Re. Self-directed work teams

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Steve Jong wrote to question the value of managers
     who don't manage, and instead let their staff
     direct themselves. Admittedly, this is often a
     management copout, but there are also times when
     it's a reasonable solution. For example:

     Our research director (RD) is responsible for
     getting out the reports since publishing falls
     under the research section, but for various
     historical reasons, there was never really a
     "communications manager" per se. Writers and
     graphics folk just sort of interacted, with the
     RD's role limited to approving reports (i.e.,
     editing), performance appraisals and other
     staffing issues. He became too busy with his real
     work (directing our research program) to do the
     editing, so he needed to add an editor to the
     equation.

     About 4 years ago, he hired someone from outside
     the company to manage publishing. Until then,
     everyone had worked independently, with no direct
     supervision. Hiring an outsider and imposing
     supervision on a bunch of free spirits turned into
     the predictable disaster and the newcomer soon
     departed. I came onboard a year later, and there
     was little hope of getting a group manager, and
     particularly not me (though the editor would have
     been a logical choice): everyone had been burned
     once before and didn't want a new boss, they had
     at least 8 years of seniority, and, to be blunt, I
     lack the requisite people skills to be a manager.
     (That's not why they hired me.) It was clear that
     we needed some managing because the work load was
     unmanageable without better integration and the RD
     simply couldn't help. Also, the RD wanted to dump
     responsibility for staffing issues (e.g.,
     appraisals). Thus, we were asked to function as a
     self-directed team.

     This isn't a panacea. We work better together than
     we used to, but we still aren't a true "cross-
     trained, mutually dependent" team after one year.
     Too much jealousy over who owns which particular
     kingdom, among other things (old habits die long
     and hard). We're just coming up on our first
     performance appraisal (November), which will be
     handled within the team based on a formula that we
     developed with management approval. We'll soon see
     if this process actually works for us. If not,
     we'll have to revert to the traditional
     "supervisor/staff" approach. Watch this space!

     --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one
     of our reports, it don't represent FERIC's
     opinion.