Most people are workers, not managers of others. That’s why an old process improvement fable of the ant, the lion and others has been making the rounds for years.
A particularly visual example of the story is now a cartoon slideshow. You can view it on Scribd, or see the embedded version below:
The story is all too common. The people who are actually doing the work find all of the other elements of management, leadership, and analysis to be time consuming and wasteful. In fact, it sometimes seems like a manager is just someone who distracts you from what you should be doing and blames you for their own errors.
© Flickr user .sanden.
In a healthy organization, however, the relationship between management and employees is quite different. Some of the major distinctions are:
- Everyone works, not just “workers.” Managers have a responsibility to produce something—even if it’s just clear decisions.
- Managers focus on coaching and freedom, not mandating and controlling. The best employees are those that are responsible enough to be left alone, and good managers are trying to create environments no one feels the need for constant monitoring.
- Business consultants ask questions first. In fact, everyone feels like they can ask questions.
- Measurement is focused on what actually matters. Rather the obsessing over the amount of time worked or the time spent on breaks, everyone is interested in measuring results and understanding how cooperation impacts productivity.
It’s easy to interpret the ant fable as an outright attack on management. But it’s really a complaint about what often passes for business process improvement: blindly copying examples from other organizations and hoping they work.
Consider the Lion’s initial “revelation.” He decides that people produce more when they are supervised. But of course there is not really a relationship between output and constantly watching workers. Rather, there are just some people who are responsible and work well independently, and people who are not responsible and therefore need to be monitored. Why not just hire the right people in the first place?
What other parts of the fable remind you of your own professional experience? Share in the comments.
@robbyslaughter
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