In a word: Stocktakes.
Mirriam-Webster defines stocktaking as “the act of estimating a situation at any given moment”. That’s not so bad right? Unfortunately, in business the underlying risk of frequent stocktakes is the unspoken mindset that: if we set targets, measure performance against the target, introduce consequence for missing the target then people will be motivated to perform better.
All is well when we hit the target, everyone likes to be rewarded.
But what happens when we miss? Does blame and shame motivate improved performance?
Google conducted a study recently where they tested a hypothesis that top performing teams are those that have the smartest, most capable team members. Top performing as defined by creating maximum revenue and number of patents for the organization. What they discovered astonished them.
There was no correlation between the smarts of the team members and the team’s measurable performance.
Believing the work matters, feeling that it is personally important, clarity of roles, plans and goals are dependability were four of the top five attributes.
But number one, by a country mile, was psychological safety – safety to take risks, fail and be vulnerable.
If this is true, then it questions the notion of the blame and shame associated with stocktakes – a key component of Deliverology and one of the five challenges of the approach that I’ve written about in a series of articles in Canadian Government Magazine.
Author and change agent Ken Miller, will address this issue and share his views on how to create and sustain improved results through cycles of iteration, experimentation and learning at Lean Government Summit on November 3, in Ottawa. It’s your chance to avoid the trap of stocktakes as you roll out your results and delivery plan.
Reserve your spot today: http://leanagility.com/en/leangovernmentsummit
