Dear Bob ...
Do you have any good tactics for getting a moving-too-fast-just-do-it exec to slow down and think? I've resorted to the default "yes them to death then try to manage to do the right thing when they are not looking and don't worry about it if you never get recognized for the good you are doing".
I'm lucky enough that my peers see the same issue and work with me to try and affect change at our level in the organization, but sometimes I feel like I'm being sneaky or failing some part of my responsibility for doing it the way I'm doing it.
Any thoughts or comments?
- Works for a Nike admirer
Dear Tired ...
Good tactics? If you define "good" to mean "work reliably" then no, for the simple reason that in many cases, what has made these characters successful is that (1) they move too fast and just do it; and (2) getting their way is what they're best at.
And by the way, OODA theory (Colonel John Boyd's formulation: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act; then rinse and repeat) says that in any time-bound combat domain, speed trumps "being correct." Just doing it beats careful analysis in tennis or fencing; careful analysis beats just doing it in chess or golf.
Office politics is a time-bound combat domain. And what these executives are best at is ducking accountability. They generally delegate execution to others, but on their timetable, and when it all blows up they become exasperated at how the delegatee messed up something so simple.
How to combat this? The best solution is to stay far away and watch them fail from a distance. You have no moral obligation to save your boss from him or herself. OODA masters win every battle; their failing is that they often choose the wrong battles to fight. If everyone keeps their distance it eventually becomes clear whose name is on all the fiascoes.
If you can't stay far away ... if your success is tethered to their success, or even worse if you actually like them ... then the best tactic I know of is to always start with the words, "That's a great idea. Tell me the details."
Of course, there aren't any details, but you've opened the conversational door to start developing them. You can either flesh out the basics then and there, or offer to take a few days to put some flesh on the bones.
If the exec persists, saying that it isn't that complicated; let's just get started and figure it out as we go along, you can try the pilot project gambit. It goes like this: You agree, deliberately misunderstanding "just do it" to mean "just do a pilot project so we can learn our way into this."
Often, by the way, "just doing" a pilot project or prototype is superior to careful thought when it comes to figuring something out. So you might find that you aren't limiting the damage - you're collaborating in a success.
And if not, you will at least limit the damage.
- Bob
Posted by Bob Lewis on September 5, 2006 04:00 PM
