Free Article By Paul Glen of C2
Consulting
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Sometimes It Takes a Tyrant to Support
Collaboration
(This article originally appeared in
Computerworld USA)
Sometimes a manager needs to be a tyrant.
On rare occasions, anything less is a
disservice to one’s organization and an abdication of responsibility. Even the
most open, consensus-oriented manager needs to be prepared to use dictatorial
powers now and then.
Those of you who are regular readers of this
column are already familiar with my biases. My philosophy tends to fall toward
the collaborative end of the managerial approach spectrum, where the other end
of the scale is authoritarian. Knowledge work requires the free flow of
information, ideas and, yes, knowledge.
But on some things, I think that a
collaborative approach is neither desirable nor appropriate.
Most of you are probably thinking about crisis
situations as examples: emergencies during which a coolheaded dictator can
marshal the efforts of the masses to save the world. But that’s not what I’m
talking about. I tend to think that most crises can be managed collaboratively,
although certainly in a more directed and tightly coordinated manner than daily
operations typically require.
In which discipline is your IT group performing
best?
Instead, I think that an appropriate use of
dictatorial power is to defend and maintain a collaborative culture —
paradoxical but true. Open and collaborative organizations can be relatively
delicate. They are especially fragile when they are new or represent an island
of trust in a sea of hierarchy. And they can be destroyed by a handful of people
— or even just one — who won’t participate. Mutual trust can be violated in an
instant and may be nearly impossible to restore. In other words, managers need
to use their dictatorial prerogatives to set boundaries on appropriate behavior.
Allowing one person’s inappropriate antics to continue unchecked can undermine
the collaborative culture of a whole group.
There are a few common types of behavior that
need to be addressed immediately. They include the following:
Personal attacks. Disagreements are an
important part of a functioning workplace. People need to be able to have blunt
conversations, but turning a disagreement of substance into a personal assault
undermines the spirit of trying to do the right thing.
Unprofessional behavior. Sometimes the tone or
substance of a person’s participation lacks the professionalism that the rest of
the group expects. It may not be clearly unethical, but it may be questionable.
Self-serving behavior. If a group is to be
truly collaborative, members need to balance self-interest and group interest.
When they conflict, the group needs to come first as often as possible.
Unethical behavior. Some self-serving behavior
crosses the boundary into the territory of unethical behavior. Good people can
succumb to the seduction of conflicts of interest without completely realizing
it. Some people can be rehabilitated with appropriate intervention, but others
can’t.
Illegal behavior. Here, urgent action is
clearly required. A manager must protect not only his staff but the organization
as a whole. Embezzlement, bribes and sexual harassment are not to be treated
lightly. If you suspect that illegal activity is going on, your first call
should be to an attorney, not the offender or even your boss.
How you use power to intervene depends on the
urgency and severity of the situation. Here are four basic approaches to
consider:
Peer pressure. The softest approach is to ask a
peer of the offending person to quietly take him aside and talk to him about his
transgressions. This offers the offender a chance to change with minimal
humiliation, if he is so inclined.
Private conversation. Sometimes you, as the
manager, need to have a private discussion with the offender to pressure him to
act appropriately. This meeting may be planned or unplanned. Occasionally, you
may need to immediately remove someone from a public forum for this private
conversation. If that feels like a trip to the principal’s office, so be it.
That’s what it is.
Public repudiation. Sometimes behavior is so
inappropriate that it requires a public response, not just for the good of the
offender but for the entire group to get the message about boundaries of
acceptable behavior.
Banishment. Sometimes you just need to remove a
person from the group, whether by arranging a transfer to another part of the
organization or by firing him outright.
Letting inappropriate behavior fester can
substantially weaken a collaborative culture. Ironically, the best hope you have
for strengthening that culture may be to intervene quickly and forcefully.
© Copyright 2007 by Computerworld Inc., One Speen Street, Framingham, MA, 01701. Reprinted by permission of
Computerworld. All Rights Reserved.
