Donna FitzgeraldA post by Wally Bock on his Three Star Leadership Blog got me thinking about our the working environment we create based on how we manage our PMOs, our programs, and our projects.
The 8 factors listed below are the compilation of feedback from Mr. Bock’s students about the work environments they preferred to work in.
1. Supports productivity
2. Provides a sense of community
3. Offers interesting and meaningful work.
4. Provides clear and reasonable expectations
5. Offers frequent and usable feedback.
6. Maintains consistency
7. Values fairness.
8. Offers maximum control possible over work life
There should be no surprise that there’s a fair amount of overlap between this list and the list of 11 elements that I’ve been using to define a project culture. It turns out that in the western world, educated adults define their preferred working environment as being centered around a group approach to solving problems.
I have to admit I was delighted to see that productivity was first on the list. I have always held a world view that most people really want to do a good job. I also believe this makes our jobs as managers fairly easy. All we have to do is remove any road block that stands between what our team members wish to accomplish and success. If we do that they’ll do the rest. I don’t know how anyone else feels about this, but removing roadblocks as a job function works for me. It says that all I need to do is figure out how my team members get the information and the tools they need to do their job. If I give them that they will in turn provide the brilliance and creativity to craft the product that the organization needs.
If you’re tempted to respond that I’m just repackaging management 101, let me take my thoughts a little further. This truth is it isn’t always easy to remove roadblocks. There often isn’t the money to give people the tools they really need to do their job right especially in this economy. To be successful then in our jobs we need to be very good at working the political system and very good at garnering support for the efforts of our team. We also have to be successful at our jobs to make sure that our team members judge the environment as supporting their productivity.
There are so many places I can take this from here that I’m going to just decide to stop. In future entries I’ll be exploring the other 7 characteristics of an effective workplace.
Category: PMO Tags: Leadership, Personal Mastery, Servant Leadership
2 responses so far ↓
1 Wally Bock May 30, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Thanks for using my work as a starting point for your excellent post. I’m honored.
Here’s the story of “productivity” coming first on the list. I’ve never tracked priority and the exercise I used wasn’t designed to gather stats like that. In other words, all the items are part of a great working environment.
But over the years, I often had audience members suggest that a great working environment was one where things were easy. In fact, the opposite is true. Productivity and the pride that comes with it is vital. People don’t want to take it easy when they go to work. They do want to do something that matters with people they like.
2 Donna Fitzgerald May 30, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Thank you for sharing your excellent list. I’m looking forward to continuing to explore the concepts you’ve captured. Some of what we’re both talking about harkens back to the old theory X or theory Y but I think it’s good to remind people that if we want the best from our staff we need to be equally committed to holding up our end of the bargain which is to remove barriers to their productivity.