Should I Stay at a Job Where Management Actively Tries to Stifle Creativity?
Chapters
0:0 Cal's Intro0:19 Cal reads a question about management and productivity
1:45 Cal suggests to not leave job right away
2:31 Cal explains External Work System Approach
5:0 Cal explains office hours
5:52 Making status clear
00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03.400 | All right.
00:00:06.900 | So let's do another question here.
00:00:08.800 | We got one from Jeffrey.
00:00:12.320 | Jeffrey says, should I stay at a job
00:00:14.960 | where the management actively tries to stifle productivity?
00:00:21.440 | Context is important here.
00:00:24.040 | Looking at the elaboration, Jeffrey has been at this job
00:00:28.160 | for eight years.
00:00:30.320 | I'm just thinking about that.
00:00:31.600 | That would be funny if this was a question from Jesse.
00:00:34.000 | And it was Jesse being like, how do I
00:00:35.520 | get out of a position where my manager is so unproductive
00:00:39.760 | and makes me unproductive?
00:00:41.080 | And it was just a passive aggressive way
00:00:43.600 | of getting back at me.
00:00:44.640 | And it turns out I'm a terrible boss that's
00:00:46.560 | really chaotic and disorganized.
00:00:48.720 | All right.
00:00:52.480 | All right, Jeffrey.
00:00:54.560 | You've worked there for eight years.
00:00:56.600 | They manipulate-- your managers manipulate your workloads
00:00:59.600 | by assigning them at random times that
00:01:01.440 | are very disadvantageous, like Friday afternoons or afternoons
00:01:04.480 | before I leave to take the day off.
00:01:06.200 | It's good paying benefits.
00:01:07.280 | But he's getting frustrated because it's our fault.
00:01:09.640 | I mean, we have been infecting poor Jeffrey here
00:01:13.680 | with visions of how knowledge work can actually unfold,
00:01:18.560 | ways that's not overloaded, ways that's not stressful,
00:01:21.160 | ways in which you are in control of your time.
00:01:23.480 | And you're moving the needle and getting things done,
00:01:26.000 | but on your own terms.
00:01:26.880 | You're not overworked.
00:01:27.680 | You're not overstressed.
00:01:28.560 | And he's learned that that's all possible.
00:01:30.320 | And he turns around, and his boss is like,
00:01:33.680 | I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday.
00:01:37.880 | We're in Lumberg territory.
00:01:39.920 | It's an office space reference.
00:01:41.800 | All right, what do we do about this?
00:01:44.080 | Jeffrey, here's what I'm going to suggest.
00:01:46.760 | Don't leave your job right away, but I'm
00:01:49.120 | going to make you more rigid.
00:01:53.520 | I'll explain how in a second.
00:01:55.800 | If that blows up, if the Lumberg in your life says, no way,
00:02:02.720 | I said I need this tomorrow, get it done,
00:02:05.360 | then you start looking somewhere else.
00:02:07.600 | And you can be confident that it was a good thing to do.
00:02:09.960 | So here's what I mean by getting more rigid.
00:02:13.000 | Get your systems in place and enforce them.
00:02:18.960 | So in this case, you need a system--
00:02:21.520 | and this is something I've been working on recently
00:02:23.720 | and some of my thinking that I haven't published a lot yet.
00:02:26.960 | So I'm giving you some ideas that are hot off the presses.
00:02:29.560 | I'm a big believer in this external work system approach,
00:02:35.760 | where instead of just in knowledge work,
00:02:39.120 | thinking about all things that need to be done
00:02:41.080 | as existing on individual people's plates.
00:02:44.040 | We just throw these around on the people's plates.
00:02:46.200 | Jeffrey, do this.
00:02:46.880 | Now it's on your plate, and I don't have to worry about it.
00:02:50.240 | Hey, Jesse, you do this.
00:02:51.680 | Now it's on your plate, I don't have to worry about it.
00:02:54.000 | I'm a big believer in having an external system into which work
00:02:58.600 | that needs to get done goes, and that people then
00:03:02.040 | pull work out of that external system
00:03:04.560 | as they have the appropriate time to do it.
00:03:07.440 | I think this is actually probably the right structure
00:03:09.640 | for work assignment in most knowledge work scenarios.
00:03:12.400 | A good external system has a few things to it.
00:03:15.200 | One, a good filter.
00:03:16.560 | So it's really clear, like here's
00:03:18.000 | a different type of work that could come into the system,
00:03:19.860 | and it has to go through these properly shaped portals.
00:03:22.480 | And if your work doesn't fit, then it doesn't go in.
00:03:24.840 | So you're making the person assigning the work do more work.
00:03:26.960 | Two, there's a real organizational ethic
00:03:28.880 | inside of the system, how the work gets organized
00:03:30.880 | and prioritized.
00:03:31.520 | That's thoughtful.
00:03:32.920 | And three, status is really clear to anyone who cares.
00:03:35.960 | All right, this thing I put into the external system,
00:03:38.160 | it's been organized.
00:03:39.160 | No one's working on it yet, but it's relatively high
00:03:42.760 | on the priority list.
00:03:43.880 | Probably someone will get to it in the next two weeks.
00:03:46.640 | I think in the end, that's what most knowledge work
00:03:48.840 | organizations need.
00:03:50.760 | Now, Jeffrey, they're not going to do this.
00:03:52.840 | So I want you to simulate this with yourself.
00:03:56.040 | I want you to basically imagine that you
00:03:59.200 | have an external system you can control where work comes
00:04:01.660 | in through these holes, it gets organized.
00:04:03.720 | If it doesn't fit, then it can't come in.
00:04:05.480 | And clear status is given to the people who care about it.
00:04:07.840 | And then there's what you're actually working on this week
00:04:10.440 | and this day.
00:04:11.400 | And you work on a reasonable amount of stuff
00:04:13.320 | until it's done, and then you pull more stuff out
00:04:14.600 | of this system.
00:04:15.120 | And how do you simulate something like this?
00:04:16.600 | I mean, I'm still working out the details,
00:04:18.360 | but a few different things.
00:04:20.000 | So how do you simulate that clear filter on what comes in?
00:04:24.720 | Well, someone put something on your plate that is half-baked,
00:04:27.600 | and they don't give you all the information,
00:04:28.920 | and they're just playing obligation hot potato
00:04:30.680 | and just trying to get it off their plate
00:04:32.000 | because it's on their head and they don't
00:04:33.240 | want it to be on their head.
00:04:34.600 | You say something like, all right,
00:04:37.680 | I'm happy to take this on board.
00:04:41.600 | This is the information I'll need.
00:04:45.240 | That's back to them.
00:04:46.760 | So they'll have to give you and get you that information.
00:04:49.120 | If you really want to push it here,
00:04:51.520 | you can involve processes here.
00:04:53.880 | You can say, I'm happy to take this on board.
00:04:57.680 | There's a bunch of questions that
00:05:00.320 | would need to be resolved for me to really understand
00:05:02.480 | what you need here.
00:05:04.400 | Please, I have these clear office hours.
00:05:08.280 | So whenever is convenient for you,
00:05:10.520 | you just jump on one of these.
00:05:12.240 | Here they are.
00:05:13.200 | And I'll get from you all the information I need.
00:05:17.160 | Or here's my Calendly.
00:05:18.560 | Take a 30-minute slot, and that's
00:05:20.280 | where I'll get all the information I need.
00:05:22.120 | So now you are having these carefully shaped portholes
00:05:29.000 | in which information can come in that if it doesn't have
00:05:31.120 | everything you need, it's not coming in the system.
00:05:33.240 | None of this like, hey, Jeffrey, can you
00:05:36.080 | see what we need to get this client's reimbursement
00:05:39.440 | up to date or something?
00:05:40.720 | Like, no, no, no, no.
00:05:41.840 | Let's figure out exactly what that means.
00:05:44.320 | And you can use processes and systems there.
00:05:47.360 | Two, OK, once they're in the system,
00:05:49.760 | make its status really clear to people.
00:05:51.960 | All right, I've taken this into my queue.
00:05:54.680 | I'm looking at my queue now.
00:05:56.760 | And there's like three or four things ahead of this.
00:06:00.320 | So my best guess is probably it'll
00:06:02.480 | be a week from now before I can get to it
00:06:07.760 | without changing priorities on the queue.
00:06:10.720 | Now, this means you've got to have this information really
00:06:13.680 | well put together.
00:06:14.440 | You've got to have a keeping track of everything, what
00:06:17.200 | I'm working on.
00:06:17.840 | You've got to have your act together, Jeffrey,
00:06:19.720 | if you're going to pull this off.
00:06:22.000 | But you're giving them that good status update.
00:06:23.920 | And then from an organizational perspective,
00:06:25.440 | you're keeping it really clear.
00:06:26.760 | All the things, all the information, their status.
00:06:28.800 | Use a Trello board for this.
00:06:29.920 | Like, here's the stuff that I have all the information.
00:06:31.720 | Here's the stuff I'm waiting to hear back on.
00:06:33.400 | Here's the relative priority.
00:06:34.560 | And you've got to be very careful in your weekly
00:06:35.920 | and daily planning to be pulling things from this list
00:06:38.360 | and actually getting the things done and being reliable.
00:06:40.600 | And they can depend on you.
00:06:41.760 | You can get idiosyncratic credits, idiosyncrasy credits.
00:06:48.000 | That's the term.
00:06:48.960 | It's an Adam Grant term.
00:06:50.640 | You can get those credits, the ability
00:06:52.280 | to do things weird if you actually deliver.
00:06:54.760 | If you don't deliver, then you get no leeway.
00:06:56.960 | And then actually, there it is.
00:06:59.040 | The stuff's in my system.
00:07:00.040 | I pull out what's reasonable for the week.
00:07:02.320 | They don't have the option anymore of saying,
00:07:05.000 | it's Friday afternoon, get this done by Saturday morning.
00:07:09.160 | And if they want to push back, they can push back.
00:07:11.200 | But they have to push back on your system.
00:07:12.920 | And they have to say, I don't want
00:07:14.880 | to have to give you that information.
00:07:16.640 | If they say, no, I want this, whatever, you're like, OK,
00:07:18.920 | but let me just tell you, these are the things that
00:07:21.000 | have to get moved to lower priority.
00:07:22.800 | They have to confront how much time you actually
00:07:24.800 | have available.
00:07:26.280 | One of two things will happen.
00:07:28.120 | One, they will say, Jeffrey's great.
00:07:29.680 | He's been here eight years.
00:07:30.800 | He delivers.
00:07:31.440 | He's awesome.
00:07:32.200 | We don't want to lose him.
00:07:34.480 | I really just wanted clarity anyways.
00:07:37.600 | I mean, I-- and here I'm simulating the boss.
00:07:40.400 | I'm really disorganized.
00:07:41.480 | I hate having things in my head.
00:07:42.920 | I throw things on your plate as soon as I think about them,
00:07:45.380 | because I don't want to have to worry about them.
00:07:47.520 | So long as I know I can trust you, oh, it's in your system,
00:07:50.480 | you have the information, it's going to happen in two weeks,
00:07:52.600 | and fine.
00:07:53.800 | I don't have to think about it.
00:07:55.100 | You do you.
00:07:56.800 | Or they say, no, no, no, no.
00:08:01.080 | Like, forget that.
00:08:02.720 | You need to just respond to me and do everything
00:08:05.040 | right when I say it.
00:08:05.880 | And then, Jeffrey, you have the information
00:08:08.320 | you need that it's time to find a different position.
00:08:10.360 | It might be quitting that job.
00:08:11.360 | It might be changing your position within that company
00:08:13.660 | so that you're much more independent,
00:08:15.560 | where you're trading performance for freedom.
00:08:19.760 | All right, I'm going to be more like a consultant.
00:08:21.800 | Pay me by my performance, but you can't bother me.
00:08:23.920 | Whatever you need to do, but give that a try.
00:08:28.120 | Give the external system a try.
00:08:29.600 | You might be surprised how much they'll put up with.
00:08:31.800 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08:35.160 | (upbeat music)
00:08:37.740 | (upbeat music)