Surprize Quiz!

(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)

Monday, August 23, 2004

Try to answer this question honestly, without trying to "reverse engineer" the correct answer. This isn't a job interview, so you gain the most if you answer correctly and learn something about yourself:

You have just been promoted to head of an important department in your organization. The previous head has been transferred to an equivalent position in a less important department. Your understanding of the reason for the move is that the performance of the department as a whole has been mediocre. There have not been any glaring deficiencies, just a perception of the department as so-so rather than very good. Your charge is to shape up the department. Results are expected quickly. Rate the quality of the following strategies for succeeding at your new position.

Always delegate to the most junior person who can be trusted with the task. This gives juniors an opportunity to learn and develop, raising the overall competence of the group.
Give your superiors frequent progress reports. This makes your star shine brightly, obtaining support from stakeholders. More importantly, frequent reports are opportunities for frequent feedback, keeping the group's direction in harmony with the organization's goals.
Announce a major reorganization of the department that includes getting rid of whomever you believe to be "dead wood." Letting go of "C" players is harsh, but it's just as important as hiring people who are "smart" and "get things done." The team is only as strong as the weakest link.
Concentrate more on your people than on the tasks to be done. Process, process, process. Experienced people know how to do their jobs, but the performance of the group depends on motivating the team and process improvements.
Make people feel completely responsible for their work. If no-one is accountable for results, there's no accounting for the results you'll obtain :-)

This question was crafted by Richard Wagner, a psychologist at Florida State University (I have added the italicized points to the strategies). I found the question in The Talent Myth, an excellent article by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) on the relationship between talent and job performance.

Gladwell's explanation of the results, plus a comparison to my experience with Agile practices, can be found in Quiz Answers, plus "Instilling Responsibility".

Labels: agile

¶ 8:29 AM

Comments on “Surprize Quiz!”:

I selected E), but couldn't wait for your post so I went ahead and read the article. Turns out I might be a good manager... but of course that wasn't the point of that article.

The article was quite interesting. Still, the conclusions are not all that surprising. I agree that talent should always be rewarded, but I cannot imagine rewarding talent that doesn't perform.

If you are running a dinner theatre production of Hamlet with a cast of Tony award winners, would you give the talent a raise if they never perform the show? Or worse, they went on stage and performed MacBeth?

andre

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:57 PM

It's funny that you chose a theatrical example! Most of my management experience (well, successful experience, anyway) is in theatre. My inspiration as a director was William Ball. One of his techniques in dealing with actors who don't "perform" (ouch!) is to give them more attention, more responsibility. In particular, he insists that you should never give negative feedback - only positive. Sounds wacky, but it actually works. People very quickly learn that "lack of positive" means "negative." Works for kids too, speaking as a parent.

In short, I disagree with your assessment that "rewarding talent that doesn't perform" is a bad idea. Sometimes it's precisely what you need to do to motivate people.

# posted by

jtangney : 3:09 PM

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