humans at work

Buster, life coach

I flounced over from a link on Booksquare. Had to comment on the cat — with four of my own acting as miscellaneous muses, masters and subjects of devious deeds in fiction and fact — I relate to Buster.

Cheers,

Pat Harrington
http://patriciaharrington.com

Isn’t Buster awesome? Let’s not even bother with a link, let’s just present him again in all his glory:

I discovered Buster when I was first putting together the project management team at Wizards of the Coast. I’d been facilitating for years (I’ve led meetings from 2 people to 250 people), and I was very glad I had those skills. I wasn’t expecting all the negotiating I had to do with other executives, my own team, and other teams that we worked with.

The thing is, all the facilitation skills in the world don’t stop other people from being defensive, uncommunicative, frightened or angered by change, or from hijacking the conversation onto another track. They just give me more tools with which to respond. And so sometimes I felt overwhelmed or stressed. And then I would return to my desk, look at Buster, nod in silent acknowledgment of our common impulse, and then go back out and start trying to hammer out more agreements.

Buster reminds me that good managers don’t eat the mice. And even though I’m not a direct manager in a corporate job right now, the fact is that we all “manage” relationships with each other every day, in large and small ways. So please don’t eat the mice.

Thanks, Pat, for bringing Buster back to the conversation today.

And a note: the Booksquare link Pat is referring to was a Twitter tweet… Yep, I’m on Twitter now. So is Nicola. Come join us in the twitterverse anytime.

And another note: I’m now moved to cross-post a version of this to Humans At Work. Come on over and have a look — there’s also a post about diversity that features a rockin’ Evanescence video, and a look at a recent interview about trust and social connection in every aspect of our lives — family, work, and community. If you enjoy the conversations here, please join me for more at Humans At Work.

Humans At Work is open for business

Work is a human thing. Let’s treat each other that way.

I am excited, a little scared, and also feeling very satisfied on a deep level — because after many, many years of thought and more than two years of development, Humans At Work, LLC launches today.

I’ve talked about this before, but here’s a recap:

In my corporate life, I built and led teams, developed and managed process, facilitated meetings of 2 to 250 people, taught effective communication and effective meetings classes, served as a company ombudsperson, and learned everything I could about organizational development and dynamics.

And what I learned boils down to this: managing people is the most important job in business. And it’s the job that no one ever really teaches us to do.

Management is behavior. Itâs my experience that bad managers are not evil or insane; mostly, they just have no idea how to be good managers. When we get our first management job, no one sits us down and tells us that the most important thing we can do to be successful is to deal well with the other humans in the building â to communicate clearly, build relationships that help everyone be more effective, share information, collaborate on decisions with the people whose work will be affected, and give people control of how they do their jobs. No one teaches us how to do these things. If weâre lucky as managers, we eventually figure out how to be betterâ¦ generally at the expense of the people who work for us.

And so we’ve all got a Boss From Hell story (some of us have several). We all know the damage that bad managers do to the people they work with. And it’s not just people — business suffers too, because people who are badly managed become angry and disengaged and unproductive. That’s not good for anyone.

It doesnât have to be this way. It really doesnât. So Iâm going to change it.

I’ve developed an intensive training program called Humans At WorkSM. It teaches basic human management skills to new managers. I have never seen anything quite like it, and I think it’s solid and… well, it’s good. Not just that it’s put together well, but that it feels like I’m doing some good in the world by putting it out there.

Because here’s what I’m doing — think of it as the 21st century approach. First, I’ve written A Leader’s Manifesto, which describes the core skills of good managers, and gives me the chance to testify about why it matters to people and to business that every manager leads from those skills. The manifesto includes unabashed table-thumping and talk of revolution, very fun to write (and, I hope, to read). I hope the manifesto will spread far and wide around the internet, and that people will feel as passionate about its ideas as I do.

Second, I am making the entire Humans At WorkSM program content available free under a Creative Commons License — because I believe so strongly in these ideas that I want everyone to have access to them, whether they can afford to pay for the program or not. There are nearly 400 pages of lesson plans, teaching notes, tools, materials lists and tips for people to set up the program in their own companies. It costs a lot to have me teach the program — my time and my brain are not cheap to hire — but anyone who is willing to do the work themselves will be able to create their own version of the program (for non-commercial use). And I’m available as a consultant to help people do that at a lesser cost than a turnkey program.

I believe that enough people will respond to the ideas of Humans At WorkSM that there will be more than enough work for me. And if I’m wrong, then the ideas that I care about will still be out in the world helping people. No matter what happens with the business, it’s hard to think of that as failure.

My ambitious goal is that every working person on the planet reads the manifesto, becomes aware of the program, and finds at least one idea that helps them make their own work experience better. If you’d like to help with that, I’d be very grateful indeed — because the only way it happens is if people spread the word. So check out Humans At Work, and if you like what you see, please tell everyone — because everyone can benefit from what’s there.

Making better managers

How true.

I haven’t mentioned recently the business idea I’m working on, but it’s still alive and on the horizon. I’ve been all about screenplay for a while, and the Humans At Work program has been on the back burner. No regrets — writing is better — but I’m determined not to let it die on the vine, either. So here’s an update for those who are interested.

Humans At Work^SM is a training program specifically designed to ground new managers in the basic skills of managing human beings. Because that’s what no one ever teaches us… and we bruise the hell out of each other learning on the job. It’s my experience that managing people well is a) the most important thing we can do in the workplace to ensure that the business succeeds in the long term, and b) not rocket science. Management (like communication, and marriage, and sex, and friendship, and pretty much every other relationship) is about behavior. It’s about skills, models, ways of being and doing, no different at its core than learning how to drive properly or understanding that you don’t shoot your neighbor just because his dog is barking (no matter how tempted you might be…).

So I’ve developed an intensive curriculum to help new managers start from a good base, so they can build experience in constructive ways rather than by damaging people around them through sheer ignorance. The curriculum is done (just needs a few tweaks). I’m building the website. And I’ve made some decisions that I think will raise a few eyebrows and possibly make some folks think I’m an idiot. Or maybe the whole thing will sink without a trace. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I hope I can finish the site soon. It’s just fussy gruntwork at this point, and I need to buckle down and do it. But I also need to write an original screenplay, and plot out a YA novel, and get ready for more work on the current screenplay, and eat dinners and drink wine and see friends and dance and go to the movies and the park and and and… and it’s already July. It’s not stunningly original of me to say Oh wow, it’s true, time really does go by faster as you age. But oh, if only I’d known what I like to do and be, and had the skills to make it happen when I was 20, when I also had so much more energy.

But that’s not generally how life works. And you know what? If that’s the way it is, that’s cool. Knowing, being skilled, being confident, having focused passions as opposed to muddy longings — if I were given the choice between being 20 as I was, or 47 as I am, I choose now. This is better.

Hmm. Not sure how I got here from Dilbert, but there you go, sometimes the path is not straight.

Don’t be an asshole

Thank you, Nicola, for pointing me toward this post from agent Nathan Bransford about why writers shouldn’t be assholes.

This is so true. And it syncs up with what I’m doing with Humans At Work (and as an update, the site is in development now and I’m hoping to launch in June). Working with people who are jerks is No Fun, and it’s getting to the point where it’s not necessary either — there are a lot of writers in the world (and sales reps and customer service clerks and executives and produce managers and… well, you get the point), and people in the position to give us work are less likely to do so if they think we don’t know how to play nicely.

Success these days is not just about having talent for one’s work. Certainly as important — perhaps more so, in terms of career if not art — is the talent for effective relationship. I know without doubt that it’s made an enormous difference in my career path so far. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have the chance to break into screenwriting without it. I know it helped with Solitaire. And I’d argue that it’s necessary for art as well. But that’s because I write what I do — I couldn’t very well work at character-based fiction if I didn’t constantly strive to experience and understand the nuances of human relationships.

I remember walking along a busy street in downtown Chicago one day. One car cut off another in traffic — the bumpers nearly came to blows — and then both cars had to stop for a red light just in front of me.

The driver of the rear car — man, 30’s, business suit — leaped out. Slammed the door. Threw open his trunk. And took out a golf club. He held it the way you do when your target is not the little white ball, but the back of someone’s skull…

The driver of the front car scrambled out of his car (bad strategic move, but hey, I’m guessing it was a new situation for him). Also a man, 30’s, business suit.

Golf Club Man chased Jerk Driver Man around his own car at least twice, shouting Don’t! (shake the club) be! (shake the club) an asshole! (shake the club).

Then the light turned green and all the drivers behind them, who were watching in fascination as if it were live TV, started honking. So the two guys got in their cars and drove away.

I don’t know about Jerk Driver Man, but Golf Club Man certainly got my attention. And I think he was absolutely right. Seems like the price of being a jerk comes when you least expect it (that golf club) and sometimes when you don’t even know it — the opportunities you never get because of the backchannel opinions of you that you never hear, but that determine who wants to work with you and who doesn’t.

The lesson I’m learning right now (waves to executive producer) is that it’s really important not to be an asshole just because I am grumpy. I think it’s easy for artists to think it’s okay to have “artistic temperament” (shorthand for I get to act like a yob because I’m all special and stuff). Note to all those folks: go off in the corner and have a sad drink in memory of the good old days. And then get back to work and play nice, because it’s becoming a jerks-not-welcome-world. I can’t wait.

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” — Peter Drucker

A few people have asked me about the consulting business I’m putting together, Humans At Work.

The company motto is Work is a human thing. Let’s treat each other that way. The core of the business is a training program that gives new managers a grounding in the essential skills of managing human beings.

Because Drucker is right. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t have at least one horror story of a Manager From Hell — most of us have more than one. And it’s my experience that bad management happens not because people are evil or insane, but mostly because they have no idea how to be good managers. When we get our first management job, no one sits us down and tells us that the most important thing we can do to be successful is to deal well with the other humans in the building — to communicate clearly, build relationships that help everyone be more effective, share information, collaborate on decisions with the people whose work will be affected, and give people control of how they do their jobs. No one teaches us how to do these things. If we’re lucky as managers, we eventually figure out how to be better… generally at the expense of the people who work for us.

It doesn’t have to be this way. It really doesn’t. So I’m going to see if I can do something about it.

No one can learn to be a good manager in a classroom or a seminar — like writing or cooking or sex or conversation, or any of the other really fun stuff, being good takes practice. But it’s absolutely possible to point people in the right direction and give them basic tools and skills to help them start right. That’s what I plan to do with Humans At Work.

Managing is something I do well. I’ve been thinking about these ideas for 15 years. I have the skills and the passion for passing them along. I have notions for the training, and the business model, that I think will surprise people. We’ll see. The training curriculum is nearly done at the detail level, and I plan to start building the website in the beginning of the year.

This is not something I’ll ever give up writing for. If I’m doing it right — if I manage it well (grin) — I can help other people without having to lose myself.

So that’s what’s up. And I’d love to hear from you what you think good managers do, or don’t do, and what you wish your managers had known how to do better.

Companies are people

Hi, Kelley,

I’ve gotten a chance to look at Solitaire and it strikes me that your depiction of corporate culture is both accurate and non-judgmental. You seem to treat the corporate milieu more like an ecology – which can be both benign and malign, depending on where you are within it and how much you understand about it. This runs counter to a great deal of current position-taking regarding the corporate model, which wants to show it either as an Evil Empire or an Innocent Institution that’s merely misunderstood. I wonder if you’d care to comment on your unique approach?

Mark

It’s taken me a while to tackle this question because I keep wanting to say everything I believe, or feel, or know, and that turns out to be a lot. I’m not entirely satisfied with this answer, only because there is so much missing. I think I will have to write a book about it.

I used to believe that business was really complicated. Now I think business is simple: people are complicated.

When I first began working in the adult world, I played the Evil Company game with enthusiasm and an aggressive disregard for how many people I was broadcasting to. I was underappreciated, misunderstood, and the victim of corporate abuse: managers were stupid, leadership was nonexistent, and the company was fucked. Blah, blah.

At a job in Atlanta, I first began to learn some ways that I could change my own behavior and thereby influence the behavior of people around me. I should fess up that I did this because I was about to be fired for being a major self-righteous pain in the ass. I was given the option to change, or to continue being my unhappy self with another employer. So I changed. I learned to be a facilitator and team builder, and I began the intensive study of communication and process and organizational dynamics that is still a large part of my life and work even now, more than two years after my last corporate job.

I’m glad I sucked it up and did the work: it made a huge difference to my life, and it made me understand that corporations aren’t Evil or Good. They are people. When people are less skilled at working together effectively, their part of the company (their particular ecological niche, if you like), becomes chaotic at best: at worst, people get stress, ulcers, and a downward spiral of hostility and misery. When people are better at working together, they get more done and they are more likely to feel that what they do, and who they are, is of value. They thrive, and the company usually benefits.

We hear lots about goals and vision, and those are important. But many executives seem to think it’s the only relevant thing in business. To which I say, get real – goals are the easy part. Anybody can set a goal. It’s achieving the goal that’s hard, and in my view of the universe it is the responsibility of managers and leaders to do the hard work. It is their responsibility to give people process, tools, and clear rules for working together. It doesn’t matter how complicated the actual mechanics of the particular business are: I absolutely believe that companies live or die on everyone’s ability to manage communication, relationships, process, and interpersonal dynamics. The rest is details.

No two people have the same corporate experience. You can change a person’s morale just by transferring her to another department and moving her five cubicles to the left. And you can also change her morale by teaching her to play nicely with others and then insisting that she do it. And that her boss do it, and so on, right along to the vice presidents and the president and the CEO, who in my not-at-all-humble opinion are all 100 percent responsible for setting the tone for this. If they don’t, shame on them. And I really mean that: shame on them, because what they do, or don’t do, makes a difference to the people that work for them. People’s daily lives are not a trivial thing.

I was amazingly lucky to have the chance to build an entire team at Wizards of the Coast, from scratch, based on these principles. It gave me a great deal of joy. It was also hard, and scary, and imperfect. Like ecologies, corporations are systems, constantly adjusting to different conditions, different surfeits or deficits or pressures. Balance is not a destination, it is a journey.

The skills that Jackal has in the book are real, and they can make a difference, and they are a whole bunch of fun when they do. It’s also true that working this way doesn’t mean that humans become less complicated. Our company may still not make the decisions that we might wish. We may not always have a happy experience. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, no matter how skilled we are. That’s in the book, too.

For people who are interested, I can recommend a few books that I think are very good or brilliant in addressing some of the concepts that are important to me. It turns out, not surprisingly, that I think these ideas are important in life: how to manifest them in business is just one of the challenges.