The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #193 Hit the Ground Running- Jason Jennings
Posted on 27. May, 2009 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel looks at something that makes managers cranky, taking over a new team. Jason Jennings is the author of Hit the Ground Running among other books and has some words of advice. Probably don’t want to follow the advice of the Ottoman Emperors though…. bad succession planning there.
Jason Jennings talks about hitting the ground running……
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. I start by groveling for forgiveness to Mike for jumping on him for his post when we WANT YOU TO POST. I was just grumpy. Not as grumpy as Ottoman Emperor Mehmed 1, though. Most brothers just give each other noogies.
3:28 The quote of the week is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who compares new beginnings to a chess match. I’m a lousy chess player but checkers lacks a certain je ne sai quoi.
4:09 Jason Jennings was referred to us by Vince Thompson (hear his interview here) plus he’s a pretty famous guy even before he talked to us. With all the reorgs and chaos in our workplace, odds are you’re about to take over a new team (you didn’t get the memo yet?).What do most successful CEOS do first?
7:20 Here’s a bold statement- “conventional wisdom sucks”. I love when guests trash people by name, don’t you? Still, it’s a great example of companies that get it and companies that don’t.
12:00 How do leaders create connection and help their new team get engaged? Do you know what the strategy is and do you buy in? You’d better find out early- like when you interview for the job.
15:00 How do you help fix broken trust in a team and get them to overcome cynicism? A great story about the power of asking if they believe….
18:40 All great leaders are willing to put a stake in the ground and hold people (including themselves) accountable. It doesn’t matter if your’e the CEO or leading an Agile scrum.
21:10 Accountability is not designed to be a punishment- although taking your punishment can be part of it. Sepuku is not condoned….but it is understood.
Jason’s Resources
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #192 Management Rewired with Charles Jacobs
Posted on 22. May, 2009 by Wayne in Podcast
Wayne Turmel talks to Charles Jacobs about why the way most of us manage goes against the way our brain really works. In Management Rewired we learn that feedback doesn’t work and we’re better off not getting raises. Oh and we look at a Roman emperor who understood empowerment even as he downsized the Senate.
Is everything you think you know about brain science telling you that you’re managing in the wrong way? Listen to Charlie here and make up your own mind.
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Show notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. Maybe it’s not “what are they thinking?” but “What are they thinking with?”. Do our brains resist most management techniques? Well find out with Charles Jacobs, author of “Management Rewired”. Oh and we salute the Roman Emperor Claudius for his great management techniques… his downsizing style, not so much.
2:45 The quote of the week is from Thomas Huxley- are you learning as a child? It’s probably how your brain wants to work…….
3:30 Welcome Charlie Jacobs who is here to talk about some surprising brain research and why management tries to go against the natural order of things. Problem number one- none of us see the world the same way. Anyone who’s ever had a bad 360 knows that….. and our idea of seeking pleasure and pain maybe isn’t what we think it is.
7:00 Why isn’t money more of a motivator for us? The problem is that none of us look at it the same way. Why are you rewarding your people is actually more important than how you reward them.
10:10 Maybe the most controversial point in his book- feedback as most managers give it doesn’t work, even the most constructive feedback can cause a backlash. If it conflicts with your self image, you’ll reject it.
14:42 A lot of this research has been known for years, why is it so controversial? It causes cognitive dissonance. If what we do as managers isn’t important, what do they need us for and we discount it.
16:32 Cool brain science… Mirror Neurons are extremely cool things, but they not only apply to how we do things, but why…. it’s easy to ascribe motivations to behavior that might not be there. This is what allows us to have empathy… or not.
20:00 The best example of team management in the animal kingdom- slime mold. That’s right, slime mold. it’s actually a cool analogy if you’re not eating while you listen.
25:00 If you don’t walk it like you talk it, people are realllllly good at noticing that. Of coure, the opposite is also true. It is possible to learn leadership, but it takes discipline.
Charlie’s Resources
Management Rewired
The First Tycoon
Don't let the weasels get you down!
Oprah understands web meetings better than the big consultancies…
Posted on 22. May, 2009 by Wayne in General
If you ever think big companies don’t seem to “get it” when it comes to helping their people communicate effectively I have seen an alternate future, and (as usual) it is Oprah.
Picture two visions of how we can communicate in the future- actually it’s possible this very second but let’s leave time for committee decision making.
The first is from one of the big, famous consultancies. They just invested millions of dollars in giant state-of-the-art video conferencing facilities in their main offices around the world. Very cool stuff, as you can see.
Killer high-definition, very classy and a marvel of IT engineering. I’m impressed, and as that great sage Jesse “The Body” Ventura always said, “I don’t impress easy, McMahon”.
There’s just one little snag. In order to access this electronic communication marvel you have to be in one of the offices that have the capability. I’ll let the idea of traveling somewhere to avoid travel expenses marinate.
On the other hand, over coffee this morning, Oprah was doing a whole show on Skype, and how it allows mere mortals to talk to each other anywhere in the world with perfectly functional video and sound for free. Let me repeat that: For. Free. Anywhere. Anytime.
For most of us, what we need is instant communication that allows us to connect to the people we’re talking to in all the ways that matter- verbal, vocal and visual communication. It doesn’t need to be state of the art, it doesn’t need to be impressive, it needs to be there.
There are all kinds of reasons to use the big facilities- scale, audience, branding, IT ego, and I’m not saying if you can afford it you shouldn’t use it. What I am saying is that while companies continue to look for hte biggest hammer they can find to fix a problem, there are plenty of other solutions out there that are cheap, easy and would allow managers to get on with the job.
It’s not just video conferencing, you can see the same things at work in knowledge capture (a giant inhouse networked system vs. Google docs) Social networking (Sharepoint vs. Ning) and pretty much everywhere you look individuals can find solutions to solve their communication challenges if the “experts” will just get the hell out of their way.
The major problem is that these low-tech, low-cost solutions are implemented at the individual level. Empowered managers and team leaders can use them immediately.. For reasons too numerous to mention, this gives IT people and the funders who love them fits.
Here’s the question at the heart of this debate: do you trust your people to do what they need to do to get the job done? Yes or no. It’s a closed ended question.
So while the CEO might beam with pride at their new system, Oprah is teaching housewives how to talk to anyone in the world from the comfort of their home for free. One of these is world changing.
How to find us via social media…….
Posted on 20. May, 2009 by Wayne in General
Some of you have asked how best to reach me…. email always works.
If you must use one of these social media thingies, you have several options. Please know i’m happy to connect, but think about how I can add value to your network. You’ll be able to follow show updates (news coming, i suspect) my Management Issues column and other work when it appears around the world.
LinkedIn is my preferred method http://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneturmel
You can also find me on twitter @greatwebmeeting
and on Facebook Wayne Turmel
Is it just me or did we used to just pick up the @#%#@%@^ phone?????