subject: Know What Is Happening, Know What To Do - Part Ii [print this page] Over many years of consulting and research in the workplace, I have found that one of a managers greatest needs is to know what is actually happening, whereas the greatest need for people doing work is to know what to do.
Managers need to know what is happening so they can:
stay in control
report to senior management or the board
assess work progress
know who is doing what, when and with whom
know when something has been done
know when something changes
keep workers and other managers informed
identify the best person to give new work to
get timely accurate information for reports
decide how to increase productivity without getting workers offside
solve problems when they are small
People need to know what to do so they can:
know what they are expected to do
know who is responsible and accountable
know who they need to work with and when
know the processes and procedures managers want them to use
easily report progress in a way that managers can understand
make the best use of their time and effort
accommodate changes
know what feedback is relevant to them
appreciate how their work contributes to organization and team goals
explain to managers when they are overloaded
Few people like:
uncertainty (especially unclear context, goals, roles and processes)
not feeling trusted
wasting time and effort
stress
spending a long time planning work
being interrupted when trying to get work done
answering questions that dont help get the job done
creating and updating lists so nothing is forgotten
telling others what they are doing (especially more than once)
conversations, meetings, communications that take time away from work
being given more work than they can possibly do
using processes and tools that provide no benefits to them
re-entering and/or updating data
doing work that is not important to their organization
Meeting the detailed needs listed above, so that managers know what is happening and people know what to do sounds overwhelming. However I have found that it is not as daunting as it may seem.
The usual way to solve management problems is to disaggregate them to manageable parts, then by solving each part, you edge closer and closer to a comprehensive solution. However the parts are so interrelated and dynamic that only solving parts of the puzzle in isolation makes it extremely difficult for managers know what is happening and people to know what to do.
I have taken a holistic approach, to develop and validate a distributed management method with tools to address all the challenges listed above at the same time. Web and mobile browser technology has been used to provide easy and fast access, and computer processing capabilities can now handle the dynamic complexity of thousands of people doing thousands of tasks globally.
Our distributed management methods and web and mobile software tools makes it possible for managers to know what is happening in close to real-time and people to know what to do. Visit http://www.me2team.com and http://www.taskey.com for more information.
