World's Best Boss...questionable, at best.
Fly on the Wall
When you watch shows like the Office, it’s easy to figure out what went wrong: management. I think we can all agree that Michael Scott is the world’s worst manager, regardless of show ratings. If you had to describe his managerial style, it could be summed up in one word: distracting.
However, when you step back and try to figure out how to maximize productivity amongst your workers, it might be tempting to place the blame elsewhere….anywhere but management (because management is first person). Take a look at a recent description of the modern work place by Jason Friedman of 37 Signals:
What happens is, is that you show up at work and you sit down and you don’t just immediately begin working, like you have to roll into work. You have to sort of get into a zone, just like you don’t just go to sleep, like you lay down and you go to sleep. You go to work too. But then you know, 45 minutes in, there’s a meeting. And so, now you don’t have a work day anymore, you have like this work moment that was only 45 minutes. And it’s not really 45 minutes, it’s more like 20 minutes, because it takes some time to get into it and then you’ve got to get out of it and you’ve got to go to a meeting.
And there you have it- more distraction. Maybe it’s not you. Whew. Wait- there’s more:
And managers are the biggest problem because their whole world is built around interruption. That’s what they do. Management means interrupting. Hey, what’s going on? How’s this going? Let me call a meeting because that’s what I do all day, I call meetings. And so, managers are the real problems here and that’s got to change too.
Yikes. That’s a real bummer. Without meaning to be, you have become Michael Scott.
How can you un-MichaelScott?
Take a day or two or three, even a week, and survey the situation. Is what Friedman said true? Do your workers feel distracted all day? Do your meetings feel pointless? Even if you disagree, public perception is king. If your workers feel interrupted and that their time has been wasted, they will be frustrated about it and, obviously, less productive.
Remedy the situation.
- Rework your office space so that people aren’t crammed next to each other.
- Institute a “quiet time” like IBM and Intel did. It’s just time to work on projects and be free from distraction.
- Minimize conversational and other noise-related distractions with sound masking, which provides a quieter, less stressful, more peaceful work environment.
- Streamline the tech devices you use- consider instituting a Campfire system, or something akin to what Friedman suggested, that enables workers to ignore nonessential interruptions and keep working until there’s a natural break.
Whatever you do, don’t let yourself off too easily- you are the manager and ultimately the one responsible for the bottom line. Be creative and help you workers to work.