rake life

Easy Living through Nepotism

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:49:18 -0500

As time goes on, the thought that organizational knowledge is overtly toxic was popular. Currently, though the mind set that it is a double edged sword fits the topic much more heartily.

At every organization there is dead weight. The woman with the office not quite on the corner that never really produces or is called onto projects. The guy who is in every project meeting but never has deliverables or tasks assigned. and on and on.

They know things. Things about the organization. The project manager that left in a huff, the VP that fell on his sword for the greater good. and on and on. These may not seem like they are of enough value to pull a pay check and benefits, but one has to peek through the cracks and use this knowledge to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Organizations have long institutional memories. All the stories of your predecessor, the previous management structure and the good ol’ days. They may be long gone as remnants only as headers in file folders and long dissipated after a reorg but for some reason their myth and legends are stronger than some of the business processes everyone is expected to abide by.

A lot of those good ol’ boy networks are established via vices. Primarily, smoking, drinking and golf. Golf is actually waning in the new generation replaced by online games. Halo is the new golf. If you don’t participate in any of these activities, procuring the institutional knowledge may have to come in other forms. See lunch.

There are few approaches. Ask the alpha and talk them up and hope they give you a hint of information and accept you. Ask the weakest link and hope he spills his heart out to you. Or ask someone in the middle since they may be overshadowed by the alpha and the weakest.

Once you have someone who will talk to you, you have to give to get. You shouldn’t sell any information that can get your boss in trouble, but a few jabs at a coworkers solitaire habit or a well placed joke about too long smoke breaks are usually good enough. If this is at all confusing go rent the Godfather trilogy and the Wire and watch the dynamics. It’s all business.

You have to understand who the VP of Marketing’s husband is. Think about why someone has an office who doesn’t appear to produce and why they have the same last name as the Head of Facilities. All this comes into play when making friends and enemies.

When you feel you have enough history, clout and knowledge in your repository to make a play, understand that this isn’t their first rodeo. They have that office for a reason. They leave at three and get in at nine for a reason. Your job is to talk to them and figure out why and how to proceed.

New Hire Checklists

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:11:59 -0500

When new staff comes on board, there are usually default things that need to happen: assign a phone number, computer, email address setup, etc. If these aren’t already formulated and communicated to the entire group, they should be. This allows for everyone to be on the same page as to what each member of the organization should be assigned and what is expected of them. Also during the discovery period, some people may find they are lacking in basic office necessities that new employees are receiving allowing them a formal way to catch up with everyone else without feeling like begging. This could be as simple as a stapler or as convoluted as a community profile on the company intranet. The plus side is if everyone reads over the list, and something is left off, it can be discussed and added before it becomes a problem for the new guy or girl.

One item that appears to be left off quite a lot are introductions. When people see a new face around the office, it shouldn’t be the first they are hearing about it. A pre-emptive communique should come out letting the entire staff know the new hire is coming on board even so far as listing the date they will start.

Then once they are on board, they should be escorted around the office to meet everyone face to face and get a lay of the land. This allows for the incumbents to feel more at ease forcing introductions and for the new hire to meet everyone. Also included in the introductions should be an informal paragraph about what each person does and possibly how they may interact with each other in business. Again, this allows for instant passing of institutional knowledge without the hearsay of the grapevine.

A more formal introduction can be made at the next all staff meeting(you are having those at least quarterly right?). Hopefully by that time it will seem like they have worked there and integrated quite well, but still make the general staff remember they are new and can use some guidance and get a large group welcome to feel at home.

Team Building through Consistency

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:56:56 -0400

Today, a large group of my department is out for training. We are divided into three groupings. One whole grouping was out for training.

I walked around the floor and spoke with the three people left on that team who were not in the training.

Employee #1 was left off, then asked by many of us why she wasn’t involved in her team’s training session. Her team lead even asked her and she had no cohesive answer. The team lead then went to their supervisor to ask. This normally wouldn’t be an issue, but the team lead found the supervisor in the cubicle directly behind Employee #1. Loudly asked the question and the supervisor answered, “because you said she wasn’t ready”.

Employee #2 is a team lead. He was supposed to be in training like everyone else, but deemed himself too important, too knowledgeable and too competent to participate. I directly asked him and he physically waved his hand in the air like it was below him.

Employee #3 was invited to training but passed on the training because he is too busy with current projects and stated that he can look at the documentation on his own.

These three issues can be addressed individually as they are all personnel issues, but the overarching problem I have is that only three people out of thirty or forty staff are not involved in a team training. With one being a lead can also impact morale.

There is also no work getting done this entire week, putting projects and deadlines back. Solutions to these issues would be to split training in half and make sure all are involved. It would help build better team morale and instill some unification of knowledge.