Unreasonable hospitality - parte VII

 

"I made teaching part of our culture.

The spirit of collaboration that came out of the ownership program was inspiring to all of us, but asking someone to take over an entire department was an enormous commitment. So when John Ragan began a weekly meeting called Happy Hour, dedicated to the wine, beer, and cocktails on our menu, we encouraged the team to step in and give presentations of their own.

A onetime presentation was much less of an obligation than taking over an ownership program—and it was fun, because the people who worked for us loved food and wine.

...

Those Happy Hours had an important side benefit. Normally, classes in a restaurant are led by the managers, not the staff, but as more and more members of the hourly team led classes, they acted more like leaders.

I wanted to push this one step further.

I've already said I believe the most important moment of leadership each day in a restaurant is the pre-meal meeting, when the manager steps out to teach and inspire and get the team aligned before service. Once a week on Saturdays, we took the responsibility of leading that meeting away from the managers and gave it to a member of the team.

...

Leading Saturday pre-meal gave our hourly employees the chance to step into a role ordinarily filled by managers. They were contributing not only to the education of the team, but to their inspiration. And asking the team to run these meetings and present at Happy Hour had yet another unexpected benefit: everyone became more comfortable with public speaking.

...

We saw an enormous difference in the team in the months after they started leading Happy Hours and Saturday pre-meals. I loved the way they talked to guests: after all, taking an order, helping a guest make a decision about wine, or spieling a course are all forms of public speaking. They had more authority when giving instructions to their colleagues during service, too.

But the real shift was intangible; they began carrying themselves differently.

...

Giving the team more responsibility than they expected had an amazing impact - the more responsibility we trusted them with, the more responsible they became."

Liderar uma PME é muito mais do que gerir operações ou alcançar metas financeiras, aliás estas são uma consequência do que se faz a montante. É também sobre criar um ambiente onde os trabalhadores possam florescer, ultrapassar expectativas e assumir responsabilidades que, à partida, nem imaginariam. E eu a recordar algumas empresas que põem gente senior a fazer o trabalho de alguém que faltou porque formar outros para essa função seria prepará-los para "serem caçados pela concorrência."

Imaginem o impacte de transformar a rotina diária, dando aos trabalhadores a oportunidade de se destacar, de partilhar conhecimento, de liderar iniciativas. Não só se vê o crescimento das suas capacidades técnicas, mas também o seu desenvolvimento humano, a sua confiança e a sua autoridade natural no desempenho das funções.

Ao confiar nos trabalhadores mais responsabilidades do que eles próprios esperam, a recompensa é tremenda: eles tornam-se mais autónomos, mais confiantes, mais comprometidos. O espírito de colaboração e a sensação de pertença que daí advém transforma a dinâmica de uma empresa e eleva a bitola do serviço prestado aos clientes internos e externos.

Se eu pensar num mapa da estratégia, tudo isto é sobre o investimento feito nas pessoas que vão operar os processos da perspectiva interna.

Trechos retirados do livro "Unreasonable hospitality: the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect" de Will Guidara.

Parte VI, Parte V, Parte IV, Parte III, Parte II e Parte I.

A toxic corporate culture ...

"A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover. Our analysis found that the leading elements contributing to toxic cultures include failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior."

‘Em tempos de debandada de profissionais do SNS isto dá que pensar. 

Trecho retirado de "Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation" 

"Focus is a qualifier, obsession is a differentiator"

"High performing organizations, and people, are great at putting talent to work. Mostly because it’s about repetition. The problem is repetition doesn’t transcend; it stagnates. While obsessive people keep pushing the boundaries, stretching out beyond what is known into the unknown, trying different stuff.
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The most interesting and successful people I know have an obsession with something. Whether it’s plants, fitness, drawing, painting, laughing, you name it; their mindset and drive is extreme compared to others who merely enjoy the same activities. Obsessive people look beyond the obvious, push boundaries, challenge assumptions to outperform themselves.
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I see many people in business obsess over the wrong things all the time.
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Focus is a qualifier, obsession is a differentiator
I know many talented operators (VP’s, General Managers) who obsess over metrics because that is how they’re evaluated, but this focus on metrics blinds you from the bigger picture: what matters to customers.
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The most innovative and successful companies obsess over their customers to the point of being silly. They create their own practices to fulfill that obsession because existing practices are mediocre. This is what it take to be great, different and transcend beyond life as usual.
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Passion and talent are necessary ingredients to achieve success in any endeavor. But, obsession is what separates the great from the good."

Como não recordar: Only the paranoid survive!

Em Mongo, com a explosão de tribos, teremos cada vez mais empresas a ter de servir nichos, a ter de servir pessoas que não ficam satisfeitas com a média.

Como não recordar o meu tempo de birdwatcher e as intermináveis discussões sobre qual o melhor guia de campo, o da Collins ou o da Hamlyn.

Sempre acreditei nisto, pessoas obcecadas acabam sempre por ter vantagem sobre as pessoas talentosas ou competentes. Só pessoas obcecadas têm a energia por trás da paixão de fazer diferente e de testar o que os outros evitam.

Trechos retirados de "Obsession: The Difference Between Good and Great"

PS: A memória fez-me recuar a 2007 e a este postal.

Para reflexão

Julgo que já escrevi sobre o tema aqui no blogue. Um estudante tira um curso de engenharia, vai para uma empresa e ao fim de 6 meses põem-no a chefiar uma secção à frente de 10/15 homens. No entanto, ao longo de todo o curso nunca estudou uma disciplina que abordasse a temática da liderança  ou da gestão de pessoas.

Depois, encontro estes números e fico a pensar:

"So much depends upon managers. For example, a Gallup study found that at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores is driven by who the boss is. This is disconcerting because the same research found that about 70% of people in management roles are not well equipped for the job. This state of affairs is hurting not just employee engagement and quality of life, but also corporate performance.
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Most companies understand the importance of having highly effective managers, but few invest heavily in training to help them get there."

Trecho retirado de "What Great Managers Do Daily"

Acerca da boa gestão

"Because human nature doesn’t change, the fundamental art and science of managing human beings doesn’t change either – but you wouldn’t know it from reading the popular business press.
...
“[J]ust as the essence of medicine is not urinalysis (important though that is), the essence of management is not techniques and procedures,” wrote Drucker. “The essence of management is to make [people and their expertise] productive. Management, in other words, is a social function.”
...
Direct all of the organization’s work toward making strength productive and weakness irrelevant. On the organization’s behalf, this means holding every measure of effort, whether time, talent or treasure, accountable for the results it must produce in order to justify its expenditure. It is not enough to do something because it is traditional or “smart” or safe."

Trechos retirados de "Technology Changes, Good Management Doesn’t"

Estratégia e pessoas (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Afinal, antes do artigo referido na parte I ainda apareceu algo mais.

Lembram-se do gestor que acha que a estratégia deve ser um segredo?
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Na parte II mostro como estratégia e processos, como estratégia e pessoas se relacionam. Implementar, executar, operacionalizar uma estratégia passa por traduzir abstracção, traduzir escolhas teóricas em acções concretas, daquelas que podem ser monitorizadas: quem faz o quê até quando.
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Uma mudança estratégica acaba sempre por implicar mudar algumas rotinas enraizadas. Se a estratégia, se a sua lógica não é conhecida, como vai ser possível mudar as actividades, os comportamentos e as mentes?

"Especially in larger organizations, we're told to shift strategy without changing our processes - and the steps we take every day. This is why large companies fail to innovate. It is hard to take new steps because each one defies some rule or precedent for how we make day-to-day decisions.
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Before you know it, the steps you were taking to implement a broad strategy - true innovation - have all been replaced by the status quo.
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Leaders of change recognize that a great strategy is made up of many steps that, on their own, don't make sense and often break conventional norms. To innovate, you must advocate for and preserve the unordinary steps required to create something extraordinary.
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The lesson here is that the "big idea" is the easy part. Large companies usually know where they need to go to stay on the cutting edge, but they don't have the fortitude and flexibility to take the right steps to get there. The necessary steps are diverted by the usual steps, otherwise known as protocol. When you only take familiar steps, you don't travel far."

E também:

"Strategy involves change. People have to change something to bring strategy to life. You need to be able to translate your strategy into actions, tasks and projects. You also need to communicate the logic and purpose of the strategy so people can get engaged with the work and are willing to help it succeed. If strategy is painful then you’re doing it all wrong.
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So you could create your strategy in secret and spend months trying to make it work. But it’s far better to spend months involving everyone in creating strategy that encourages discussions between departments, improves understanding of competition and customers, and increases chances of creating something worthwhile that will help you to grow.
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What has to change? How big are the changes? Who will be affected? Who do you need to really make the strategy work? For a strategy to be valuable, it has to be made to work. Smart strategists understand strategy only works if enough people want it to succeed. More is accomplished when the people doing the work love the strategy that guides the work." 

Ao reler "If strategy is painful then you’re doing it all wrong" recordei-me do discurso de Henrique antes da batalha de Azincourt, segundo a criação de Shakespeare. Talvez a explicação sobre a "estratégia secreta" venha da comparação dos negócios com a guerra ou com o desporto... só que aí, a finalidade é vencer o oponente, nos negócios é satisfazer os clientes.


Primeiro trecho retirado de "Strategy Is More Short-Term Than You Think"

Segundo trecho retirado de "If Strategy is Painful, You’re Doing it Wrong"

Continua.

Gestão de pessoas

Diferentes propostas de valor requerem diferentes culturas organizacionais e pessoas com diferentes características de personalidade.
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Se a sua empresa aposta na inovação, na diferenciação pela novidade, pela surpresa, pelo desempenho superior, então, é uma empresa que tem de caminhar por terrenos novos, que tem de abrir estradas e caminhos, que tem de ir à frente, que tem de testar novidades e arriscar.
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Nesse caso faz todo o sentido ler e emular estas práticas tão bem descritas por Robert Sutton em "Extraordinary Contempt and Defiance Beyond the Normal Call of Engineering Duty"
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Pero todavia, se a sua empresa aposta na competição pelo preço mais baixo... cuidado com as prima donnas, el@s vão, de boa-fé, querer introduzir alterações que vão perturbar a eficiência dos processos. Imagine um empregado criativo na cozinha de um MacDonald's!
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Pero todavia, se a sua empresa aposta na competição pelo serviço feito à medida ... cuidado com as prima donnas, el@s vão, de boa-fé, esquecer que as ideias dos clientes são mais importantes que as suas próprias ideias e vão querer introduzir novidades não desejadas.
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