MSE 608 Spring 08

The 3 rules of management Team building Culture

Management Lessons Lesson OneAn eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I

also sit like you and do nothing?" The eagle answered: "Sure, why not."So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle,

and rested.All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the

rabbit and ate it. Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing

nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Management LessonsLesson TwoA turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get

to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "But, I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my

droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, found it actually gave him

enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the

second branch. Finally after a fourth night, he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon the turkey was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Management LessonsLesson ThreeA little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the

bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Management Lessons: Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy. Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your

friend. And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep

your mouth shut!

Building and managing team

Productive teams

What is a team? Do you consider your research

assignment groups a team?

Building & Managing Teams

Class Exercise Separate into 3 teams and come up

with 5 characteristics of a good team. For each one, write down what does a manager have to do in order to build such a team.

Productive teams

Jelled teams Momentum Formed around goals What is a goal?

How do you recognize a jelled team?

Peopleware – Productive projects and teams

Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

Managing the human resource

Managing people as though they were modular components

Where does it come from? Promoted to manager because we

were good doers. Design into components with

standard interface

Project failure

15 % of projects get cancelled Politics as a cause of failure

Communication problems Staffing Motivation High turn over

Many of the issues were not

technological but sociological

Managers agree that they have more people issues then technology issues, but they do not manage that way. Interested more in the technical issues

then the people issues Results from the training and education

that the manager had in his technical background.

The high tech illusion

Are we in the high tech world? Concentrating on technical is

easier then concentrating on people

Human interactions are complicated.

Fast food business model Remove the errors, make the machines

(or people) run as smooth as possible. Do not allow goofing off on the job Treat the people as interchangeable

parts Optimize the steady state Standardize everything Don’t think, do everything by the book

Is this approach applicable to your working environment?

Allow for errors

Mistakes are part of experimentations

Plan to throw away Environment that does not allow

errors will make people defensive Kicking people might help in the

short run but not make them more creative.

We haven’t got time to think about the job, just

do it

Allow time to: Think Question Examine Test alternatives

How much time is your manager allocating for you to:

Study ?Read ?learn ?

Overtime

Overtime

Productivity Getting more through unpaid

overtime Is the delivery date set because of actual

reason? Trick employees into accepting the

schedule

Overtime

What is the affect of overtime on people?

The home front affect Productivity during long periods over

overtime decline Workaholics Burnouts

What do organizations do to increase productivity?

Pressure people to put more hours Mechanize the process of

development Compromise the quality Standardize procedures

Result:

Work less enjoyable Following this method will

increase turn over What will be the effect of

losing key people?

Quality (if time permits)

Quality (if time permits) People have emotional binds to their

products Managers risk product quality by setting

unreasonable deadlines. Is it a challenge? When time is running out, there will not be

more resources, more people, more tools, but the thing that will be reduced will be quality.

Problems will be pushed under the rug or put a side for later fix

Quality (if time permits)

How does the reduced quality affect the team members? Managers treat quality as another

attribute of the product. The builders have the point of view

that the outmost quality is needed for their product.

“The market doesn’t give a damn about that much quality”

Quality increase productivity “Quality is free but only to those who

are willing to pay heavily for it”

Parkinson’s law Work will expand to fill the time allocated for it.

Will setting impossible dates force the people to work harder?

Does Parkinson’s Law apply to your people?

People that enjoy their work do not loaf around wasting the time

If you run into this issue, perhaps you should look into reassigning people to different tasks (or different companies)

Organizational “busy work” tends to expand to fill the working day Forms Unneeded reports Etc…

There is no Silver bullet Fred Brooks – The mythical Man Month

Pressure to improve productivity pushes managers to look for a silver bullet, a magic solution that will increase productivity and solve all of the problems.

The seven false hopes of software management

There is some new trick you’ve missed that could send productivity soaring

Other managers are getting gains of 100%, 200% or more Technology is moving so swiftly that you’re being passed

by Changing languages will give you a huge gain Because of backlog you need to increase productivity

immediately. You automate everything else, isn’t it time you automate

away your software development staff Your people will work better if you put them under a lot of

pressure

* Taken from Peopleware – Productive projects and teams Tom Demarco & Timothy Lister

The office environment

How does the environment affect productivity ?

The furniture police

Office noise Paging system Load phones Privacy

Personal space

Saving money on space Noise protection Hiding out

Office arrangement

Windows Who sits next to the windows ?

Offices Open space

Bringing back the door Creative space

“You never get anything done here between 9 & 5”

I come early to accomplish more then when people show up

In one late evening I can accomplish more then 2 regular days

Too many meetings to get anything done

The Right People

Get the right people Make them happy so they don’t

want to leave Turn them loose

Finding the right people

The interview Standard dress The resume The interview session

Finding the right people

But what do you really know about the candidate? Have him bring examples Holding an audition – have the

candidate prepare a presentation about his prior projects.

Keep employees happy

What is the annual employee turnover in the organization over the past few years?

How much does it cost to replace a person?

Replacing people

Hidden costs of turnover Short term view of employees Employee moral Structure is top heavy due to fast

promotion

Methodology

Do it the way we teach you….. Too much paperwork Absence of responsibility Loss of motivation

What will happened if people will follow all the rules to the dot?

How to kill a team

Defensive management Bureaucracy Physical Separation Fragmentation of people’s time Quality reduction of the product Phony deadlines Clique control

“Most organizations don’t plan on killing a team, they just do so”

Replacing people

Obvious costs? 1 – 2 month salary to find a

replacement (agency or in house hiring team)

Training Time period to make the employee

productive

Open Management

Let people do their job Give people the freedom to

perform their job

Rules and the people who break them

Skunkworks

Intercultural Encounters

Intended vs. Unintended intercultural conflict

Why do they happened ? Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands:

How to Do Business in Sixty Countries

Culture shock

Give examples of behavior that is acceptable in the US but not acceptable in other cultures

Culture Shock

Euphoria Culture Shock Acculturation Stable state

Cultures

Ethnocentrism and Xenophilia - What are they ?

Minorities, Migrants & Refugees – How do they affect cultural exposure?

Cultures - Humor

What's wrong with a little humor ?

Discussion

• In what ways might an aspiring first-time manager of technical professionals in the United States use the concepts discussed in the reading from Hill and Chapter 8 of Hofstede to prepare for the position?

Discussion

• Assume that you are the manager of a multicultural group of 10 to 12 technical professionals. How might you apply the concepts discussed in the reading from Hill and Chapter 9 of Hofstede to manage intergroup conflict in an effective manner?