Organizations aren't hives

Your environment isn't filled with exact clones of each other, and even hierarchies aren't perfect.

Contents

• Leadership Moments: Surviving layoffs

• One Minute Pro Tip: Dietary Restrictions

• Chapter Teaser: Invisible Gorillas

• Appearances

• (paid) 1% Coach: Diversity

Leadership Moments: Surviving layoffs

Layoff season – or “targeted reductions in force” – is still well underway. Layoffs are hard for everyone involved. Obviously, they are hardest for the people who just lost their jobs, especially when they were high performers in what seemed like a thriving business. It’s also hard for their peers, who kept their jobs, who often feel a form of survivor’s guilt (“why do I still have my job, when they don’t? Am I next?”). It’s challenging for everyone involved in administering the layoff, from managers delivering messages, to HR professionals providing support, up all the way to the CEO.

We’ve seen some notable cases where CEOs tried to share the pain they felt, and those messages were remarkably ill-received, often publicly mocked. In several of those cases, the CEOs put their pain and discomfort at the center, rather than the pain that their employees are feeling, and some mockery should have been expected. Unfortunately, this increases a problem that many companies have: that executives are increasingly isolated from their teams, and that their humanity has to be hidden away in a box to satisfy the needs of their organizations. We’d rather be going in a different direction: to engage the humanity of our executives, in hopes that it will drive them to make more humane plans in the future.

My colleague, Linor Shust, has some deeper thoughts on the loneliness challenges facing executives in the startup industry. If you’re an executive, and you’d like to receive some empathy, start by giving some: first to the employees let go, then to their colleagues, and then to the management hierarchy underneath you. Eventually it will trickle its way back up to you.

One Minute Pro Tip: Dietary Restrictions

Are you feeding people? There is nothing more unsettling when someone walks into an event and tells you they can’t eat what you’ve provided. Well, there is something more unsettling: being the person who walks into the event and discovers they can’t eat.

It only takes a moment to ask. When you send out your invitation to an event, add a simple, “Do you have any dietary restrictions? Please let me know.” Take those restrictions, verbatim, to the food coordinator/chef, and then figure out how to meet those dietary needs in a graceful way. If you have a buffet, clearly label all food with common allergens/restrictions, so all attendees feel welcomed.

Chapter Teaser: Invisible gorillas

Chapter 45: If you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss the gorilla in the room.

Every leader at some point runs into the “you get more of what you measure” phenomenon: where an organization adapts to your measurements, because that’s what you prioritize. The reverse also holds true. Whatever you don’t measure, you likely are getting less of, even if you want more.

In complex systems, this can sometimes be a challenge: if you measure effort, and not successful output, you’ll get a lot of effort that appears to do things … but may not result in success. If you only measure an output, an organization may find simpler ways to “cheat” the measurement, not giving you everything you looked for. (Consider how many policies require someone to sign off on something. You get lots of signatures, but do you get the value the signature was really supposed to provide?)

Appearances

No public appearances planned for this week.

My talk with Oren Sade, “Telling Fairy Tales to Your Board” has been accepted to the RSA Conference. You can catch us at 10 am Pacific on April 24th.

Below the paywall: The 1% Coach’s guide to diversity challenges.

1% Coach: Diversity

Challenge:  An organization, of any size, looks like a monoculture.  Most (or all) of the team shares demographic characteristics.  The person in charge may or may not be aware of the challenge, and likely doesn’t see how their actions are in control of the situation.  They may dismiss the situation as a “pipeline problem,” or emphasize the value of diversity of thought or experience.

Approach: Diversity (or lack thereof) – the presence of people with differing characteristics – is an emergent property of an organization.  It can be tempting to take a shortcut and tell a person to put their finger on the scale.  “Hire fewer of X” or “hire more of Y” sounds simple, but it’ll likely aggravate other problems in the organization, without solving any of the issues that led to a lack of diversity.  Look for sensors – data that can indicate interesting problems – all across the organization.  What is the demographic of applicants? How are opportunities parceled out within the organization? Diversity challenges take years to address, because you aren’t (hopefully) turning over your staff on a regular basis.  Don’t just tackle hiring; look at performance development, training, retention, and high-visibility opportunities.

Primary Chapters:

• 24: People need to see versions of themselves to feel welcomed.

• 26: Performance development should be applied to every person on your team.

• 33: Delegated work won’t happen the way you would do it -- but it will get done.

• 44: Expect what you inspect.

• 45: If you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss the gorilla in the room.

Secondary Chapters:

• 20: Inclusion is reducing the energy cost someone has to pay just to exist in a space.

• 30: Find your blind spots by hearing unbelievable things.

• 32: When mistakes happen, don't wasting energy blaming people – invest energy in building better systems.

• 34: An apology budget allows your team to take risks.