this has to be in the mind of a manager while making decisions or trying to foster change. If this doesn't happen, it's going to be a one man job and the resources necessary to fulfill that duty will be either limited or plainly won't be so willing to cooperate, and with good reason.
Fernando Tarnogol is an Argentinean psychologist, currently working as Program Coordinator at the Devereux Foundation in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
He has studied Psychology at the University of Buenos Aires and Human Resources Management at UADE (Argentinean University of the Enterprise). His professional experience includes work in HR for HSBC Bank Argentina and in two mental health facilities performing psychological evaluations and other clinical work.
Visit his blog at http://fernandotarnogol.com/
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