Q: What are some ways for people to tell if they have some invisible hierarchy? In terms of language, too. What are some of the cues, like if you were to go back and read somebody’s email, what are the phrases you look for? A: It’s in the ways that we enforce hierarchy. There...
The Complete Play allows Celebration One of the six plays in the Industrial Age management playbook was CONTINUE — continue the redwork of production as long as possible, minimizing interruptions. Now, we want to chunk the work into smaller intervals that allow us to reflect, improve, and celebrate what we’ve done. The new play is...
Q: What are your thoughts on how to inspire people that have done things a particular way for 30+ years to WANT to change? A: First, I would embrace the IBL principle “act your way to new thinking, not think your way to new action.” The idea is simply take some small action and...
Congratulations, the work you’ve been doing is done. Your quarterly report is submitted. Your product is in customers hands. You’ve finished a year of teaching eighth graders. Your patient has left your care recovered. Your book is published. Whatever it is you do, at some point you complete your work and get ready for the...
Q: What is the most important question leaders should be asking employees? A: I think there are several important questions. “How can I help you?” “What are you trying to achieve?” “How can I help you achieve that?” “Is this company acting in a way that’s consistent with your principles?” “How much integrity do...
The Industrial Age Obey the Clock play pushes to get the team moving forward. Since we’ve separated the deciders (blueworkers) from the doers (redworkers), the deciders need to convince, cajole, bribe, shame, or threaten the doers to DO the work they had little or no part in choosing and sounds like “I’ll tell you what...
A: How has being exposed to the agile community influenced your new book, Leadership Is Language? For example, the SCRUM and SAFe cycles? Q: If we don’t relieve the pressure of the clock, its hard to shift to thinking mode, then collaborate with each other (not coerce) so we get commitments. So, from...
The Industrial Age playbook was designed to keep the team in redwork for as long as possible. An uninterrupted assembly line turning our product day after day after day. We still default to those plays that keep the team in motion, moving forward, making “progress.” Any stoppage of the assembly line, any pause in redwork,...
Q: What is a major barrier that keeps people from speaking up? A: We call it the power gradient, it’s how much more important your boss is than you. It affects you like this – you don’t speak up against the boss. Information flows inversely proportional to the power gradient, so the steeper...
The power gradient is the amount of social distance there is between one person and another. The power gradient is the feeling of “how much more important are people in the next tier in the hierarchy than we are” and “how much more important are we then people below us.” In Industrial Age organizations (where...
