4 reasons why people don’t do something or “How to rock low-performer”

It so happened that my father-in-law and mother-in-law have a doctor of pedagogical sciences. Which leads, willy-nilly, to begin to comprehend various useful techniques :)

Once, after some scientific advice for whiskey tea in the kitchen, the father-in-law says: Sasha, but what do you think, why people don’t do something?

Honestly, the question puzzled me. I began to fantasize: well, circumstances interfere, character traits, lack of experience ...

No, no, he said, father-in-law, it's not like that. If people do not do something, there can be 4 reasons for this. After which my arsenal of management tools was replenished with another. And we’ll talk about this tool today, and at the same time we’ll analyze a few stories from real life:

• Why should project managers be moved to a separate building
• What to do when your customer does not use your reporting system
• How to swing low-performer

So, if a person does not do what you want from him (or does something wrong or wrong), do not immediately rush to kill him to solve the problem. Let's take a break. After all, if a person does not behave the way we want from him, there can always be one of 4 reasons for this:

1. Fuzzy goal (understood in his own way)

I remember when I told Intel to my employee: Max, look at static analyzers. Max says, they say, is not a question, and leaves. Comes in 3 days. Me:
- Well, how?
- I looked.
- And ...?
“Here is the table ...

I almost killed him.” I needed a person to find a free static Java code analyzer and screw it to our version control system.

Max understood the task in his own way - that it was necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of the available static analyzers. A man downloaded and installed all these analyzers, came up with metrics for comparison, found test cases. For three days he was engaged in a rather meaningful activity. And I, as his manager, ended up dissatisfied.

If I ask you now who is to blame for this situation, you are likely to blame me. And here let me disagree :)

You can blame the manager for fuzzy tasks when you are an employee. But when a task is set for you, you can’t always tell your boss then: well, you can somehow get together there, learn how to set tasks properly ...

Delegating a task is always a game of two or more people. And if I had clarified with Max how he understood the task, this situation would not have arisen. But if Max himself would have confused my statement of the problem, this situation would not have arisen either.

2. Doesn’t (can also be attributed here: doesn’t know)

A person may not be able to do what we want from him. At the same time, he may in good faith be mistaken that he knows how (“in the worst case, I will figure it out”). “If I wrote virtual machines, will I really not make a presentation in PowerPoint? ..” - and I will. It’s another matter that it will not be possible to show it to anyone, but that’s another story ...

There is exactly one case when we can be 100% sure that a person knows how to do something. If he has repeatedly successfully (both words are important here) did similar tasks, and you saw it.

If a person can tell how to do the task, this is certainly better than if he cannot tell. But this is not a guarantee that he can. I can tell you in enough detail. how to break bricks with your hand. But in reality, I'm afraid the brick will win anyway.

Therefore, if you have not seen how a person does the task, then at the stage of setting it would be good to agree on the type and frequency of control. “Man, we haven’t done this type of task before, so let’s come to you every 3 minutes for two days and we’ll see what happens and how we move?”

3. can't

This is a lack of resources. First of all, time. For example, you set a task to a person, and he works in several projects. And so you are gone. After you, two more managers looked at him, and strongly motivated a person to perform precisely their tasks. You come, your task is not done. Why, because “we agreed” and “you promised”? Not enough resource.

Or if you propose an engineer to debug a harsh corporate Enterprise monster on a 386 computer, where the monster only starts for 20 minutes, the task will probably also not move fast.

4. Does not want

For some reason, a person does not want to do a task. Maybe he doesn't like you. Or he sincerely does not understand why this task needs to be done. Or he does not agree with the decision. There can be many reasons.

How to use the tool?

Intuitively, we often start with the 4th reason and try to find a solution to it. “How would I motivate an employee to do A, B and C” is probably the most popular request for our training.

Hey, wait, is the question exactly motivation? Let's close the first 3 reasons first. If they are not closed (you don’t have such confidence), you don’t have to go and decide “doesn’t” yet. This is not easy, and there are other tools ( one and two ) on this subject .

But sometimes it comes to the ridiculous.

Case of life. The technical director of one large company

is calling somehow: - Sasha, I have a question, I want to consult. My project managers do not think about the strategy of their projects. I want to transfer them to this building in a neighboring building, and so I decided to consult with you whether it will help or not.

At that moment, my brain collapsed in half. Remember how in KVN?

A man runs out onto the stage:
- Guys, there Lesha got stuck in the elevator, give 500 rubles!
- I don’t see the connection ...
- And I don’t have to ... “Lesha got stuck in the elevator” - information, “give 500 rubles” - please.

We begin to understand. The situation is approximately the following. The company had research and development teams. In each team there were engineers and there were the most engineer engineers - technical leaders. These leaders have now been made project managers. They are responsible for the research team, production team, validation +, they are in charge of a technical writer, systems analyst and someone else there as part of their project.

And now, says the problem! They sit, as they did, in the same room with their engineers. And they tear them off on their engineering issues. As a result, managers do not think about the project strategy. I want to transfer them to a separate building.

Hmm, the picture becomes more understandable ... And here I suddenly recall about 4 reasons.

Wait, I say, if managers don’t think about the project strategy, there can be one of four reasons for this:

1. They don’t understand what you want from them. You tell them: think about the project strategy? What should they do? Do they need to somehow strain, blush, sweat? How do you understand what they think about strategy? What are the signs?

You may want a strategic plan for the project from them. This is a clear request. Or do you want them from time to time to bring you ideas about the strategic development of the project? This is another request. What do you specifically want from people, did you voice them?

2. Go ahead. If people have never written a plan for the strategic development of the project, then how will they write it now? Maybe they tried, saw that it turned out some kind of nonsense, and did not even show.

Maybe it makes sense for them to give some kind of book on this topic? Or hold a seminar? Or you tell them yourself. how to write strategic plans if you can do it yourself.

3. How do people with time loading? Previously, they led five engineers, now they have a whole crowd subordinate. And you, probably, require some more releases from them? How are they with time?

4. Do people generally want to be project managers? Or could not refuse you?

It is hard to refuse the boss who comes and says: “Friends, we are facing a major transformation in the company. The only people I can rely on are you! ” It is unlikely that someone at this moment will say: “Oh, what the hell!” People silently sigh and go to pull a new strap.

As a result, before moving to a new office, there were many topics for discussion. :)

Or here's another case:

Case of life. A man comes up after a conference in Novosibirsk:

- Alexander, such a question. We have been writing a new reporting system for three months. As a result, they wrote. It has everything: 28 pages, each with 10 tabs. There is all the information - in general, all.
- Congratulations, what's the problem?
- Our German customer does not use it. Instead of logging into the system and receiving data, she calls each of our engineers and asks him what he was doing. How do we motivate her to use our reporting system?

Well, let's understand. If the customer does not use your reporting system, there may be one of 4 reasons for this:

1. Does she even understand that she needs to use this system? Or you wrote her a 5-page letter with an unclear title, and she said: “Oh, guys - well done, doing something ... there will be time, I will read it.”

2. Does she know how to use this system? Why are you so sure? How long does it take for her to find the information she needs? Maybe she honestly tried once, twice, three times - buried in the system, found nothing, and decided in the old fashioned way - to call engineers. They always answer what is needed.

3. Does she even have access to the system? May be. she went there the first time, she was not allowed in, and she decided that the system had not yet been finalized. And while it’s being finalized, will I call the engineers ...

4. Maybe a person just likes to talk with your engineers? Or she does not trust the data in the system and double-checks the information.

It would be nice to think about these reasons before talking with her - and so go for them.

The main difficulty of using the tool

The main difficulty in using this tool is to remember it in time. Seriously, it seems so trivial that it is not always remembered.

Case of life. At one of the trainings, the students had the following question: how to swing the low-performer? The team has a couple of very cool guys, a few middle peasants. And there is one person who makes everything substantially slower than others. How to rock it. so that he starts to do more and faster?

We have already taken air into our chests to start giving advice, as we remembered that in the beginning the situation needs to be clarified. Indeed, if a person works much less and slower than the others, there can be one of 4 reasons for this:

1. He does not understand that the way he works is bad. Yes, he sees that slowly. But quality! It’s not that these - they threw up the code and threw it. And here is a systematic approach, unit tests, self-reviews, etc., etc.

Has a manager ever directly told a person that he is not happy with the amount of his work? Or does a manager send non-verbal signals to a person? It ceases to give interesting tasks, begins to communicate with it less often, etc.

2. Does a person know how to work faster? Was it ever that it worked fast?

3. What else does a person do? Maybe in skype answers questions a beginner? Or now he has problems in his family, not so much for him.

4. What does he want at all? Stability? Or development? Of money? Become a tech lead? And then we can tie our arguments to his Wishlist .

Perhaps he does not agree at all with the decision on which we are currently working. And his behavior shows that the decision is wrong.

Here you need to understand, think before talking and communicate with a person. No need to swing, it is necessary to understand.

Finally - try looking for reasons

So that all this does not go in vain and doesn’t turn into just reading tales :), you can right now take a situation where someone does not what you want and try to figure out what his 4 reasons might be.

It would not hurt to think once again. And for sure, it will not be boring. :)

PS Previous articles in the series of management tools:

1. How to explain when you feel in one place?
2. Practicing Andragog Tips: How We Learn
3. How to play non-linear chess
4. Why do customers demand stupid reports?
5. 5 questions to clarify goals or why do you need a BMW X5?
6. 4 principles of constructive communication or why do we live in a mode of exploit?
7. 4-phase algorithm for solving problems with people or "What do you want if you are such a worthless manager?"
8. How to involuntarily troll the interlocutor and get a minus in karma
9. A set of furniture keys or how to come up with constructive arguments
10. Intelligence card "Formula of work with people"
11. Formula of need or How are we wrung out?

PPS I read the first comments - I realized that I needed to write another article. :) And then an experienced manager came in there already with 2 years of experience for the case of 10 years ago with Max.

Probably, I did not open the thought. Let's open it here so as not to change the text of the article and the relevance of the comments. Briefly and point by point:

We can look for those guilty for a wrong understanding of the problem for a long time, but to look for the guilty - IMHO, the last thing. It is necessary to make sure that such situations no longer arise.

In situations where my colleagues and I misunderstand each other, I believe that it is my responsibility to ensure that such situations are no longer repeated. Regardless of who the situation arose with - with a subordinate, with our customer or my business partner.

If readers of the article do not understand me the way I wanted, I will not write badly about readers. People understood as they understood. Means, I did not open the thought. Therefore, I am writing this postscript.

If you work as a manager and set the task incorrectly, then your responsibility is to make sure that such situations do not arise. If your boss set a task for you not clearly, then you can either scold him silently and at the hub and hope that the boss gets better (and hope is not the most stable plan), or do something so that such situations do not happen again.

My idea is very simple: you should take responsibility for what is happening on yourself. what role you would not be in. At least this is my belief, I believe in it. I repeat, the topic of a separate article. Thanks for the comments!

PS The Stratoplan blog has moved to a separate site: http://blog.stratoplan.ru - see you there!