Mar

Integrity Scales – Real Lean Management

Eli Lopian Category

I talked about personal integrity, the really powerful thing about this integrity is that it scales.
There is a team Integrity.

Here is the secret: Once each team player has integrity, the whole team has integrity. Is the team has a task that requires 2 players to work together (developer and technical writer). Neither can commit to this task, as it is not under their control. The Tech-Writer will have to ask the Developer if he can commit to helping him, and only after the developer said that he will help, can the Tech-Writer commit to writing the text.

How I used to Manage

In the past I used to think that a manager should either tell the employee what to do or how to do, but not both. I used to tell my team, what I need them to do, and they either did it or didn’t, which really frustrated me.
Now I think that a manager should not do either. The employee should tell his manager what he can do and how!

Managing the Integrity

Here is how we do things in Typemock.

As a manager I want the employee to be in integrity.

I ask the employee: What can you do to help the company?

The employee might says: I can rewrite the website.

I say: Great, What do you intend to do this week?

The employee might say: I can design the home page.

I say: Excellent, Is this an integrity action? are the task measurable and in your control? What other resource do you need to complete the task?

The employee is in integrity, he is in the say-intend-do cycle.

Now as a team we can say, intend and do what the team committed to do. The team is in integrity!

After a week, the following conversation will happen

I ask the employee: Did you do the tasks that you said you would?

If the employee did, it is great news. If not, we have to practice being in integrity.
Example: You should have told the team about the actions that you couldn’t do, once you knew about them.

This management really works for Typemock and we have seen that we can all do much more and we have a great feeling of accomplishment. This is probably why even in these economic times we are breaking our records all the time.