In the spirit of last week’s post The Responsibility Myth I am sharing a short post originally released in March 2009.
A few weeks ago I was talking with a dentist about the challenges of running an office. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you work in a huge company or a small office, wherever there are people trying to work together there is inevitably an issue I will call “whose job is it?”.
The even more personal version of this issue is “but that’s not my job”. It arises when something isn’t getting done that everyone knows needs to be done.
In my conversation with the dentist we talked about the basics like “whose job is it to take out the garbage?”. He asked, “how does such a simple and easy thing get so complicated?” I’ll suggest it gets complicated the minute we think it’s supposed to be someone else’s job.
So whose job is it to take out the garbage? How about the person who sees that the garbage can is full?
Defining our job descriptions can certainly be helpful, but I think we have gone overboard. Trying to identify all the tasks that define our jobs these days is virtually impossible. And all too often it gets in the way of getting the job at hand done. In the case of my friend the dentist the buck always stops with him anyway. Every job is his job as long as it doesn’t get done by someone else.
Where does the buck stop where you work? What might be possible if we all started to think like we owned the place?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Susan
Great post!
I work with owner managers of sme’s who wish to break through a turn-over ceiling and grow : work which addresses ‘the buck stops with me’ way of being or as some will have it ‘if you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.’
It intrigues me that this belief, way of being, becomes a self-fulfilling propecy and creates little or no room for the team around the owner manager to be creative, explore their edges and take ownership. A myopic examination of ‘who’s job is it anyway’ misses the point and as you discussed last week it’s the ‘white space’ around and outside of the boxes on an org chart, be that on paper or inside our minds, where true value creation happens for customers and employees alike. The customer experience and the employee experience can only be examined in an environment of open and honest communication based on trust and adult to adult relationships.
Lise
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Susan Mazza Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:52 am
Thanks for your comment Lise.
Excellent point that the belief that “the buck stops with me, when strongly held by the owner of a business, ” can also become a self fulfilling prophecy. After all, if “the boss” is going to handle it I don’t need to bother…”
When an owner (or leader or manager) finds they are the ones consistently doing the work that seems to fall in the “white spaces” between jobs as they are defined they have some work to do as leader and a manager of their business in creating practices for and a culture of accountability in their business.
And sometimes that work can be simple as making a clear and direct request rather than defaulting to doing it yourself!
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When it comes to work, it seems to me that the business owner, team leader or department manager sets the tone and attitude for the rest. Some do it consciously and some do it without much thought to how their behaviour is influencing others.
If, for instance, the leader is prone to being very specific and formal about the tasks s/he expects others to perform, they may be reticent to go outside the scope of what has been laid out for them for fear of overstepping their “boundaries”. Among those with less than noble intentions, this kind of specificity also invites a “sufficient unto the day” kind of attitude where some people will do *only* what appears on their position description and nothing more.
If, on the other hand, the leader has provided wider parameters, acknowledges the position description as a way of helping people see how they fit in the overall scheme of things and, by example, encourages a wider scope of contribution, I think people will be more willing to do things that go beyond what is written down for them to do.
As well, leaders who are clear about their primary overall goal will have a better result in terms of encouraging voluntary contribution. In the case of the dentist, lets say his/her overall goal is to ensure optimal patient comfort. If s/he consistently conveys this message as being of primary importance, it is, I think, easier for an employee to think of things to do that will contribute to that.
In summary, I’m thinking that the key is the level of consciousness with which the leader conveys his or her expectations and attitudes with the job description being a tool for guidance rather than a laundry list of things to do.
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The leader most definitely sets the stage for how people behave. If we want people to take more ownership we must consider how our beliefs and actions are in the way of that. Thanks for enriching the conversation Gwyn!
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Jann Freed Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Susan–I like the idea of guest writers. Would you be a guest writer on my blog in the near future? I would love that. Thanks. Jann
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Love this concept Susan! Job descriptions fit in more defined organizations. Providing teams a framework for a tangible shared stake in the mission is often a wise tack. Dynamic personalities on the team tend to quickly outgrow their roles. I vote we should view descriptions as a guide to growth + revise job descriptions as people inevitably change course. This can work from a leadership + management perspective but not always a simple equation. Communication lines function best when an open flow of dialogue is encouraged.
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Susan Mazza Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Using job descriptions as a guide to growth – now that is an interesting idea. Career paths in organizations have typically been plotted by navigating the path to go upwards (even if to go up you have to take a step sideways once in a while). You have me thinking about how that could look/work in practice. Since the nature of jobs are changing so fast, and most people no longer stay with the same company for many years, I wonder at what point a job description becomes a process of defining the unique intersection of a person and a position at a point in time rather than a more static box on an org chart.
Thanks for sharing your insight Meghan.
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Hi Susan,
I loved this post too.
When I was a department head, I had a simple rule. “If one of has to work on Saturday, all of us will work on Saturday.” Every Friday afternoon about 1:00 p.m. I started noticing people talking to each other, moving around the department, and doing the work that needed to be done, whether it was in their job description or not. Needless to say, all of our work got done and we didn’t work very many Saturdays.
Cheers,
Donna
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Susan Mazza Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
What a great “rule”! And a wonderful demonstration of an act of leadership – taking a stand.
Thanks for sharing your example Donna.
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I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
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What a great resource!
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nice post. thanks.
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