I’ve been holding out for a couple of weeks to be able to use that title… simple things like this make me smile, which is never a bad thing!
This said, whilst I have been managing to complete two machine runs each week, my cognitive bandwidth has been too stretched lately to come up with anything of real interest to write, so holding out was no real chore! Having said this, it is possible that my head has been so crammed-full of other stuff that I have too much of interest to share.
I’ll give you just one example.
Have you ever reflected the amount of control that Finance teams have within organisations, by comparison to say HR or Marketing? Measuring the quantitative stuff (time, money, material quantity etc) is so much easier than measuring all that other messy qualitative stuff (happiness, satisfaction, experience etc) and this means that the Finance agenda tends to dominate decision-making.
As a result we tend to ask ‘Which of these strategies or new products shows the greatest return on capital employed?’ rather than ‘which strategy is going to give employees a bigger smile… leading to more discretional effort, greater customer satisfaction etc?’ Like the inebriated man searching for his keys under the streetlamp (where the light is better than where he actually dropped them) we tend to default to the quantifiable measures.
(I feel the need for a disclaimer here… I’m not saying that we should ignore the quants, just that we need more balance)
The same sort of challenge exists in management. We know that the most effective teams have members with diverse perspectives, alongside psychological safety so that each person’s voice is heard and considered. However, the task of managing this type of team requires much greater skill… not to mention a higher salary. It’s so much easier and cheaper to resort to some version of ‘command and control’, even though, aside from making the team less effective it directly affects the life experience of the team members and indirectly affects their families and communities.
We stick with all this quantitative stuff because it’s easy, or because it’s always been done that way, or because everyone else does it this way… but in the process we ignore the huge opportunity costs.
I was told last week that Brighton City Council had decided to stop treating the weeds in the local pavements. I’m sure that, aside from saving them time & effort (well maybe not that much effort, if you’ve ever seen the guys driving the mini tractors or grass cutters around), they can now justify their decision on environmental terms.
I’m not immune to the environmental argument, however a more balanced decision might factor in the needs of small children wanting to learn to roller-skate, or elderly parents and grandparents trying to stay active outside without tripping over. It might also consider the messages that we’re sending to young people about attention to detail and the frustrations of house-owners (aka voters) trying to get the best price for their house or simply feel safe in their home when the neighbourhood looks increasingly shabby.
Finance drives the agenda, but at great cost to everyone else.
From this one example of something on my mind (which isn’t even anywhere towards the top of my cognitive priority list), you may be able to see why I’ve not had the headspace to write lately.
I will endeavour to post on topic next time… and in the meantime I will try my best to keep up the running 🙂
Stay well and positive!
