Research tagged with "Team building"

Middle management has gotten far too bureaucratic, demanding, and dull. Here's a fice-step playbook for making middle management impactful and exciting again.

Companies spend way too much time in bureaucracy. Rather than focus on performance and impact, the most common operating systems focus colleagues on deflecting blame, earning a pat on the head, attaining the next promotion, and then getting out of there. This isn't performance. It's performance art. To build companies that can thrive in the future of work, leaders must learn only ten key frameworks. 1‍. Diagnose your organization's performance culture 2. Discover your total motivation 3. The performance & motivation connection 4. Operating models create motivation 5. Vision & strategy set the north star 6. Structure & roles create meaningful ownership 7. Performance cadences maintain the drumbeat 8. Habit-based leadership gives every leader a playbook 9. Skill-based talent systems make apprenticeship easy and fun 10. Play profiles match colleagues to work

‍Job descriptions are critical, so why are so many so bad? Job descriptions often serve as the first introduction a person has to their job. They set expectations and can help colleagues start with momentum. However, in practice, many job descriptions are uninspiring and not particularly helpful. To write exciting, useful job descriptions, infuse them with purpose, vision, and customer-centric storytelling.

As a leader, it can be extremely frustrating when your team struggles to solve problems. You don't want to micromanage, but you also need to land viable solutions that drive results - and do it quickly. Fortunately, there's a 6-step flow you can follow to solve problems effectively, inclusively, and efficiently. Frame goals as intriguing questions 1. Frame goals as intriguing questions 2. Share important context 3. Separate idea generation and evaluation 4.Embrace asynchronous idea collection and discussion 5.Categorize ideas to identify patterns and blind spots 6.Use clear criteria to choose ideas

In the spirit of becoming more adaptive, organizations have rushed to implement Agile software development. But many have done so in a way that actually makes them less agile. These companies have become agile in name only, as the process they’ve put in place often ends up hurting engineering motivation and productivity. Common pitfalls include overemphasis on documentation, lack of strategic planning, and poor cross-functional collaboration. To truly benefit from Agile, teams should adopt a no-handoff, collaborative approach, focus on minimally viable experiments, maintain customer-centric processes, use timeboxes to guide experimentation, and constantly question and adapt their processes. This balanced approach can enhance motivation and performance, making organizations genuinely agile.

Many leaders have overcome the first hurdles of moving their teams remotely. The next critical question is: How do you motivate people who work from home? The answer lies not in perks or control mechanisms but in making the work interesting, collaborative, and inclusive. Research shows that remote work can reduce motivation, particularly when employees have no choice in their work environment. To counteract this, leaders should focus on fostering direct motives such as play, purpose, and potential, while mitigating indirect motives like emotional and economic pressure. Encouraging experimentation and problem-solving, rather than rigid adherence to processes, can enhance engagement and adaptability. Regular check-ins, discussions about motivation, and a balanced focus on both tactical and adaptive performance are crucial. A recommended weekly rhythm includes: Monday: Hold a team performance-cycle meeting to review last week's impact and learnings, set commitments for the week, identify areas for experimentation, and assign responsibilities. Tuesday–Thursday: Conduct individual meetings with team members to help them tackle slightly challenging tasks and coordinate small group meetings for collaboration on experiments and problem-solving. Friday: Focus on reflection by showcasing and gathering input on the week's experiments, checking in on motivation and progress, and discussing struggles and successes. By empowering employees to tackle meaningful challenges and maintaining a structured yet flexible weekly rhythm, leaders can sustain high motivation and productivity in remote settings.