Self-management and a new paradigm for performance improvement

by Cynthia Riha 

I have for many years insisted that the greatest application of the Six Boxes Approach is self-management, quite the opposite of what most of our corporate clients are looking for. Rather, they appreciate the idea but come to us for ways to better manage the performance of their employees. That’s how companies have traditionally functioned – performance is managed by something or someone other than the performer.

I think this is changing more rapidly than we know, especially with the amazing growth of social networking. The tools for social networking are still in flux, but the autonomous, self-directed mindset that emerges once you begin to participate in multiple networks will surely flow into how businesses are organized. Harold Jarche  talks about this in an interesting post on changing business structures. He refers to Dee Hock’s work on chaordic organizations, the first book that really opened up my thinking about how businesses might operate in radically different ways. Harold suggests that the classical hierarchical management pyramid is being flipped, with so-called managers being on the bottom in service to the workers, providing practices, processes and tools. He closes by asking if managers are really necessary in complex networks.

This closely relates to the discussions happening among our team. The worker of the (very near) future needs to perform in cross-functional teams, with multiple managers, on short term projects, with changing roles and expectations, for organizations that re-organize frequently to meet changing market conditions. In order to effectively collaborate across networks, levels, and organizational structures, no one person nor one entity can realistically “manage” someone else’s performance.

So I will climb back up on that soapbox and again plead the case for developing  performance thinking and performance improvement skills in each and every performer. The emerging networked business models require new paradigms in preparing and supporting the workers. Giving each individual a systematic but easy way to understand and optimize performance that is shared across individuals would mean that the structure would become responsive to the individual and to the collective input of individuals who share a common view of performance, rather than imposing the solution from a single point or level – a manager or management level– in the network. While there might continue to exist all the current specialties and functions (training, recruiting, compensation, OD, talent management, process improvement, etc.), they would be in service to the worker and collaborative teams, sharing an understanding of performance and what drives it. “Solutions” to specific performance challenges will not likely be static, but will continuously improve with input and learning among the collective or network of participating individuals. As such, the workers themselves will need to know how to do a succinct analysis of a performance problem in order to know what support and input to ask for.  

This will be the new manager -- the individual and the collective self-managing, forming a true learning organization that shifts and reorganizes according to the needs of the larger organization.  

Comments

[Harold Jarche]

I think we're seeing a bit of this evolution already. Many mid-level managers have been reduced with successive waves of becoming leaner or using information technologies more effectively. There aren't many people left who just manage. More often than not a manager is also a contributor. As we become more networked in all we do and reduce the friction of communication I think that management will be like typing; just something we all do as part of our job.

Like you, I believe the only way to implement this type of change is to focus on self-management, much like personalizing knowledge management (PKM) which I frequently discuss. Change starts from within.

Great blog and glad to have rediscovered Six Boxes.