The work we do vs The way we do it
To be truly effective, learn to separate "the things that we do" from "the structures we use to facilitate doing them".
This is one of my founding ideas. Discover the rest here.
Never underestimate how much other managers need to talk about their work. Managing can be a lonely business, and leadership is worse.
When you get the chance, ask a manager for their thoughts on how to solve a problem you have. Having the humility to consistently ask others for advice will also carry you a very long way in this most human of pursuits.
For this update, I’d like to share with you a conversation I had recently.
The Conversation:
A few weeks ago, two separate people from different companies asked me for advice on the same problem. One is the founder-CEO of a fast-growing internet business, and the other is a former protégé of mine who now has my old job. Both had a similar concern regarding how much time they were spending quality-checking the work their teams produced.
The answer to that question is contextual, but first we need to define the problem.
In this case, the problem is not “I am spending too much time on X”. The problem is something more like “I believe that we are not able to arrive at an acceptable level of quality without my direct oversight and frequent input, which takes up too much of my time that could be spent on higher impact projects.”
Ordinarily, I would advise unpacking that statement. Is your belief correct? Maybe customers won’t notice the quality difference. Is the quality bar set at the right level? Maybe it is too high or you are not measuring it the right way. Are you sure the other projects you could be working on are more valuable? And so on and so on.
Here though, we need to start at an even higher level. Is this a work we do problem, or is it the way we do it?
The work we do vs The way we do it:
My answer to both individuals was:
“There are two levels that companies operate on. There is ‘the work that we do’ and ‘the way that we do the work.’”
Let me explain.
The work that we do:
Let’s say that I am a Bricklayer Manager. I lead a team of five Bricklayers. They unload the bricks, mix the grout, build the walls, make sure the walls are level, and so on.
I do quality control – check measurements, record breakage, spot check & ensure mistakes are rectified, make sure supplies arrive on time and that we are meeting our scheduling & constructing in line with the plan. I adjust the schedule for absences and weather. This is the work that we do. We are specialists doing our jobs.
Now, consider:
The way that we do the work:
Every Friday morning, the Manager takes an hour to look at the schedule for next week and make sure that our orders for bricks and grout have gone in. Every Friday afternoon the team downs tools an hour early to review how the week went and we have a chat and socialise – this is how we reinforce our norms and measure ourselves against our plan from the start of the week.
Daily every morning at 7am we have a 15 minute meeting to talk through the schedule for the day, when supplies are arriving, how we coordinate with other specialists like plumbers and concreters and so on. At smoko at 11am there may be an ad-hoc update, for example if supplies are delayed or rain is expected tomorrow – this is how we realign changes to our schedules and expectations.
Quarterly, we review profitability and performance and identify areas for improvement. We also look at the plan for the quarter ahead and priorities and scheduling.
In lieu of equity, we pay a significant percentage of profit each year as bonuses to reward staff for loyalty & helping us meet our goals. We don’t ever employ contractors except for specialists that are not required for the life of a project (e.g. architects, electricians), because we believe in loyalty to people. This is the way we reward people for excellence, keep the right people, and align activity with our financial goals.
This is the way that we do the work, i.e. it is the “meta structure” that we have put in place to direct & redirect our efforts in a relatively frictionless way.
At its broadest, the way that we do the work can be culture, it can be norms, it can be a remote or in-office working policy – whatever. At its narrowest, it may be as simple as a question like – are the managers responsible for teaching team-mates their work, or is that function served by specialist non-managers within the teams?
The problem:
Let’s say that, as Bricklayer Manager*, I have a problem. Too much of our time is spent straightening walls where we’ve laid bricks. Regularly I’ll hold a spirit level against a wall and find it’s a few degrees out of true. If this is not addressed, it damages the structural integrity of the building and virtually guarantees we will be hit with large repair bills a few years down the line.
Now, we need to understand why these problems happen and how we address them. Is this a “the work we do” or “the way we do the work” problem? Some hypotheses:
The work we do
Maybe my spirit level is damaged or I am not measuring correctly (i.e. do I have the skills or tools to do my job properly?)
Maybe we are mixing too much water in the grout which causes the grout to not set properly, leading to a bent wall (we have a skills gap in our team)
We have been under time pressure and we worked during a semi-rainy day which caused the grout to get wet, leading to quality issues (i.e. this is a situational issue caused by the environment)
The way we do the work
We use the young apprentices to lay bricks while the old bricklayers supervise (i.e. the people best experienced at laying bricks are not doing the work, leading to more mistakes)
Only the supervisor has a spirit level, meaning that:
a) the team does not have the tools to make sure that the wall is properly vertical
b) Any mistakes are discovered too late because teams are dependent on the manager coming around to quality check
We are not doing quality checks soon enough to communicate to the team any issues
When we do quality checks, we are communicating the problem but not teaching the solution - which perpetuates the problem.
Alternatively, we might find that earlier quality checks don’t help. For example, maybe you can’t tell if a wall is out of true until it is >4 bricks high. If true, there will always be a significant chunk of time expended before issues are identified.
In this situation, we need to find alternative solutions for spotting potential risks/errors earlier.
If I looked at this problem cold, with zero context, my money would be on the lack of tools or lack of skills hypotheses being the answer. Nobody gets up in the morning with the goal of doing a bad job at work - it’s inconceivable. Rather, people do the best they can within their understanding of the constraints that are placed upon them. (Note: This feeds into the “average vs star performer” debate, but that’s a story for another time)
Do you see what I mean? It’s really hard to hire a bricklayer that doesn’t know how to lay bricks. Yet - hiring the right person doesn’t mean that the business has the right structure in place to let them do a great job.
Note: Never underestimate the value of small but simple changes IF those changes contribute to business goals. A good friend of mine runs a cleaning business in Canada. He’s grown revenue 18% and 15% respectively in the last two years - in a mature business, with no new hires, no marketing, and no change in pricing - after purchasing tool belts for his team. Tool belts greatly increased capacity because people don’t need to go back to the van anymore for supplies. Additionally; he pays people for a full day even if they finish early. In fact he specifically says - this is the plan for the day, get stuck in, do it right, and we’ll go home as soon as we’re done. The investment in tools and use of incentives lets the team do more work easier and rewards performance, leading to a significant increase in productivity. It goes to show what can be achieved with investments in “the way we do the work”.
Applying this in practice
In business, many changes you make will be in the form of changing “the way we do the work”. With the quality control example above, what is the actual root problem?
· Are people being taught the correct way of doing the work?
· Is there a gap in expectations, for example people expect the manager to teach but the manager expects the senior team members to teach?
· How are the QA issues being measured? Are the measurements being communicated to the team in a timely way so that they can self-correct?
· Is there a QA process in place or is the QA dependent on management’s judgement? I.e. is it standardised & transferable or idiosyncratic & unique to one individual?
· Have we hired the right people with the right skills? Are our team members capable of doing the work at the level we need?
This is an interesting issue because the work that we do clearly needs to change. We know that there are quality issues and we are spending too much time fixing them.
Yet – if the problem & solution were clear to everyone involved, it would have fixed itself already. There must be a problem with the way we do the work.
Closing thoughts
One of the leaders I spoke with was able to formulate a solution by improving “the way we do the work”. That is being implemented at the moment, and I’ll have a case study on that in the near future. (Update: I have now published the case study)
For now, remember:
The work we do
These are the tasks that we/ our teams do day to day in our jobs as specialists
The way we do the work
These are the structures that we put in place to facilitate optimal outcomes for the business & its stakeholders
As a manager, often your issues will be with “the way we do the work”
People will generally do a good job if placed into an environment where they can succeed.
Often (but not always!) problems with alignment, communication, education, context, goals + direction, are bigger opportunities for improvement than weaknesses in the work of an individual
Have you come across this issue in your own experience? If you have seen this before, I’d love to hear your story. Let us know in the comments.
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Until next time,
Minion
*Full disclosure - I know nothing about bricklaying. Sorry.