Maverick!
Maverick Overall Rating 9/10
Idea: Workers can organize their own work
Tagline: How to manual about empowering workers in a creative mix of Socialism/Capitalism/Individualism
Rereadability: 2/10 -Quotes will bring back the major points - rereading not necessary unless rereading or trying to copy a specific point or piece of Semco companies
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Quotes:
As I tell our people constantly: we've all learned how to answer email on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon. Until we learn that, we are email slaves harnessed to the wicked ways of the Profit and Loss Master.
When I took over Semco from my father 12 years ago, it was a traditional company in every respect, with a pyramidal structure and a rule for every contingency. but today, out factory workers sometimes set their own production quotas and even come in on their own time to meet them,withought prodding from management or overtime pay. They help re-design the prroducts they make and formulate the marketing plans. Their bosses, for their part, can run our business units with extraordinary freedome, determining business strategy without interference from the top brass. They even set their own salaries, with no strings. Then again, everyone will know what they are, since all financial information at Semco is openly discussed. Indeed, our workers have unlimited access to our books (and we only keep one set). To showe we are serious about this, Semco, with the labour unions that represent our workers developed a course to teach everyone, even messengers and cleaning people, to read alance sheets and cash-flow statements. For truly big decisions, such as buying another company, everyone at Semco gets a vote. A few years ago, when we wanted to relocate a factory, we closed down for a day and everyone piled into buses to inspect three possible new sites. Then the workers decided. Their choice hardly thrilled us, since it was next to a company that was frequently on strike. But while no one in management wanted front-row seats to labour-management strife, we moved in anyway.
In the lobby of our headquarters, a standard-issue office building with four floors of steel and glass there is a reception desk but no receptioninst. That's the first clue that we are different. We don't have receptionists. We don't think they are necessary, despite all our visitors. We don't have secretaries either, or personal assistants. We don't believe in cluttering the payroll with ungratifying, dead-end jobs. Everyone at Semco, even top managers, fetches guests, stands over photocopiers, sends faxes, types letters, and dials the phone. We don't have executive dining rooms and parking is strictly first-come, first-served. It's all part of running a "natural business". At Semcowe have stripped away the unnecessary perks and privileges that feed the ego but hurt the balance sheet and distract everyone from the crucial corporate tasks of making, selling, biling and collecting.
We have a sales manager named Rubin Agater who sits there reading the newspaper hour after hour, not even making a pretence of looking busy. I'm sure this mystifies some of our visitors. Most modern managers wouldn't tolerate it. But when a Semco pump on an oil tanker on the other side of the world fails and millions of gallons of oil are about to spill into the sea, Rubin springs into action. He knows everything there is to know about our pumps and how to fix them. That's when he earns his salary. No one cares if he doesn't look busy the rest of the time. ----> Performance based evaluation and elimination or promotion based on results
I also take at least two months off each year to travel, and I like to roma far. There are pictures in my office from two recent expeditions, a balloon safari in Tanzania and a trek through the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan. I never leave a number where I can be reached when I'm away and I don't call in. I want everyone at Semco to be self-sufficient. The company is organized- well, maybe that's not quite the right word for us - not to depend too much on any individual, especially me. I take it as a point of pride that twice on my return from long trips my office had been moved - and each time it got smaller. My role is that of a catalyst. I try to create an environment in which others make decisions. Success means not making them myself. ----> Taking ourselves and our ego's out of the equation.
We have absolute trust in our employees. In fact, we are partners with them. On the assumption that a capitalist society must be capitalist for all, Semco has a profit sharing plan - but with a difference. Typically, companies hand down these plans like God anded Moses the commandments. The owners decide who gets what, when. At Semco, profit-sharing is democratic. We negotiated with our workers ofver the basic percentage to be distributed - about a quarter of our corporate profits, as it turned out - and they hold assemblies to decide how to split it. It's up to them. Profit-sharing has worked so well that once, during negotiations over a new labour contrace, a union leader argued that too big a raise would overextend the company.
In restructiring Semco, we've picked the best from many systems. From capitalism we take the ideasls of personal freedom, individualism, and competition. From the theory, not the practice, of socialism we have learned to control greed and share information and power. The Japanese have taught us the value of flexibility, although we shrink from their family-like ties to the company and their automatic veneration of elders. We want people to advance because of competence, not longevity or conformity.
Our factory workers, for example can come in any time between 7am and 9am. It's their choice, not ours. ---> The ability to make choices but withing certain parameters.
We've also changed the way our departments do business with each other. If one doesn't want to buy services from another, it's free to go outside the company and buy from someone else. The threat of competition keeps us all on our toes. Recently, we have encouraged employees to start their own companies, leasing them Semco machinery at favorable rates. We buy from our former employees, of course, but they are also free to sell to others, even Semco's competitors. This programme has made us leaner and more agile, and given them ultimate control of their working lives. It makes entrepreneurs out of employees. This is an extreme case of course, but we try to maximize the possibilities and minimize supervision for everyone at Semco. Not that we con't have accountability. Before bpeople are hired or promoted to leadership positions, they are interviewed and approved by all who will be working for them. And every six months managers are evaluated by those who work under them. The results are posted for all to see. Does this mean workers can fire their bosses? I guess it does, since anyone who consistently gets bad grades usually leaves Semco, one way or another.
My experiences in the execuive suite distressed me. Everyone was as starched as their shirts. I tried to fit in, I really did. I even went to a trendy men's store and acquired a complete corporate outfit - navy bluesuit with white pinstripes, white shirt with French Cuffs, black shoes. I didn't wear the suit - the suit wore me.
We had several requirements: the company had to be No.1 or No.2 in its market, have a connection with our own business, and be technologically advanced. It also had to be for sale for the right reasons, which were either because there was no one to succeed the founder, current managment was inefficient, or the parent company had lost interest. We weren't in the market for companies that made products of dubious quality or required large infusions of cash, which of course, we didn't have.
A small hole, can sink a big ship.
During this time I often thought of a business parable I had heard. Three stone cutters were asked about their jobs. The first said he was paid to cut stones. The second replied that he used special techniques to shape stones in an exceptional way, and proceeded to demonstrate his skills. The third stone cutter just smiled and said:"I build cathedrals".
Four hours later, all had been said, but there was still a deep split between those who believed in law, order, and organization above all and those who felt that people, motivated by a sense of involvement, could overcome any obstacle. It was a case of what in German, is called welfanschauung - how you see the world. The autocrats at Semco were convinced that nothing would get done if they didn't do it themselves or push their subordinates into doing it. They viewed company tasks much as parents see homework - disagreeable, perhaps, but mandatory. The touchy-feely crowd, on the other hand, was confident there was a better way, and that it involved giving up their power. It was Waterloo versus Woodstock and I didn't see how our Napoleans and our Timothy Learys would ever be reconciled.
Yes, I would attack my problem directly, and that problem was not simply the management of a business but something even more fundamental: The managment of time. So many executives find that the daily quota of 24 hours is too few to get to everything and still have any left over. I thought long and hard about time in the weeks after my visit to the Lahey Clinic. I realized that if I was going to find a cure for time sickness I first had to identify its causes.
Cause 1 - The belief that effort and results are directly proportional.
"Order and progress" the Brazilian flag proclaims. "Order or progress" is more like it, since they usually aren't found together. In business, effort is too often confused with result. The sales manager who overflows with charm when talking to customers and, after closing a sale, takes the rest of the day off to celebrate is regarded as lazy but lucky, not as a talented sales executive. When asked the reason for their success, entrepreneurs are fond of saying "A lot of hard work". Sounds good, doesn't it? It plays well at home, too, to families who have been ignored for years. But if great entrepreneurs were to answer the question honestly, most would probably list such factors as a finely tuned sense of timing, the ability to recognize opportunity, friends in the right places, an occasional moral lapse, and luck. May Horatio Alger forgive me, but hard work by itself is not enough. To say it is possible to establish a successful business by arriving early and staying late is like saying that every mailman can be Howard Hughes. There is a prevailing conviction that sweat is obligatory, and with each new drop an executive moves a little closer to financial heaven. I had to rid myself of this notion. It isn't healthy, it isn't even true.
Cause 2. The gospel that the quantity of work is more important than the quality of work.
This is a variation on the same theme. Early in the century Max Weber recognized that the Protestant ethic of hard work had permeated the business world. It is even more of a factor today. Executives feel pressure from their bosses to outwork colleagues and build their image and career. By this resoning, having a heart attack because of work leads to true glory and keeling over at the office is even better- a sign, a Calvinist might way, of being amongst the Elect. Someone who manages his time is often suspect. And if he goes to the theatre, doesn't carry a briefcase home, spends weekends with his family and sometimes even picks up the kids at school for lunch, then he has already descended into an advanced state of indolence. The executive who judges his contribution in hours will find himself muttering things like: Well we all know how unfair it was that they didn't promote me. Everyone knows I'm here at eight in the morning and eight in the evening. Or: My daughter needs to make an appointment to speak to me".
Cause 3. Things are a little uncertain at the office right now, i'll just have to work a little longer until they straighten out. Few excuses are as convincing as the we're-just-going-through-a-------. Fill in the blank: change at the top, restructuring, lay offs, expansion. Almost any change can be an excuse for poor time management. To allow such events to shape one's working day is to become a mere cork that bobs up and down on the sea.
Cause 4. Fear of delegation, and it's cousin, fear of replacibility.
Here is where we lay bare some nerves. Fear of delegation is the belief that no one is as competent to solve a problem as you are. This kind of thinking (which at times may be justified) usually results from the belief that tasks will inevitably be done poorly if not done by capable hands- your, of course. But how often is this really masking the fear that others can perform jobs you once thought only you could accomplish. This in turn leads to fear of replace-ability. This means postponing vacations, or taking them but leaving phone numbers where you can be reached morning, noon and night - and then being dissapointed that no one needed you while you were away.I'll have more thoughts about time sickness and how to cure it later, in Appendix b. For now, let me say that i have recovered so completely that I no longer wear a wristwatch. i gave it up soon after attending a concert by Brazil's most famous pianist, Madalenta Tagliaferro. As I listened to her play Sibelius, I realized that she had been born when Brazil was a monarchy, witnessed the invention of the automobile and the aircraft, lived through two World Wars, and was still performing. It struck me that time should be measured in years and decades, not minutes and hours. It is impossible to understand life in all its hugeness and complexity if one is constandly consulting a minute-counter. But how could I spread such an idea through a company being run as if every millisecond would dent our balance sheet? I couldn't. There was no way around it. Fernando would have to go. i admired his aggressiveness, energy , and dedication, but he needed a hard, intimidating environment for his magic to work. If it was magic. After my visit to the Lahey Clinic, I was pretty sure it wasn't. -----> Long Term thinking with projects not measured in minutiae of minutes or days but over long periods of time and effort investment.
As for our actual spending plans, we would eventually develop two budgets: a five-year plan and a sex month report. Yes, I know the argument against five year plans. Stalin used them, and look how that turned out. But when we look five years forward, we can ask oursvles whether we want to be in a particular market, or whether we should drop a product, or whether we will need a new factory, among other such questions. So a five year view is essential.
In contrast, we take an operational view of six months, because we found that in a conventional one-year plan people will invaiably believe that conditions will improve just enough to compensate for the problems they know they'll have in the first half of the year. Or vice versa.
At Semco we introduced a programme that requires ech executive to make an educated guess about the revenues, expenses and profits for his department at the end of each month. A few days later, the official report is distributed. The comparison gives everyone a sense of how much each manager actually knows about his area.
MBWA - Management by wandering around.
Popularised at Hewlett-Packard, it simply means taking time each week to walk around with, as Bob Dylan said, no destination known. You can see how new projects are going, solve some problem in the factory or the office, or just chat in the hall with someone you haven't seen in a long time.
Suits and ties were easy compared to workers' uniforms. I remember attending a meeting of top managers at which several major investments were approved in a matter of minutes. Then we came to the matter of replacing our factory workers' sky blue work outfits. we spent more than an hour arguing about the relative merits of various hues- which was more sober, which more inspiring, which showed dirt less - without reaching a conclusion. Everyone had a chance to express an opinion on the uniforms, I thought to myself, except the people whose opinions should count the most: the people who would wear them -----> Once upon a time there was a committee that needed to decide on two issues a new Nuclear Reactor Plant and a new Bicycle plant. The issue of the nuclear reactor plant was raised but since it was soo complex it was approved piecemeal without any modifications. The Bicycle plant issue was raised and everyone had something to say. One person wanted this modification, another that. Everyone had something to say. ---> As complexity increases after reaching a certain threshold people switch off and either agree or disagree. With smaller degrees of complexity everyone wants a voice. When raising issues at committees make the problem infinitely complex and easier to say yes to than no. Disguise easy problems as more difficult and contorted to get them through approval steps.
By the People -
At first, once they had found their tongues, the committee members concentrated on three issues: money, money, money. Most were reasonable about it, though. They asked us to survey other companies to find out what their workers were paid, and when Semco lagged behind the industry average the committees gave us time to phase in increases.
Soon we were besieged with suggestions and demans. One committee produced a list of 23 items, including transportation to and from work and first class medical insurance. They eventually got the latter, but not the former. The committees were also curious about the bosses' perks. They all had cars, said Soares, they all belonged to clubs, they all had very nice lives.
Our annual convention provoked their scrutiny too, especially when I had to cancer a meeting with a factory committee because it conflicted with one of our retreats. Glad you brought that us, a worker representative said. Just what is this retreat going to cost ? We told the truth, the meetings were never less than five figures. A hell of a waste, the worker muttered. He wanted to konw why we had to meet in such a pricey hotel, why our spouses had to come, and just what we did there anyway. Now we have much cheaper conventions, with fewer managers and much less fun. ---> Annual Meetings where fun is one of the criteria used as a post-mortem to judge whether the meeting worked or not.
One Change leads to another -
The weekly meetings, which started that first day, quickly changed the plant's culture. Instead of waging guerilla wards with the boss for a raise or a new assistant or the freedom to make a decision, managers now marshalled their arguments for the meetings. The agendas for these sessions were lengthy at first, but over time they shrank as everyone began to make more decisions themselves. People only brought up issues they were genuinely unsure about. And even so, the group would often just throw the problem back in the person's lap. Mara, for instance was told she should publish brochures in whatever colours she wanted, with whatever layout she wished, and hire however many people her budget allowed to help. But what if I put out a mailing and the sales reps don't like it? she asked. It's up to you to decide whether you are going to consult them before you publish, I told her. If you feel confident about it, go ahead. If they don't like it your rating as Marketing Manager will suffer and next time you'll be sure to consult them. We're not against mistakes here. If you're not making some mistakes, you probably aren't taking enough risks. But what if they don't like my work? Mara persisted. One of two things. If sales go up, they will learn to trust your judgement. I paused for emphasis. If they go down, they won't. And then? Mara asked. Well, this group puts together the budget, and they'll only include you in it if they think you're a good investment. Looking back on it, I can't remember a single decision that I made in that period. Which was just as well, for I am at my best when I am doing the least. I always smile when I hear executives boast about how parcipative they are. I want everyone to feel involved, they will way. So I call everyone in, hear what is on their minds, and only then decide. What people call participative managment usually is just consultative management. There's nothing new to that. Managers have been consulting employees for centuries. How progressive do you have to be, after all, to ask someon else's opinion? And to listen to that opinion - we'll that's a start. But it's only when the bosses give up decision-making and let their employees govern themselves that the possibility exists for a business jointly managed by workers and executives. And that is true participative management, not just lip service to it.
The Trouble with Rules
That's what's wrong with bosses, I thought to myself. So many of them are better prepared to find error and to criticize than to add to the effort. To be the boss is what counts to most bosses. They confuse authority with authoritarianism. They don't trust their subordinates
We decided to hold another meeting for the middle managers the next week. And another one the week after. Then it became a weekly affair. The agenda was simply. We would talk only about company policy and philosophy. Operational problems were out. The hardliners, who thought these sessions were useless, quickly dubbed them " Growing Bees in the Sky". But I liked the term and used it officially from then on. ---> Taking Criticism and turning it into a positive attribute
We were trading written rules for common sense.
The desire for rules and the need for innovation are, I believe, incompatible. (Remember, Order or Progress). Rules freeze companies inside a glacer; innovation lets them ride sleighs over it.
What about economies of scale? I am often asked. If Semco went out and bought tyres for all the cars in our fleet at once, for instance, wouldn't we get a better price than if employees go out and buy tyres on their own. Probably. Then again, if our auto department scrupulously and blindly followed the manufacturer's overly conservative recommendations on tyre replacement, we would no doubt buy a lot more tyres than we do now by letting our employees decide when they need changing. And I'll bet that's true with many items we used to buy corporately and now purchase individually.
Too big for our own Good
Large, centralized organizations foster alienation like stagnant ponds breed algae. In massive corporations, an employee will know few of his colleagues. Everyone is part of a gigantic, impersonal machine, and it is impossible to feel motivated when you feel you are just another cog. Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive. Stalin understood this. Prisoners in his gulags were obliged to dig enormous holes in the snow, then fill them in. It broke their spirits. ---> Have groups be small enough so individual people can see the fruits of their efforts.
Semco's structure was what business school professors call a functional system. That meant production managers at our plants reported to the production director at our headquarters; the salespeople answered to the marketing director; the administrative officers to the financial director; and so on. It sounds orderly, but anyone who has worked in a diversified multiplant ocmpany knows that a high percentage of decisions made under this long-distance arrangement are just plain wrong, and take too long as well. It is a feudal system, isolating engineering from sales and sales from finance and generating solutions and strategies that serve one department at the expense of another.
European companies seem to prefer and organization based on a matrix system. [In the matrix system} They have learned to survive in an environment that resembles the United Nations by behaving with extreme caution at all times. of course, you can't try new ideas without taking risks or making mistakes, and people in companies organized under the matrix system generally don't.
Computer-generated information, which was the means, has become the end. Instead of helping us organize data, computers are drowning us in it. ---> The Huxlian vs. the Orwellian models of state domination
Gore had stripped the titles from manager's business cards and adopted a system in which salaries corresponded to monthly performance and were adjusted by groups of employees who had the option of cutting an individual's pay to zero.
Divide and Prosper ---> Most companies are too big and we loose sight of everyone's function and contribution
Rogerio impressed us with his enthusiasm and unflappability in the face of our persistent questions about engineering, finance, and sales. The deal didn't work out but we hired Rogerio first chance we got. An electronic engineer by trade, Rogerio had a loping walk and bright dark eyes. He would prove to be a never-ending source of innovation. ---> Cross recruiting talent when you find it
What caused this success? The kids innovated all over the place. Each day started with a short meeting atteded by all the plant's employees, who wore white coveralls, Japanese-style. Financial information was regularly posted on the bulletin board, and an open office plan encouraged easy access to everyone by everyone. My favorite innovation was a board at the plant entrance with the name of each employees and next to it a wooden peg. As each person arrived in the morning he would hang one of three metal tags on the peg: a green tag stood for 'Good Mood', a yellow tag for 'Careful' and a red tag for 'Not Today- Please'. Maybe it was cute but the Kids took it seriously, selecting their tags carefully and paying heed to those of others.
The inmates take over the asylum -
We want workers to understand that they are part of a whole. And we want them to figure out the best ways to do their jobs. ---> Decentralization of work. Linked to the concept of Aggregated computing power of 1 CPU, no matter how large and a lattice work of small independent aggregated CPU's.
Sharing the Wealth
It was soon clear that if our executives were ashamed of their salaries, it migh tbe because they felt they weren't really earning them, for if they merited their pay they could easliy prove their worth, whether it was based on specialized knowledge, experience, education or the mastery of a large department with a big budget and staff. Execuvves should be proud of what they earn, and their salaries ought to provide everyone with an incentive to rise. In time our workers came to accept Semco's executive pay and didn't try to get us to lower it, as we were warned would happen. But they weren't shy about letting us know when they thought we had too many highly paid executives floating around.
It has been rooted in the corporate consciousness that profits belong to those to invest the capita. Of course, this is the rule even at companies at which the founder originally invested very little and which grew largely becaues of the energy and talents of the employees. Entrepreneurs aren't dumb. But some companies, looking for new ways to motivate workers, began to share the profits with them. This is hardly a socialist conceit: few ideas are as capitalist as profit- sharing which rewards whith part of a company's earnings the people who help generate this blessed surplus. Nor is it new. What is an annual bonus, after all, but a form of profit-sharing?
What would you rather have, the tail of an elephant, or an entire ant? --> Would you rather have 100% of nothing or 5% of something ?
Miles of Files
Instead of buying new cabinets, Ricardo decides to do a paper purge. While doing the purge and while purging the company of all papers during a 2 day Paper cleaning routine Ricardo asks his employees to ask the following when trying to throw away papers:
What is the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out?
Affirmative Actions
Corporation must clearly and consistently demonstrate fairness, and I believe exceptions can be costly. If there is even a hint that hiring or promotion does not depend on merit, credibility with workers will be threatened. Even if only one in ten workers is hired or promoted injustly, who do you think people will talk about? Fairness for employees is like quality for customers - it takes years to build up but collapses over a single incident.
Trading Places-
Moving Managers around to different units and different jobs
Man is by nature restless. When left too long in one place he will inevitably grow bored, unmotivated and unproductive. The cure, I believed was to encourage mangagers to exchange jobs with one another.Someone in accounting, for instance, would arrange a swap jobs with someone in sales. They would start planning a year or so in advance, to give each time to learn the other's duties and make the transition smooth. But as with other programmes at Semco, we wanted our employees to take the initiative. We didn't want them to leave it to us to decide who went where. We felt that a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years in a job were ample. Anyone who wanted to stay put for longer could, provided he could ocntinually create new challanges for himself. Otherwise, it was find a partner and dance.
We are great believers in professional recycling, aka sabbaticals. We call it our Hepatitis Leave. When people tell us they don't have time to think we ask them to consider what would happen if they suddenly contracted hepatitis and were foreced to spend three months recuperating in bed. Then we tell them to go ahead and do it. Professionasl - can take a few weeks or even a few months every year or two away from their usual duties.It's not designed as a cure for overwork. It's meant to create a hiatus in a career during which our people can stop and rethink their working lives and their objectives.
Minding our own Business
Like so much of our thinking, our views on discipline are shaped by the conviction that our employees are adults, and should always be treated as such. As Semco changed, we came to stress two points about individual conduct: one, each employee is responsible for his own actions; two, what people do in their own time is their own business. We care only about an employees's work, not his private life, so long as it doesn't interfere with his performance on the job.
If we don't feel imperilled by our employees' vices, we don't feel responsible for them either. ..... But we don't want to turn our managers into Father Figures, even if ti makes them feel warm and cuddly inside. We don't want to be a big happy family. We want to be a business.
Hiring and Firing the Boss - Semco Uses a weighted system of 6 monthly questionairs to evaluate performance of the bosses
They use a weighted grade system for the bosses. --- Using weighted questionaris to determine Leaders- Passing score of 70 on the weighted questionarie
An executive can start the process of creating a new job by trying to convince his colleagues that their business unit needs someone new. If there is a consesnsus in favour of adding a job, then the person or people most interested in the idea puts together a profile of the idea candidate, listing all major qualities and requirements, experiences, leadership ability, languages spoken, with weights attached to each. As a matter of corporate culture, factors such as academic background and personal appearances are ignored. Semco abounds with people who lack degrees or Italian suits but are fist-class employees nonetheless.
We also give preference to firends and acquaintances of our employees, because no responsible person at Semco would risk his own reputation by recommending anyone who can't meet our standards. But family members are out; only distant relatives are permitted to work for the company, and then only in different plants.
Rounding the Pyramid - Changing Organizational structures
Still, I wasn't about to tell anyone how we were going to replace the six department heads. That was, and is, basic to my style. No one can get me to decide a thing; my goal is to get people to decide things for themselves.
Who'll do the marketing? someone asked me after the marketing Manager, Mara Mandovani, had cleaned out her office and gone to work for her fater's small manufacturing company. Let's not worry about it, I said. It'll get done somehow. And it did. Mara had four marketing people under her in the third tier and they just divvied up her job, task by task, all by themselves. There was no formality to it. No memos. No meetings. No approvals. Among the marketing manager's responsibilities was to see to it that we were represented at trade fairs. When the next event approached, one of her four deputies took care of it. When the account executive from our advertising agency paid us a visit, another of the four dealt with him. Still another took care of the new brochures. In our new arrangement,the marketing department was no longer headed by an individual. It had become a team.
Consistent with this philosophy, when a promotion takes place now at Semco we simply issue blank business cards and tell the newly elevated individual:"Think of a title that signals externally your area of operation and responsibility and have it printed:". If the person likes "Procurement Manager" fine. If he wants something more elegant, he can have cards saying "First Pharaoh in charge of Royal Supplies. Whatever he wants. But inside the company there are only four options.
Name your Price - Salary Modification ideas
Top managers at Semco received both a fixed and a variable salary, the latter being a bonus, from 25 to 50% of additional pay per year, on average, in the good years - based on performance. But no one was satisfied with the way these bonuses were allotted.
Before they told us what they wanted to be paid, we asked them to consider four criteria: what they thought they could make elsewhere, what others with similar responsibilities and skills made at Semco; what friends with similar backgrounds made: and how much money they needed to live.
There are three reasons why reasonableness prevailed. First, everyone knew what everyone else was paid. Second, the top people - Clovis, Batoni, Vendramin - are all modest about their pay (for the record, I am a bit less modest; my salary reached a high of 300,000USD in the heady days of 1989 but has been as low as 120,000 USD). As a matter of corporate philosophy we try to kepe our top salaries within then times our entry level pay, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the country, where a top manager's salary can be 80 times as much as a worker's. The third reason our people tended to be modest about salaries has to do with self-preservation. Remember, at Semco our operational budgets cover just over sig months, not the usual twelve. Since and unanticipated increase in expenditures has to be offset in a short period, there is little margin for manoeuvring. Our people know salaries account for most of our operating costs, and they think about our six-month budgets when they set them. It's easy to solve a budget problem by eliminating a salary that seems to high, and no one wants to stick out.
If Semco did well, an employee who agreet to risk a 25 % salary cut - the limit - would receive up to 50 % more. Then again, if semco did poorly, he would suffer the 25% cut. When business is good, people in the programme make a lot more money. When it isn't they are helping us cut expenses and lowering their profile in case cost-cutters are called out.
I was a successful if iconoclastic manager who would soon be a best-selling author, and a minor celebrity. But I had another ambition: I wanted to be an alumnus of Harvard Business school.... Finally the letters from Cambridge arrived. Try opening an envelope with your fingers crossed. I was sure I would be accepted. I was wrong. It took me weeks to recover. I didn't tell anyone, to spare myself the added misery of listening to such comforting remarks as, That's not all tthere is in life, you konw. From time to time though, I checked my walled to make sure the token was still there. I don't know why, but I was convinced I would study at Harvardone day, if only that token didn't get lost. I couldn't cheat and put it in a safe place, either. It had to stay in my wallet if it was to work its magic. Two years later I applied to Harvard again, this time I was granted an interview at teh school. (rejection again and then the story continues after this rejection). I finally did become a Harvard alumnus, though. A few years later, after I had led Semco for six years, I decided to attend a programme for corporate executives that consited of a month of intensive instruction each year for three years. ----> How physical things can remind us of goals - - - Karl Langfield the story about Buddhists carrying the mantra for what they want to acchieve under their tongue and with them always as a solitary focus. In this story the token continually reminds him that he needs to acchieve and experience this thing and throughout many pitfalls he eventually does.
Thinking for a living - a dedicated innovation group
Their idea was to take a small group raised in Semco's culture and familiar with its people and its products - them, naturally - and set them free. Removed from day-to-day activities, they would no longer worry about production problems, billing, inventory, machines that didn't work, or subordinates who wanted a raise. They would have all their time free to think.
(This thinking group) would report their activities twice a year to the Partners, who would decide whether they would keep their jobs for another six months. They would continue to receive a salary, though it would be less than they had been getting as senior managers. But they would also share in the proceeds of the ideas and innovations they thought up, whether it was profit sharing on products they designed, royalties on sales of new products they developed, or a percentage of the savings from cost reductions they came up with.
He liked to say he turned his subconscious on when he went to sleep, and had the answers upon waking ---> Action point: Ask yourself question before you go to bed and wake up expecting an answer to come to you.
Rise and Shine
Flexible working hours. - Under the plan we had in mind, everyonewould still work eight hours a day, but they could get to the plant any time between 7 and 9am and leave accordingly in the afternoon. ----> This is not giving people freedom to choose their working hours but only freedom on a leash, the leash of 7-9am , why not open up the system so that you can work anytime. Questions - What organizational structures need to be in place to facilitate around the clock- international working?
Launcing Pad-
Encouraging workers and teams to move out onto their own and make the things they used to make under Semco for themselves and then sell the thing or part or xyz to Semco.
Above all, people acti differently when they own their own businesses. Workers who fight for every extra minute of a coffee break will toil late at night and on Saturdays and Sundays if it means keeping their own company alive. At Semco, we had succeeded largely because we had increased our employees' stake in their jobs. Our people already worked late and on the weekends of course, and they didn't need any prompting from bosses. But by encouraging them to start their own businesses, we would raise their sense of involvement even higher.
The Satellite Programme spread quickly from plant to plant and office to office. White-collar employees actually took it up first, especially our tax people, human resources staffers and draftsmen. We dissolved our legal department and farmed out the work to several firms with different specialities, including one formed by one of our ex-lawyers. Some of our accountants formed a firm too. And computer programmers went off on their own to make our software.
The Satellite Programme works because it is based on the principle that people who have a stake in their company are bound to be more involved in their work. As a result, only good things will happen: costs will fall, quality will rise, innovation will bloom. People will look at a part and say, why does it have to be like this? Why can't it be made better? Or cheaper? Or faster?
Rebirth -
The decision wasn't as wrenching for me, because I was farther from the day-to-day management of the company. Unlike the workers, I didn't have to help cart off the furniture and the fixtures. That's the difference being a general who never sees the front line. Although it can lead to disasters like Gallipoli, often officers who aren't close to the shooting make better strategic decisions. ---> Perspective from Distance - Correlate with Il Barrone Rampante from Italo Calvino
We studied more than 100 firms, negotiated with 15, and bought four. I can summarize in three sentences the hundreds of hours and millions of dollars we invested: Growth through acquisition is exciting, glamorous, and ulcer-inducing. The company you buy is not very similar to the one you thought you were buying, and never like what they told you. Buying small, family firms is a certain way to skip the ulcers and go straight to bypass surgery. In our case we incorporated subsidiaries of multinationals which mostly honour commitments, God bless them. They usually have accurate books, unlike family owned firmst, where the closets are typically full of skeletons. But when you buy any company, you must be willing to watch it and learn from it, at least for a year, before putting your paws in the soup.
Whenever I'm tempted by a deal, I remember what Ray Krinker of Price Waterhouse used to say:" A small hole can sink a big ship".
Who needs a No. 1
Instead of one person at the top, Semco would be run by a committee of our Counsellors. They were, I believed, a particularly well balanced team, professionaly and personally: Clovis, a father figure who had been influential in my thinking; Vendramin, an economist, industrial manager, engineer and above all, a thoughtful man who took his time about everything; Batoni, who pushed hard for results and was much less forgiving about people than either Clovis or Vendramin; Violi, who had a first-class financial mind and two feet on the groud; and Jose' Alignani, a talented engineer and natural leader. They ranged in age from their 40s to their mid-50s.
So now I'm jst another Counsellor. But my job hasn't changed- I try to make things happen, like a catalyst. I lobby for what I believe in. I stp in when I think I can do some good, and stp out when I'm tired of an issue or when the other Counsellors are tired of me. I attend the Tuesday meetings only when I'm invited, which is about every two or three weeks. Otherwise, they're on their own. I'd probably be asked to more meetings if I didn't have a habit of throwing out wild ideas. Also, I tend to have a hands-on approach that disrupts the system. When I become obstreperous, they just screen me off the rest of the company. Like Mafiosi, non of them will talk to me about new developments unless he is accompanied by one of the others.
Persistence is a virtue only when it is pointed in the right direction.
What do I do with the other 70 percent of my time, when I'm not working at Semco? I write a weekly newspaper column every SUnday, for 1.1 million readers. I talk about Semco to companies and business groups around the world. I am interested in politics and am a member of the executive comittee of a large political party, the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira. I watch a minimum of three movies a week, buy recordings of Beniamino Gigli, Billie Holiday, Philip Glass and Shostakovich, and take piano, golf, Chinese and cooking lessons. I also read 50 books a year, mostly histories of war and empires. Centuries of blunders and success are there for guidance. For a handful of dollars you can buy an explanation that woud have spared Napoleon thousands of lives. For little more than the price of a Big Mac you can discover the mistakes of the Tokugawa Shoguns in leaving their camp at Nara unguarded. For less than it costs to fill your tank with gas you can find out why Winston Churchill couldn't manage to get himself elected after World War II. I also read four newspapers a day - they're even cheaper. But I don't spend much time on the front page. The causes of the gret wars, early signals of stock market collapses, and the advent of innovative technologies are not found of the frong page - not at first anyway. Often the most important news is buried inside.
ThenI have this list of goals. I chanced upon a television programme about 15 years ao that, as people so like to say, changed my life. It was an interview with a 61 year-old American named John Goddard. I never found out who he was, or heard his name since. Anyway, Goddard had made a list of more than 100 goals and set out to attain them. He only had 19 to go. Thsy included landing on the moon and living to the year 2000. He already piloted a plane at the speed of sound, driven a submarine, descended the Nile in a canoe, navigated the lenght of the congo river, and climbed Chile's Aconcague Peak.
I decided that what worked for him would work for me if on a less ambitious scale. I picked 16 goals about half of which I've already met. I believe I have turned Semco into the most sought-after work place I know. I have created a foundation to provide opportunities for poor Brazilians. I am five-sixths of the way towards speaking six languages fluently.
And, like Goddard, I travel incessantly, and always with eyes open. I shudder when I think of those awful trips in the early 1980s, when Harro and I were desperately trying to keep Semco afloat. Now Sofia and I set out for Xi'An to see 6000 terracotta soldiers burdied hundereds of years ago, take baloon safaris in Kenya, camp in Tanzania, scuba and dive in the Seychelles, cross the Sahara, comb beaches in Thailand and float down the NIle. It's a far cry from three cities in a day, then back on the red-eye.
Will it Travel?
Meanwhile, I followed my usual approach to leadership and backed away from the department as it revived. There would be no cult of personality here. After a few months I no longer signed any papers. I started coming in only once a week, then every other week, then once a month. Of course, no one noticed. Once I had got the beureacracy off their backs, Joyce and the others didn't need me.
It's always better to ask forgiveness than aks for permission ----> Dad's old Saying
Modern Times
Textile factory existed in 1633 - Everything was set up with a rigid pyramid structure - much or exactly like today.
And the moral of the story : our advances in technology have far outstripped our advances in mentality.
Tehnology is transformed overnight: mentality takes generations to alter. Who can blame us for thinking technology will cure all that ails the workplace. It's so much easier to acquire.
There's no doubt in my mind: technology has gone through the roof since 1633, but quality of life has gone down the drain. All we have done is accelerate our malfunctions and increase the intensity of our mis-communication.
How important is money anyway? Entrepreneurs say profits are their raison d'etre. In the months I spent at Harvard, I met many industrialists who, like me, were taking the course in yearly instalments. During the first session I noticed that some of them paid close attention to the personal finance course. They clearly had thoughts of selling the businesses.
In the intervening year a few did cash in, trading their companies for a chance to realize dreams of an island, a sail-boat, and maybe even golf every day. But by the time the second session at Harvad came along a few of these liberated souls were already a bit bored. And by the third session nearly all those who had sold their businesses had started or acquired new ones and were happily back on the job. They were never in business for the money.
One of the biggest misconceptions about modern man is that he is somehow different from this ancestors. Man has always lived in tribes and I daresay always will. Whether these groups are ethnic, rligious, political, or vocational, they are our anchors. Being a Buddhist, a member of the National Rifle Association, a bird-watcher, a Nintendo fanatic, a Rotaria, a knight in the Ku Klux Klan gives us an identity, for better or for worse.
People derive identity from their companies too, wearing Mitsubishi or Motorola like surname. And within companies they can belong to sub-tribes, each with its own norms or dress and conduct. Just as you will never confuse an orthodox Jew with a Hari Krishna follower, never will finance executives whith their suspenders and Ferragamo ties, be mistaken for production guys, with their multiple pens safely tucked in plastic shitpocket protectors.
The issue of tribal co-existance is, I believe, critical for survival in modern times. Up until now it has been easy enough for the First World to keep its distance from the Third World and view the Southern Hemisphere as very far away. But technology is drawing everyone and every place closer together. Like lave from a huge volcano, tribes are moving towadrs areas where the standard of living is higher. In a few decades all that will be left of the First world will be a few ghettos of the super-rich, islands of luxury surrounded by misery. There will be a lot of Cairo in Paris, Mexico in Colorado, and Syria in Switzerland. And as the Third World makes its glacial movement north, it will leave behind places like Somalia, Bangladesh and the Ivory Coast, which will become an even more abject Fourth World.
I think most people want to be generous and egalitarian, but if they believe their family, their job, or their neighbourhood is threatened, their tolerance for tribal co-existence evaporates.
Discrimination will always exist, since it is tied up with tribalism, but there is plenty that can be done to diminish its effects.
In the 1920s, an engineer names DeForest went to see Harry Warner, of Hollywood's famous Warner Brothers. DeForest had managed to synchronize sound and image and could, he said, transform silent movies into talking pictures. Warner listened to him, then replied: Are you crazy? Who wants to hear an actor talk?
Henry Ford would sell his Model T's in any colour, as long as it was black. Legend has it that he adopted this monochromeatic philosophy to simplify production and keep prices down. To this day Ford is regarded as a marketing hero. I have a revisionist view. Old Henry's stubborn thinking cost Ford the leadership of America's biggest industry, for William durant, of the then smaller General Motors, decided to offer cars in a variety of colours, and was soon looking at Ford through his rerview mirror.
And then there was Chester Carlson, who visited IBM, GE and RCA, trying to sell his new invention. They tahanked him for his time but regretted that, in their view, his idea had no future. A stubborn man, Carlson persisted. Finally, he met Joseph Wilson, who owned a small firm named the Haloid Company. Wilson saw the potential of Carlson's device. With time, he even renamed his company after it: Xerox.
Corporations have notoriously short life spans. Even in the stable and relatively prosperous United States, a company has a less than 5 per cent chance of being in a better position 50 years from now. These cautionary tales illustrate what I believe is the biggest challenge any business faces: change. Semco has succeeded despite some of the harshest economic conditions imaginable because we have learned to see the need for change and have been smart enough to seek our employees help in implementing it.
To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules.
In a nuthshell: A company should trust its destiny to its employees.
To concentrate on building organizations that accomplish the most difficult of challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning.
How SEMCO Employees evaluate their supervisors
The following questionair is anonymously completed by all Semco employees every six months as part of the process of evaluating their supervisors. The questions are weighted according to their importance and the results are posted. A score of 80 out of 10 0is average.
1) When an employee makes a small mistake the subject is:
a. Irritated and unwilling to discuss the mistake
b. Irritated but willing to discuss it
c. Realises the mistake and discusses it in a constructive manner
d. Ignores the mistake and only pays attention to more important matters
2) The subject reacts to criticism
a. Poorly, ignoring it
b. Poorly, rejecting it
c. Reasonably well
d. Well, accepting it
3) The subject is a. Constantly
a. Tense
b. Usually tense, but relaxed on occasion
. Usually relaxed, but tense on occasion
d. Constantly relaxed
4) The subject is
a. Insecure
b. More often insecure than secure
c. More often secure than insecure
d. Secure
5) As far as professional and personal relationships are concerned, the subject is
a. Incapable of separating them
b. Frequently incapable of separating them
c. Usually capable of separating them
d. Capable of separating them
6) When the subject’s department achieves a high level of productivity, the subject usually
a. Takes credit for others’ success
b. Gives credit to those who did the work
c. Gives credit to the team as a whole
7) The subject is seen as
a. Always unfair
b. More often unfair than fair
c. More often fair than unfair
d. Always fair
8) The subject conveys to his team feelings of
a. Fear and insecurity
b. Indifference
c. Security and tranquillity
9) The subject transmits to his team a sense of
a. Coldness and unwillingness to talk
b. Distance but willingness to talk
c. Friendliness but indifference to others’ problems
d. Friendliness and concern with others’ problems
10) When dealing with people in inferior positions (outside the team), the subject usually
a. Has an attitude of superiority
b. Ignores them
c. Treats them politely, but with an air of superiority
d. Respects them
11) The subject treats their team members
a. Much worse than they treat their superiors
b. A little worse than they treat their superiors
. A little worse than they treat their superiors
d. Treats both the same
12) The subject
a. Constantly reminds everyone they are the boss
b. Occasionally reminds everyone they are the boss
c. Rarely makes a point of being the boss
13) The subject is
a. A weak leader, unable to motivate their team
b. A weak leader but able to motivate their team
c. A strong leader but unable to motivate their team
d. A strong leader and able to motivate their team
14) When their team has a specific goal, the subject
a. Demands results, but doesn’t participate in the effort to achieve them
b. Demands results and participates superficially
c. Participates in the effort when necessary to meet the goal
15) The subject
a. Is openly held in disrespect by the team
b. Is held in disrespect by the team, but not publicly
c. Generates neither respect nor disrespect
d. Is respected by their team
16) The subject
a. Gives obvious preferential treatment to some people because of their colour, religion, gender or origin
b. Denies being biased, but doesn’t give equal opportunity to everyone
c. Isn’t biased and gives equal opportunity to everyone
17) When promotions and prizes are concerned, the subject
a. Gives them to those he likes
b. Sometimes gives them to those who deserve them and sometimes gives them to ‘followers’
c. Almost always is just and impartial
18) During a crisis, the subject
a. Disrupts the group’s unity
b. Doesn’t affect the group’s unity
c. Helps the group stick together
19) Which is more important to the subject
a. Work to be performed perfectly
b. Work to be performed quickly
c. Either speed or perfection depending on the situation
20) The subject is
a. Excessively involved in all situations
b. Not involved enough in all situations
c. Adequately involved in all situations
21) If the subject were to replace you temporarily, their performance would be
a. Unsatisfactory
b. Regular
c. Good
d. Better than yours
22) In choosing between the urgent and the important, the subject
a. Doesn’t know the difference between them
b. Usually tends towards the urgent
c. Distinguishes well between the two
23) The subject
a. Wastes too much time on urgent problems
b. Gives equal time to urgent and important matters
c. Gives more time to important matters
24) The subject is
a. Not very creative and resists new ideas
b. Too creative and change-orientated, disturbing the atmosphere
c. Is adequately creative and change-orientated
25) As far as creating an environment where people feel free to be creative or suggest changes, the subject
a. Blocks innovative and creative ideas
b. Doesn’t block them but also doesn’t create them
c. Promotes creative or innovative ideas
26) As far as the team is concerned, the subject
a. Usually chooses the wrong people
b. Sometimes chooses well and sometimes chooses poorly
c. Usually chooses the right people
27) The people who work around the subject
a. Rarely feel motivated to work
b. Sometimes feel motivated to work
c. Usually feel motivated to work T
28) The subjects use of financial resources is
a. Poor
b. Average
c. Good
d. Excellent
29) The subjects use of his own time is
a. Bad
b. Average
c. Good
d. Excellent
30) The value the subject gives to training and related matters is
a. Too small
b. Sufficient
c. Great
31) The subject performs tasks
a. Almost always poorly
b. Sometimes poorly and sometimes well
c. Almost always well
32) Regarding opinions that differ from their own, the subject
a. Never accepts them
b. Usually doesn’t accept them
c. Sometimes accepts them
d. Almost always accepts them
33) People find the subject
a. Untrustworthy
b. Occasionally untrustworthy
c. Very trustworthy
34) The subject represents the company
a. Poorly, raising concern about it
b. Neither poorly nor well
c. Well, leading people to trust it
35) The subject's knowledge of his area is:
a) Insufficient
b) Sufficient
c) Profound
36) The subject:
a) Gives obvious preference to people of a certain gender
b) Denies being biased, but doesn't give equal opportunity to everyone
c) Isn't biased and gives equal opportunity to everyone.
Time management
A Semco Lexicon
Semco is focused on the crucial corporate tasks of making, selling, billing and collecting.
Time Management
1) Begin at the end. Set a certain hour at which to leave the office and obey it blindly. I chose 7pm, but before I had often worked until midnight. If you normally work until 7pm move your leaving time to 5.30 or 6. If you take work home at weekend, establish a 60-day programme to halt this insidious practice.
2) Sift through that stack of papers on your desk and decide which are the most important. (Deciding that everything is equally important is cheating, Start again). Spend several hours, or even a whole day, if that's what it takes, discovering what's in that pile. Begin with the most difficult, complex, or time-consuming documents. In other words, go through the pile in order or importance, not appearance. You won't get a fals sense of accomplishment that way. As you go through it, divide the papers into three categories:
- Priority items, which require your personal attention and represent matters of indiputable importance. Don't put more than five documents in this category.
- Items that can be handled only by you, but can wait. At first this category seems the most enjoyable, because so muc appears to fit in it. Think hard about whether you are really the only who can deal with an item. Whether your subordinates or colleagues are overworked should not weigh in your decision; the control of time is nothing if not an excercise in selfishness. Load them up with everything that fails 'the Test of the Seventies'. (No this isn't a quiz to see if you remember Watergate. Ask yourself: Is it possible that someone else could do this task at least 70 per cent as well as I could? If the answer is yes, let him.
Items you think would be good to look at, but never quite get around to. These include newspapers and magaines, lenghty reports, copies of memos- you get the idea. We've all grown accustomed to receiving vast quantities of information. As a defance, we tend to read a little of everything. This is among the most serious causes of time illness.
The Key to Management is self-esteem. You must maintain it even though you may not be as well informed about some essentially menaingless report or arcane issue as your associates. You must be prepared to go to a meeting and endure comments such as " You mean you didn't read'short-cuts to a Better Casting Project " in the latest Foundry Lovers' News? Better to suffer the humiliation of saying you didn't and ask someone to be kind enough to summarize it than to have had to read all the articles that cross your desk. Legions of executives believe they will be regarded as ill-informed dunces if they let their subscriptions lapse to The Wall street Journal, The Financial Times, Time and L'Express, not to mention assorted local papers, financial newsletters, Fortune, Forbes, and so on. Publications work hard to convey their indispensability. Don't let too many succeed.
Due to (what else?) lack of time, I used to leave magazines and newspapers on a table in my office to read later. When more periodicals would arrive, I would carefully add them to the pile. I felt depressed just looking at it, fearful of all the information I had not absorbed. Then one evening the pile collapsed. That was my cue, and I finally gave the magazines the dignified burial they deserved, without opening them. I estimate that the ratio of useless to relevant reading material is about 20 to 1. With that im mind, my advise is to reduce the literary inflow to a maximum of two newspapers a day, two weekly magazines, and two publications in a specialized field. Start being proud of not being aware of everything. Get off distribution lists. The reward will be an opportunity to engage in that under-appreciated occupation, contemplation. Aristotle, who didn't subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, once said ' Thinking requires leisure time.' If you are not in posession of leisure time, you can't be thinking that much. ---> For Me personally, I make an effort at being selectively ignorant. After a 6 month information blackout with no TV, Music, Radio, Movies, Video Games, I've continued with being proud of not being up to date on everything. When people criticize me for being out of date with things I proudly say : Yes, I live under a rock!
If you think you can manage your time without making any investmentt in fixed assets, you are wrong. There is one essential acquisition: another rubbish bin. I know. You laready have a perfectly good one. But most people have enough on their desk to fill two. At first, using this second bin will take courage. You will have to toss into it impressive reports and unread magazines. But remember the question Alfred Sloan, the legendary head of General Motors, used to ask:' What is the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out?' If you don't tremble, sweat or grow short of breath, go ahead and pitch it. Eventually, your second rubbish bin will become a baby sitter for your in-tray. Leave it in place a few more months, a magnificent symbol of freedom.
4) Think hare before accepting that invitation to lunch or to visit a supplier or to make a speech to a trade group. The first response is usually to reach for the Filofax and, if the appropirate space is blank, scrawl in the new commitment. Adopt a new party line: "Thanks but I just can't fit it in ". Or you might ask, Have you tried X? Or; - I can't make it, but do let me know what happened. Or, as a last resort: I'm really sorry, but I'll be on my honeymoon. Say what you have to, but take part only in events that are absolutely, positively essential. That lunch to get to konw supplier Z better or to impress customer Y, like those it's-probably-a good-idea-to-be-there meetings, play upon insecurities. I've never met a supplier who lowered his price because he found me great company at lunch or a customer who gave me an order because the Beaujolais I served at dinner made him giddy. Participate only in what you're sure will generate return for your investment of precious time.
If you have to meet someone, do it at the office. The surrounding discourage people from drifting from the subject. But don't provide visitors with a cub of coffee: it's an invitation to an easygoing, unproductive conversation. By leaving an intruder uncaffeinated, you are contributing to his health and he may not be so quick to return either.
5. Rationalizing time without talking about meetings is like a soccer match without a riot. Is there anyone who works in an office who doesn't go to too many meetings? For starters, remember that man is a social animal. We feel more comfortable in the presence of others. Meetings give rise to the sense of being part of a group, of solidarity even with the ever-present rifts and jealousies of business. And, of course, corporate communications systems are usualy slow and often inadequate, so meetings let us catch up. To eliminate meetings is to go against human nature and diminish corporate efficiency. But making meetings more effective is not all that difficult. Through trial and error, we at Semco have come up with some recommendations.
- Begin on time (five or ten minutes late is still on time, unless you're Swedish). Just start with whatever is there. Do this a few times and those who are usually late will get the messgae.
-Don't start a meeting without first setting a time to stop. And don't go beyond it by more than a few minutes. When you are in your own office, get up from your chair and say " Ok Then" when you want to end a session. Sometimes I sit on the edge of my desk from the start. It may not be polite, but it works.
-Go over the agenda in front of everyone. List subjects in order of importance. Don't give in to the temptation of clearing up old items, or getting rid of uncomplicated new items, first.
-Delegate to one or more people any item that might take more time than is allotted for it, or that provokes a discussion that drags on without hope of resolution.
- Don't have meetings that last longer than two hours. After that, attention drops by the minute.
- Avoid "Dog and Pony Shows" Keep reports short and discourage the use of charts and tables. Avoid overhead transparencies too and don't ever turn out the lights.
-Be a bear about interruptions. The only excuse for breaking into a meeting is a customer with a problem.
-Transform as many meetings as possible into telephone calls or quick conversations in the hall. People tend to call meetings for problems that can be resolved in 10 or 15 minutes over the phone or even in a fax.
6. About the telephone: anyone who takes a message at Semco asks the caller to detail the subject - that's detail not state. Ask your secretary or assistant to say automatically that you cannot take a call - before the caller is asked who he is, of course. Take the list of callers from a given day (or several days) and return only those from people you truly need to talk to, such as customers. As for the others, they will either:
-Call again and again, until they give up, at which point you know that subject was not important
- Call one of your associates.
In any case, prepare to hear how talking to you is harder than talking to the Pope. Take it as a compliment.
7. Make time to think. Try blocking out a half-day a week on your agenda. I find Monday and Friday mornings are good because I can clear away post- and pre-weekend distractions. During this half-day, avoid your office. Camp out in an unused conference room or even better, stay at home. Thinking is difficult. It requires concentration and discipline. Give it the time it deserves. Aristotle would approve.
Idea: Workers can organize their own work
Tagline: How to manual about empowering workers in a creative mix of Socialism/Capitalism/Individualism
Rereadability: 2/10 -Quotes will bring back the major points - rereading not necessary unless rereading or trying to copy a specific point or piece of Semco companies
Useful ideas:
How long it takes to read all the Quotes:
Quotes:
As I tell our people constantly: we've all learned how to answer email on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon. Until we learn that, we are email slaves harnessed to the wicked ways of the Profit and Loss Master.
When I took over Semco from my father 12 years ago, it was a traditional company in every respect, with a pyramidal structure and a rule for every contingency. but today, out factory workers sometimes set their own production quotas and even come in on their own time to meet them,withought prodding from management or overtime pay. They help re-design the prroducts they make and formulate the marketing plans. Their bosses, for their part, can run our business units with extraordinary freedome, determining business strategy without interference from the top brass. They even set their own salaries, with no strings. Then again, everyone will know what they are, since all financial information at Semco is openly discussed. Indeed, our workers have unlimited access to our books (and we only keep one set). To showe we are serious about this, Semco, with the labour unions that represent our workers developed a course to teach everyone, even messengers and cleaning people, to read alance sheets and cash-flow statements. For truly big decisions, such as buying another company, everyone at Semco gets a vote. A few years ago, when we wanted to relocate a factory, we closed down for a day and everyone piled into buses to inspect three possible new sites. Then the workers decided. Their choice hardly thrilled us, since it was next to a company that was frequently on strike. But while no one in management wanted front-row seats to labour-management strife, we moved in anyway.
In the lobby of our headquarters, a standard-issue office building with four floors of steel and glass there is a reception desk but no receptioninst. That's the first clue that we are different. We don't have receptionists. We don't think they are necessary, despite all our visitors. We don't have secretaries either, or personal assistants. We don't believe in cluttering the payroll with ungratifying, dead-end jobs. Everyone at Semco, even top managers, fetches guests, stands over photocopiers, sends faxes, types letters, and dials the phone. We don't have executive dining rooms and parking is strictly first-come, first-served. It's all part of running a "natural business". At Semcowe have stripped away the unnecessary perks and privileges that feed the ego but hurt the balance sheet and distract everyone from the crucial corporate tasks of making, selling, biling and collecting.
We have a sales manager named Rubin Agater who sits there reading the newspaper hour after hour, not even making a pretence of looking busy. I'm sure this mystifies some of our visitors. Most modern managers wouldn't tolerate it. But when a Semco pump on an oil tanker on the other side of the world fails and millions of gallons of oil are about to spill into the sea, Rubin springs into action. He knows everything there is to know about our pumps and how to fix them. That's when he earns his salary. No one cares if he doesn't look busy the rest of the time. ----> Performance based evaluation and elimination or promotion based on results
I also take at least two months off each year to travel, and I like to roma far. There are pictures in my office from two recent expeditions, a balloon safari in Tanzania and a trek through the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan. I never leave a number where I can be reached when I'm away and I don't call in. I want everyone at Semco to be self-sufficient. The company is organized- well, maybe that's not quite the right word for us - not to depend too much on any individual, especially me. I take it as a point of pride that twice on my return from long trips my office had been moved - and each time it got smaller. My role is that of a catalyst. I try to create an environment in which others make decisions. Success means not making them myself. ----> Taking ourselves and our ego's out of the equation.
We have absolute trust in our employees. In fact, we are partners with them. On the assumption that a capitalist society must be capitalist for all, Semco has a profit sharing plan - but with a difference. Typically, companies hand down these plans like God anded Moses the commandments. The owners decide who gets what, when. At Semco, profit-sharing is democratic. We negotiated with our workers ofver the basic percentage to be distributed - about a quarter of our corporate profits, as it turned out - and they hold assemblies to decide how to split it. It's up to them. Profit-sharing has worked so well that once, during negotiations over a new labour contrace, a union leader argued that too big a raise would overextend the company.
In restructiring Semco, we've picked the best from many systems. From capitalism we take the ideasls of personal freedom, individualism, and competition. From the theory, not the practice, of socialism we have learned to control greed and share information and power. The Japanese have taught us the value of flexibility, although we shrink from their family-like ties to the company and their automatic veneration of elders. We want people to advance because of competence, not longevity or conformity.
Our factory workers, for example can come in any time between 7am and 9am. It's their choice, not ours. ---> The ability to make choices but withing certain parameters.
We've also changed the way our departments do business with each other. If one doesn't want to buy services from another, it's free to go outside the company and buy from someone else. The threat of competition keeps us all on our toes. Recently, we have encouraged employees to start their own companies, leasing them Semco machinery at favorable rates. We buy from our former employees, of course, but they are also free to sell to others, even Semco's competitors. This programme has made us leaner and more agile, and given them ultimate control of their working lives. It makes entrepreneurs out of employees. This is an extreme case of course, but we try to maximize the possibilities and minimize supervision for everyone at Semco. Not that we con't have accountability. Before bpeople are hired or promoted to leadership positions, they are interviewed and approved by all who will be working for them. And every six months managers are evaluated by those who work under them. The results are posted for all to see. Does this mean workers can fire their bosses? I guess it does, since anyone who consistently gets bad grades usually leaves Semco, one way or another.
My experiences in the execuive suite distressed me. Everyone was as starched as their shirts. I tried to fit in, I really did. I even went to a trendy men's store and acquired a complete corporate outfit - navy bluesuit with white pinstripes, white shirt with French Cuffs, black shoes. I didn't wear the suit - the suit wore me.
We had several requirements: the company had to be No.1 or No.2 in its market, have a connection with our own business, and be technologically advanced. It also had to be for sale for the right reasons, which were either because there was no one to succeed the founder, current managment was inefficient, or the parent company had lost interest. We weren't in the market for companies that made products of dubious quality or required large infusions of cash, which of course, we didn't have.
A small hole, can sink a big ship.
During this time I often thought of a business parable I had heard. Three stone cutters were asked about their jobs. The first said he was paid to cut stones. The second replied that he used special techniques to shape stones in an exceptional way, and proceeded to demonstrate his skills. The third stone cutter just smiled and said:"I build cathedrals".
Four hours later, all had been said, but there was still a deep split between those who believed in law, order, and organization above all and those who felt that people, motivated by a sense of involvement, could overcome any obstacle. It was a case of what in German, is called welfanschauung - how you see the world. The autocrats at Semco were convinced that nothing would get done if they didn't do it themselves or push their subordinates into doing it. They viewed company tasks much as parents see homework - disagreeable, perhaps, but mandatory. The touchy-feely crowd, on the other hand, was confident there was a better way, and that it involved giving up their power. It was Waterloo versus Woodstock and I didn't see how our Napoleans and our Timothy Learys would ever be reconciled.
Yes, I would attack my problem directly, and that problem was not simply the management of a business but something even more fundamental: The managment of time. So many executives find that the daily quota of 24 hours is too few to get to everything and still have any left over. I thought long and hard about time in the weeks after my visit to the Lahey Clinic. I realized that if I was going to find a cure for time sickness I first had to identify its causes.
Cause 1 - The belief that effort and results are directly proportional.
"Order and progress" the Brazilian flag proclaims. "Order or progress" is more like it, since they usually aren't found together. In business, effort is too often confused with result. The sales manager who overflows with charm when talking to customers and, after closing a sale, takes the rest of the day off to celebrate is regarded as lazy but lucky, not as a talented sales executive. When asked the reason for their success, entrepreneurs are fond of saying "A lot of hard work". Sounds good, doesn't it? It plays well at home, too, to families who have been ignored for years. But if great entrepreneurs were to answer the question honestly, most would probably list such factors as a finely tuned sense of timing, the ability to recognize opportunity, friends in the right places, an occasional moral lapse, and luck. May Horatio Alger forgive me, but hard work by itself is not enough. To say it is possible to establish a successful business by arriving early and staying late is like saying that every mailman can be Howard Hughes. There is a prevailing conviction that sweat is obligatory, and with each new drop an executive moves a little closer to financial heaven. I had to rid myself of this notion. It isn't healthy, it isn't even true.
Cause 2. The gospel that the quantity of work is more important than the quality of work.
This is a variation on the same theme. Early in the century Max Weber recognized that the Protestant ethic of hard work had permeated the business world. It is even more of a factor today. Executives feel pressure from their bosses to outwork colleagues and build their image and career. By this resoning, having a heart attack because of work leads to true glory and keeling over at the office is even better- a sign, a Calvinist might way, of being amongst the Elect. Someone who manages his time is often suspect. And if he goes to the theatre, doesn't carry a briefcase home, spends weekends with his family and sometimes even picks up the kids at school for lunch, then he has already descended into an advanced state of indolence. The executive who judges his contribution in hours will find himself muttering things like: Well we all know how unfair it was that they didn't promote me. Everyone knows I'm here at eight in the morning and eight in the evening. Or: My daughter needs to make an appointment to speak to me".
Cause 3. Things are a little uncertain at the office right now, i'll just have to work a little longer until they straighten out. Few excuses are as convincing as the we're-just-going-through-a-------. Fill in the blank: change at the top, restructuring, lay offs, expansion. Almost any change can be an excuse for poor time management. To allow such events to shape one's working day is to become a mere cork that bobs up and down on the sea.
Cause 4. Fear of delegation, and it's cousin, fear of replacibility.
Here is where we lay bare some nerves. Fear of delegation is the belief that no one is as competent to solve a problem as you are. This kind of thinking (which at times may be justified) usually results from the belief that tasks will inevitably be done poorly if not done by capable hands- your, of course. But how often is this really masking the fear that others can perform jobs you once thought only you could accomplish. This in turn leads to fear of replace-ability. This means postponing vacations, or taking them but leaving phone numbers where you can be reached morning, noon and night - and then being dissapointed that no one needed you while you were away.I'll have more thoughts about time sickness and how to cure it later, in Appendix b. For now, let me say that i have recovered so completely that I no longer wear a wristwatch. i gave it up soon after attending a concert by Brazil's most famous pianist, Madalenta Tagliaferro. As I listened to her play Sibelius, I realized that she had been born when Brazil was a monarchy, witnessed the invention of the automobile and the aircraft, lived through two World Wars, and was still performing. It struck me that time should be measured in years and decades, not minutes and hours. It is impossible to understand life in all its hugeness and complexity if one is constandly consulting a minute-counter. But how could I spread such an idea through a company being run as if every millisecond would dent our balance sheet? I couldn't. There was no way around it. Fernando would have to go. i admired his aggressiveness, energy , and dedication, but he needed a hard, intimidating environment for his magic to work. If it was magic. After my visit to the Lahey Clinic, I was pretty sure it wasn't. -----> Long Term thinking with projects not measured in minutiae of minutes or days but over long periods of time and effort investment.
As for our actual spending plans, we would eventually develop two budgets: a five-year plan and a sex month report. Yes, I know the argument against five year plans. Stalin used them, and look how that turned out. But when we look five years forward, we can ask oursvles whether we want to be in a particular market, or whether we should drop a product, or whether we will need a new factory, among other such questions. So a five year view is essential.
In contrast, we take an operational view of six months, because we found that in a conventional one-year plan people will invaiably believe that conditions will improve just enough to compensate for the problems they know they'll have in the first half of the year. Or vice versa.
At Semco we introduced a programme that requires ech executive to make an educated guess about the revenues, expenses and profits for his department at the end of each month. A few days later, the official report is distributed. The comparison gives everyone a sense of how much each manager actually knows about his area.
MBWA - Management by wandering around.
Popularised at Hewlett-Packard, it simply means taking time each week to walk around with, as Bob Dylan said, no destination known. You can see how new projects are going, solve some problem in the factory or the office, or just chat in the hall with someone you haven't seen in a long time.
Suits and ties were easy compared to workers' uniforms. I remember attending a meeting of top managers at which several major investments were approved in a matter of minutes. Then we came to the matter of replacing our factory workers' sky blue work outfits. we spent more than an hour arguing about the relative merits of various hues- which was more sober, which more inspiring, which showed dirt less - without reaching a conclusion. Everyone had a chance to express an opinion on the uniforms, I thought to myself, except the people whose opinions should count the most: the people who would wear them -----> Once upon a time there was a committee that needed to decide on two issues a new Nuclear Reactor Plant and a new Bicycle plant. The issue of the nuclear reactor plant was raised but since it was soo complex it was approved piecemeal without any modifications. The Bicycle plant issue was raised and everyone had something to say. One person wanted this modification, another that. Everyone had something to say. ---> As complexity increases after reaching a certain threshold people switch off and either agree or disagree. With smaller degrees of complexity everyone wants a voice. When raising issues at committees make the problem infinitely complex and easier to say yes to than no. Disguise easy problems as more difficult and contorted to get them through approval steps.
By the People -
At first, once they had found their tongues, the committee members concentrated on three issues: money, money, money. Most were reasonable about it, though. They asked us to survey other companies to find out what their workers were paid, and when Semco lagged behind the industry average the committees gave us time to phase in increases.
Soon we were besieged with suggestions and demans. One committee produced a list of 23 items, including transportation to and from work and first class medical insurance. They eventually got the latter, but not the former. The committees were also curious about the bosses' perks. They all had cars, said Soares, they all belonged to clubs, they all had very nice lives.
Our annual convention provoked their scrutiny too, especially when I had to cancer a meeting with a factory committee because it conflicted with one of our retreats. Glad you brought that us, a worker representative said. Just what is this retreat going to cost ? We told the truth, the meetings were never less than five figures. A hell of a waste, the worker muttered. He wanted to konw why we had to meet in such a pricey hotel, why our spouses had to come, and just what we did there anyway. Now we have much cheaper conventions, with fewer managers and much less fun. ---> Annual Meetings where fun is one of the criteria used as a post-mortem to judge whether the meeting worked or not.
One Change leads to another -
The weekly meetings, which started that first day, quickly changed the plant's culture. Instead of waging guerilla wards with the boss for a raise or a new assistant or the freedom to make a decision, managers now marshalled their arguments for the meetings. The agendas for these sessions were lengthy at first, but over time they shrank as everyone began to make more decisions themselves. People only brought up issues they were genuinely unsure about. And even so, the group would often just throw the problem back in the person's lap. Mara, for instance was told she should publish brochures in whatever colours she wanted, with whatever layout she wished, and hire however many people her budget allowed to help. But what if I put out a mailing and the sales reps don't like it? she asked. It's up to you to decide whether you are going to consult them before you publish, I told her. If you feel confident about it, go ahead. If they don't like it your rating as Marketing Manager will suffer and next time you'll be sure to consult them. We're not against mistakes here. If you're not making some mistakes, you probably aren't taking enough risks. But what if they don't like my work? Mara persisted. One of two things. If sales go up, they will learn to trust your judgement. I paused for emphasis. If they go down, they won't. And then? Mara asked. Well, this group puts together the budget, and they'll only include you in it if they think you're a good investment. Looking back on it, I can't remember a single decision that I made in that period. Which was just as well, for I am at my best when I am doing the least. I always smile when I hear executives boast about how parcipative they are. I want everyone to feel involved, they will way. So I call everyone in, hear what is on their minds, and only then decide. What people call participative managment usually is just consultative management. There's nothing new to that. Managers have been consulting employees for centuries. How progressive do you have to be, after all, to ask someon else's opinion? And to listen to that opinion - we'll that's a start. But it's only when the bosses give up decision-making and let their employees govern themselves that the possibility exists for a business jointly managed by workers and executives. And that is true participative management, not just lip service to it.
The Trouble with Rules
That's what's wrong with bosses, I thought to myself. So many of them are better prepared to find error and to criticize than to add to the effort. To be the boss is what counts to most bosses. They confuse authority with authoritarianism. They don't trust their subordinates
We decided to hold another meeting for the middle managers the next week. And another one the week after. Then it became a weekly affair. The agenda was simply. We would talk only about company policy and philosophy. Operational problems were out. The hardliners, who thought these sessions were useless, quickly dubbed them " Growing Bees in the Sky". But I liked the term and used it officially from then on. ---> Taking Criticism and turning it into a positive attribute
We were trading written rules for common sense.
The desire for rules and the need for innovation are, I believe, incompatible. (Remember, Order or Progress). Rules freeze companies inside a glacer; innovation lets them ride sleighs over it.
What about economies of scale? I am often asked. If Semco went out and bought tyres for all the cars in our fleet at once, for instance, wouldn't we get a better price than if employees go out and buy tyres on their own. Probably. Then again, if our auto department scrupulously and blindly followed the manufacturer's overly conservative recommendations on tyre replacement, we would no doubt buy a lot more tyres than we do now by letting our employees decide when they need changing. And I'll bet that's true with many items we used to buy corporately and now purchase individually.
Too big for our own Good
Large, centralized organizations foster alienation like stagnant ponds breed algae. In massive corporations, an employee will know few of his colleagues. Everyone is part of a gigantic, impersonal machine, and it is impossible to feel motivated when you feel you are just another cog. Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive. Stalin understood this. Prisoners in his gulags were obliged to dig enormous holes in the snow, then fill them in. It broke their spirits. ---> Have groups be small enough so individual people can see the fruits of their efforts.
Semco's structure was what business school professors call a functional system. That meant production managers at our plants reported to the production director at our headquarters; the salespeople answered to the marketing director; the administrative officers to the financial director; and so on. It sounds orderly, but anyone who has worked in a diversified multiplant ocmpany knows that a high percentage of decisions made under this long-distance arrangement are just plain wrong, and take too long as well. It is a feudal system, isolating engineering from sales and sales from finance and generating solutions and strategies that serve one department at the expense of another.
European companies seem to prefer and organization based on a matrix system. [In the matrix system} They have learned to survive in an environment that resembles the United Nations by behaving with extreme caution at all times. of course, you can't try new ideas without taking risks or making mistakes, and people in companies organized under the matrix system generally don't.
Computer-generated information, which was the means, has become the end. Instead of helping us organize data, computers are drowning us in it. ---> The Huxlian vs. the Orwellian models of state domination
Gore had stripped the titles from manager's business cards and adopted a system in which salaries corresponded to monthly performance and were adjusted by groups of employees who had the option of cutting an individual's pay to zero.
Divide and Prosper ---> Most companies are too big and we loose sight of everyone's function and contribution
Rogerio impressed us with his enthusiasm and unflappability in the face of our persistent questions about engineering, finance, and sales. The deal didn't work out but we hired Rogerio first chance we got. An electronic engineer by trade, Rogerio had a loping walk and bright dark eyes. He would prove to be a never-ending source of innovation. ---> Cross recruiting talent when you find it
What caused this success? The kids innovated all over the place. Each day started with a short meeting atteded by all the plant's employees, who wore white coveralls, Japanese-style. Financial information was regularly posted on the bulletin board, and an open office plan encouraged easy access to everyone by everyone. My favorite innovation was a board at the plant entrance with the name of each employees and next to it a wooden peg. As each person arrived in the morning he would hang one of three metal tags on the peg: a green tag stood for 'Good Mood', a yellow tag for 'Careful' and a red tag for 'Not Today- Please'. Maybe it was cute but the Kids took it seriously, selecting their tags carefully and paying heed to those of others.
The inmates take over the asylum -
We want workers to understand that they are part of a whole. And we want them to figure out the best ways to do their jobs. ---> Decentralization of work. Linked to the concept of Aggregated computing power of 1 CPU, no matter how large and a lattice work of small independent aggregated CPU's.
Sharing the Wealth
It was soon clear that if our executives were ashamed of their salaries, it migh tbe because they felt they weren't really earning them, for if they merited their pay they could easliy prove their worth, whether it was based on specialized knowledge, experience, education or the mastery of a large department with a big budget and staff. Execuvves should be proud of what they earn, and their salaries ought to provide everyone with an incentive to rise. In time our workers came to accept Semco's executive pay and didn't try to get us to lower it, as we were warned would happen. But they weren't shy about letting us know when they thought we had too many highly paid executives floating around.
It has been rooted in the corporate consciousness that profits belong to those to invest the capita. Of course, this is the rule even at companies at which the founder originally invested very little and which grew largely becaues of the energy and talents of the employees. Entrepreneurs aren't dumb. But some companies, looking for new ways to motivate workers, began to share the profits with them. This is hardly a socialist conceit: few ideas are as capitalist as profit- sharing which rewards whith part of a company's earnings the people who help generate this blessed surplus. Nor is it new. What is an annual bonus, after all, but a form of profit-sharing?
What would you rather have, the tail of an elephant, or an entire ant? --> Would you rather have 100% of nothing or 5% of something ?
Miles of Files
Instead of buying new cabinets, Ricardo decides to do a paper purge. While doing the purge and while purging the company of all papers during a 2 day Paper cleaning routine Ricardo asks his employees to ask the following when trying to throw away papers:
What is the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out?
Affirmative Actions
Corporation must clearly and consistently demonstrate fairness, and I believe exceptions can be costly. If there is even a hint that hiring or promotion does not depend on merit, credibility with workers will be threatened. Even if only one in ten workers is hired or promoted injustly, who do you think people will talk about? Fairness for employees is like quality for customers - it takes years to build up but collapses over a single incident.
Trading Places-
Moving Managers around to different units and different jobs
Man is by nature restless. When left too long in one place he will inevitably grow bored, unmotivated and unproductive. The cure, I believed was to encourage mangagers to exchange jobs with one another.Someone in accounting, for instance, would arrange a swap jobs with someone in sales. They would start planning a year or so in advance, to give each time to learn the other's duties and make the transition smooth. But as with other programmes at Semco, we wanted our employees to take the initiative. We didn't want them to leave it to us to decide who went where. We felt that a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years in a job were ample. Anyone who wanted to stay put for longer could, provided he could ocntinually create new challanges for himself. Otherwise, it was find a partner and dance.
We are great believers in professional recycling, aka sabbaticals. We call it our Hepatitis Leave. When people tell us they don't have time to think we ask them to consider what would happen if they suddenly contracted hepatitis and were foreced to spend three months recuperating in bed. Then we tell them to go ahead and do it. Professionasl - can take a few weeks or even a few months every year or two away from their usual duties.It's not designed as a cure for overwork. It's meant to create a hiatus in a career during which our people can stop and rethink their working lives and their objectives.
Minding our own Business
Like so much of our thinking, our views on discipline are shaped by the conviction that our employees are adults, and should always be treated as such. As Semco changed, we came to stress two points about individual conduct: one, each employee is responsible for his own actions; two, what people do in their own time is their own business. We care only about an employees's work, not his private life, so long as it doesn't interfere with his performance on the job.
If we don't feel imperilled by our employees' vices, we don't feel responsible for them either. ..... But we don't want to turn our managers into Father Figures, even if ti makes them feel warm and cuddly inside. We don't want to be a big happy family. We want to be a business.
Hiring and Firing the Boss - Semco Uses a weighted system of 6 monthly questionairs to evaluate performance of the bosses
They use a weighted grade system for the bosses. --- Using weighted questionaris to determine Leaders- Passing score of 70 on the weighted questionarie
An executive can start the process of creating a new job by trying to convince his colleagues that their business unit needs someone new. If there is a consesnsus in favour of adding a job, then the person or people most interested in the idea puts together a profile of the idea candidate, listing all major qualities and requirements, experiences, leadership ability, languages spoken, with weights attached to each. As a matter of corporate culture, factors such as academic background and personal appearances are ignored. Semco abounds with people who lack degrees or Italian suits but are fist-class employees nonetheless.
We also give preference to firends and acquaintances of our employees, because no responsible person at Semco would risk his own reputation by recommending anyone who can't meet our standards. But family members are out; only distant relatives are permitted to work for the company, and then only in different plants.
Rounding the Pyramid - Changing Organizational structures
Still, I wasn't about to tell anyone how we were going to replace the six department heads. That was, and is, basic to my style. No one can get me to decide a thing; my goal is to get people to decide things for themselves.
Who'll do the marketing? someone asked me after the marketing Manager, Mara Mandovani, had cleaned out her office and gone to work for her fater's small manufacturing company. Let's not worry about it, I said. It'll get done somehow. And it did. Mara had four marketing people under her in the third tier and they just divvied up her job, task by task, all by themselves. There was no formality to it. No memos. No meetings. No approvals. Among the marketing manager's responsibilities was to see to it that we were represented at trade fairs. When the next event approached, one of her four deputies took care of it. When the account executive from our advertising agency paid us a visit, another of the four dealt with him. Still another took care of the new brochures. In our new arrangement,the marketing department was no longer headed by an individual. It had become a team.
Consistent with this philosophy, when a promotion takes place now at Semco we simply issue blank business cards and tell the newly elevated individual:"Think of a title that signals externally your area of operation and responsibility and have it printed:". If the person likes "Procurement Manager" fine. If he wants something more elegant, he can have cards saying "First Pharaoh in charge of Royal Supplies. Whatever he wants. But inside the company there are only four options.
Name your Price - Salary Modification ideas
Top managers at Semco received both a fixed and a variable salary, the latter being a bonus, from 25 to 50% of additional pay per year, on average, in the good years - based on performance. But no one was satisfied with the way these bonuses were allotted.
Before they told us what they wanted to be paid, we asked them to consider four criteria: what they thought they could make elsewhere, what others with similar responsibilities and skills made at Semco; what friends with similar backgrounds made: and how much money they needed to live.
There are three reasons why reasonableness prevailed. First, everyone knew what everyone else was paid. Second, the top people - Clovis, Batoni, Vendramin - are all modest about their pay (for the record, I am a bit less modest; my salary reached a high of 300,000USD in the heady days of 1989 but has been as low as 120,000 USD). As a matter of corporate philosophy we try to kepe our top salaries within then times our entry level pay, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the country, where a top manager's salary can be 80 times as much as a worker's. The third reason our people tended to be modest about salaries has to do with self-preservation. Remember, at Semco our operational budgets cover just over sig months, not the usual twelve. Since and unanticipated increase in expenditures has to be offset in a short period, there is little margin for manoeuvring. Our people know salaries account for most of our operating costs, and they think about our six-month budgets when they set them. It's easy to solve a budget problem by eliminating a salary that seems to high, and no one wants to stick out.
If Semco did well, an employee who agreet to risk a 25 % salary cut - the limit - would receive up to 50 % more. Then again, if semco did poorly, he would suffer the 25% cut. When business is good, people in the programme make a lot more money. When it isn't they are helping us cut expenses and lowering their profile in case cost-cutters are called out.
I was a successful if iconoclastic manager who would soon be a best-selling author, and a minor celebrity. But I had another ambition: I wanted to be an alumnus of Harvard Business school.... Finally the letters from Cambridge arrived. Try opening an envelope with your fingers crossed. I was sure I would be accepted. I was wrong. It took me weeks to recover. I didn't tell anyone, to spare myself the added misery of listening to such comforting remarks as, That's not all tthere is in life, you konw. From time to time though, I checked my walled to make sure the token was still there. I don't know why, but I was convinced I would study at Harvardone day, if only that token didn't get lost. I couldn't cheat and put it in a safe place, either. It had to stay in my wallet if it was to work its magic. Two years later I applied to Harvard again, this time I was granted an interview at teh school. (rejection again and then the story continues after this rejection). I finally did become a Harvard alumnus, though. A few years later, after I had led Semco for six years, I decided to attend a programme for corporate executives that consited of a month of intensive instruction each year for three years. ----> How physical things can remind us of goals - - - Karl Langfield the story about Buddhists carrying the mantra for what they want to acchieve under their tongue and with them always as a solitary focus. In this story the token continually reminds him that he needs to acchieve and experience this thing and throughout many pitfalls he eventually does.
Thinking for a living - a dedicated innovation group
Their idea was to take a small group raised in Semco's culture and familiar with its people and its products - them, naturally - and set them free. Removed from day-to-day activities, they would no longer worry about production problems, billing, inventory, machines that didn't work, or subordinates who wanted a raise. They would have all their time free to think.
(This thinking group) would report their activities twice a year to the Partners, who would decide whether they would keep their jobs for another six months. They would continue to receive a salary, though it would be less than they had been getting as senior managers. But they would also share in the proceeds of the ideas and innovations they thought up, whether it was profit sharing on products they designed, royalties on sales of new products they developed, or a percentage of the savings from cost reductions they came up with.
He liked to say he turned his subconscious on when he went to sleep, and had the answers upon waking ---> Action point: Ask yourself question before you go to bed and wake up expecting an answer to come to you.
Rise and Shine
Flexible working hours. - Under the plan we had in mind, everyonewould still work eight hours a day, but they could get to the plant any time between 7 and 9am and leave accordingly in the afternoon. ----> This is not giving people freedom to choose their working hours but only freedom on a leash, the leash of 7-9am , why not open up the system so that you can work anytime. Questions - What organizational structures need to be in place to facilitate around the clock- international working?
Launcing Pad-
Encouraging workers and teams to move out onto their own and make the things they used to make under Semco for themselves and then sell the thing or part or xyz to Semco.
Above all, people acti differently when they own their own businesses. Workers who fight for every extra minute of a coffee break will toil late at night and on Saturdays and Sundays if it means keeping their own company alive. At Semco, we had succeeded largely because we had increased our employees' stake in their jobs. Our people already worked late and on the weekends of course, and they didn't need any prompting from bosses. But by encouraging them to start their own businesses, we would raise their sense of involvement even higher.
The Satellite Programme spread quickly from plant to plant and office to office. White-collar employees actually took it up first, especially our tax people, human resources staffers and draftsmen. We dissolved our legal department and farmed out the work to several firms with different specialities, including one formed by one of our ex-lawyers. Some of our accountants formed a firm too. And computer programmers went off on their own to make our software.
The Satellite Programme works because it is based on the principle that people who have a stake in their company are bound to be more involved in their work. As a result, only good things will happen: costs will fall, quality will rise, innovation will bloom. People will look at a part and say, why does it have to be like this? Why can't it be made better? Or cheaper? Or faster?
Rebirth -
The decision wasn't as wrenching for me, because I was farther from the day-to-day management of the company. Unlike the workers, I didn't have to help cart off the furniture and the fixtures. That's the difference being a general who never sees the front line. Although it can lead to disasters like Gallipoli, often officers who aren't close to the shooting make better strategic decisions. ---> Perspective from Distance - Correlate with Il Barrone Rampante from Italo Calvino
We studied more than 100 firms, negotiated with 15, and bought four. I can summarize in three sentences the hundreds of hours and millions of dollars we invested: Growth through acquisition is exciting, glamorous, and ulcer-inducing. The company you buy is not very similar to the one you thought you were buying, and never like what they told you. Buying small, family firms is a certain way to skip the ulcers and go straight to bypass surgery. In our case we incorporated subsidiaries of multinationals which mostly honour commitments, God bless them. They usually have accurate books, unlike family owned firmst, where the closets are typically full of skeletons. But when you buy any company, you must be willing to watch it and learn from it, at least for a year, before putting your paws in the soup.
Whenever I'm tempted by a deal, I remember what Ray Krinker of Price Waterhouse used to say:" A small hole can sink a big ship".
Who needs a No. 1
Instead of one person at the top, Semco would be run by a committee of our Counsellors. They were, I believed, a particularly well balanced team, professionaly and personally: Clovis, a father figure who had been influential in my thinking; Vendramin, an economist, industrial manager, engineer and above all, a thoughtful man who took his time about everything; Batoni, who pushed hard for results and was much less forgiving about people than either Clovis or Vendramin; Violi, who had a first-class financial mind and two feet on the groud; and Jose' Alignani, a talented engineer and natural leader. They ranged in age from their 40s to their mid-50s.
So now I'm jst another Counsellor. But my job hasn't changed- I try to make things happen, like a catalyst. I lobby for what I believe in. I stp in when I think I can do some good, and stp out when I'm tired of an issue or when the other Counsellors are tired of me. I attend the Tuesday meetings only when I'm invited, which is about every two or three weeks. Otherwise, they're on their own. I'd probably be asked to more meetings if I didn't have a habit of throwing out wild ideas. Also, I tend to have a hands-on approach that disrupts the system. When I become obstreperous, they just screen me off the rest of the company. Like Mafiosi, non of them will talk to me about new developments unless he is accompanied by one of the others.
Persistence is a virtue only when it is pointed in the right direction.
What do I do with the other 70 percent of my time, when I'm not working at Semco? I write a weekly newspaper column every SUnday, for 1.1 million readers. I talk about Semco to companies and business groups around the world. I am interested in politics and am a member of the executive comittee of a large political party, the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira. I watch a minimum of three movies a week, buy recordings of Beniamino Gigli, Billie Holiday, Philip Glass and Shostakovich, and take piano, golf, Chinese and cooking lessons. I also read 50 books a year, mostly histories of war and empires. Centuries of blunders and success are there for guidance. For a handful of dollars you can buy an explanation that woud have spared Napoleon thousands of lives. For little more than the price of a Big Mac you can discover the mistakes of the Tokugawa Shoguns in leaving their camp at Nara unguarded. For less than it costs to fill your tank with gas you can find out why Winston Churchill couldn't manage to get himself elected after World War II. I also read four newspapers a day - they're even cheaper. But I don't spend much time on the front page. The causes of the gret wars, early signals of stock market collapses, and the advent of innovative technologies are not found of the frong page - not at first anyway. Often the most important news is buried inside.
ThenI have this list of goals. I chanced upon a television programme about 15 years ao that, as people so like to say, changed my life. It was an interview with a 61 year-old American named John Goddard. I never found out who he was, or heard his name since. Anyway, Goddard had made a list of more than 100 goals and set out to attain them. He only had 19 to go. Thsy included landing on the moon and living to the year 2000. He already piloted a plane at the speed of sound, driven a submarine, descended the Nile in a canoe, navigated the lenght of the congo river, and climbed Chile's Aconcague Peak.
I decided that what worked for him would work for me if on a less ambitious scale. I picked 16 goals about half of which I've already met. I believe I have turned Semco into the most sought-after work place I know. I have created a foundation to provide opportunities for poor Brazilians. I am five-sixths of the way towards speaking six languages fluently.
And, like Goddard, I travel incessantly, and always with eyes open. I shudder when I think of those awful trips in the early 1980s, when Harro and I were desperately trying to keep Semco afloat. Now Sofia and I set out for Xi'An to see 6000 terracotta soldiers burdied hundereds of years ago, take baloon safaris in Kenya, camp in Tanzania, scuba and dive in the Seychelles, cross the Sahara, comb beaches in Thailand and float down the NIle. It's a far cry from three cities in a day, then back on the red-eye.
Will it Travel?
Meanwhile, I followed my usual approach to leadership and backed away from the department as it revived. There would be no cult of personality here. After a few months I no longer signed any papers. I started coming in only once a week, then every other week, then once a month. Of course, no one noticed. Once I had got the beureacracy off their backs, Joyce and the others didn't need me.
It's always better to ask forgiveness than aks for permission ----> Dad's old Saying
Modern Times
Textile factory existed in 1633 - Everything was set up with a rigid pyramid structure - much or exactly like today.
And the moral of the story : our advances in technology have far outstripped our advances in mentality.
Tehnology is transformed overnight: mentality takes generations to alter. Who can blame us for thinking technology will cure all that ails the workplace. It's so much easier to acquire.
There's no doubt in my mind: technology has gone through the roof since 1633, but quality of life has gone down the drain. All we have done is accelerate our malfunctions and increase the intensity of our mis-communication.
How important is money anyway? Entrepreneurs say profits are their raison d'etre. In the months I spent at Harvard, I met many industrialists who, like me, were taking the course in yearly instalments. During the first session I noticed that some of them paid close attention to the personal finance course. They clearly had thoughts of selling the businesses.
In the intervening year a few did cash in, trading their companies for a chance to realize dreams of an island, a sail-boat, and maybe even golf every day. But by the time the second session at Harvad came along a few of these liberated souls were already a bit bored. And by the third session nearly all those who had sold their businesses had started or acquired new ones and were happily back on the job. They were never in business for the money.
One of the biggest misconceptions about modern man is that he is somehow different from this ancestors. Man has always lived in tribes and I daresay always will. Whether these groups are ethnic, rligious, political, or vocational, they are our anchors. Being a Buddhist, a member of the National Rifle Association, a bird-watcher, a Nintendo fanatic, a Rotaria, a knight in the Ku Klux Klan gives us an identity, for better or for worse.
People derive identity from their companies too, wearing Mitsubishi or Motorola like surname. And within companies they can belong to sub-tribes, each with its own norms or dress and conduct. Just as you will never confuse an orthodox Jew with a Hari Krishna follower, never will finance executives whith their suspenders and Ferragamo ties, be mistaken for production guys, with their multiple pens safely tucked in plastic shitpocket protectors.
The issue of tribal co-existance is, I believe, critical for survival in modern times. Up until now it has been easy enough for the First World to keep its distance from the Third World and view the Southern Hemisphere as very far away. But technology is drawing everyone and every place closer together. Like lave from a huge volcano, tribes are moving towadrs areas where the standard of living is higher. In a few decades all that will be left of the First world will be a few ghettos of the super-rich, islands of luxury surrounded by misery. There will be a lot of Cairo in Paris, Mexico in Colorado, and Syria in Switzerland. And as the Third World makes its glacial movement north, it will leave behind places like Somalia, Bangladesh and the Ivory Coast, which will become an even more abject Fourth World.
I think most people want to be generous and egalitarian, but if they believe their family, their job, or their neighbourhood is threatened, their tolerance for tribal co-existence evaporates.
Discrimination will always exist, since it is tied up with tribalism, but there is plenty that can be done to diminish its effects.
In the 1920s, an engineer names DeForest went to see Harry Warner, of Hollywood's famous Warner Brothers. DeForest had managed to synchronize sound and image and could, he said, transform silent movies into talking pictures. Warner listened to him, then replied: Are you crazy? Who wants to hear an actor talk?
Henry Ford would sell his Model T's in any colour, as long as it was black. Legend has it that he adopted this monochromeatic philosophy to simplify production and keep prices down. To this day Ford is regarded as a marketing hero. I have a revisionist view. Old Henry's stubborn thinking cost Ford the leadership of America's biggest industry, for William durant, of the then smaller General Motors, decided to offer cars in a variety of colours, and was soon looking at Ford through his rerview mirror.
And then there was Chester Carlson, who visited IBM, GE and RCA, trying to sell his new invention. They tahanked him for his time but regretted that, in their view, his idea had no future. A stubborn man, Carlson persisted. Finally, he met Joseph Wilson, who owned a small firm named the Haloid Company. Wilson saw the potential of Carlson's device. With time, he even renamed his company after it: Xerox.
Corporations have notoriously short life spans. Even in the stable and relatively prosperous United States, a company has a less than 5 per cent chance of being in a better position 50 years from now. These cautionary tales illustrate what I believe is the biggest challenge any business faces: change. Semco has succeeded despite some of the harshest economic conditions imaginable because we have learned to see the need for change and have been smart enough to seek our employees help in implementing it.
To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules.
In a nuthshell: A company should trust its destiny to its employees.
To concentrate on building organizations that accomplish the most difficult of challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning.
How SEMCO Employees evaluate their supervisors
The following questionair is anonymously completed by all Semco employees every six months as part of the process of evaluating their supervisors. The questions are weighted according to their importance and the results are posted. A score of 80 out of 10 0is average.
1) When an employee makes a small mistake the subject is:
a. Irritated and unwilling to discuss the mistake
b. Irritated but willing to discuss it
c. Realises the mistake and discusses it in a constructive manner
d. Ignores the mistake and only pays attention to more important matters
2) The subject reacts to criticism
a. Poorly, ignoring it
b. Poorly, rejecting it
c. Reasonably well
d. Well, accepting it
3) The subject is a. Constantly
a. Tense
b. Usually tense, but relaxed on occasion
. Usually relaxed, but tense on occasion
d. Constantly relaxed
4) The subject is
a. Insecure
b. More often insecure than secure
c. More often secure than insecure
d. Secure
5) As far as professional and personal relationships are concerned, the subject is
a. Incapable of separating them
b. Frequently incapable of separating them
c. Usually capable of separating them
d. Capable of separating them
6) When the subject’s department achieves a high level of productivity, the subject usually
a. Takes credit for others’ success
b. Gives credit to those who did the work
c. Gives credit to the team as a whole
7) The subject is seen as
a. Always unfair
b. More often unfair than fair
c. More often fair than unfair
d. Always fair
8) The subject conveys to his team feelings of
a. Fear and insecurity
b. Indifference
c. Security and tranquillity
9) The subject transmits to his team a sense of
a. Coldness and unwillingness to talk
b. Distance but willingness to talk
c. Friendliness but indifference to others’ problems
d. Friendliness and concern with others’ problems
10) When dealing with people in inferior positions (outside the team), the subject usually
a. Has an attitude of superiority
b. Ignores them
c. Treats them politely, but with an air of superiority
d. Respects them
11) The subject treats their team members
a. Much worse than they treat their superiors
b. A little worse than they treat their superiors
. A little worse than they treat their superiors
d. Treats both the same
12) The subject
a. Constantly reminds everyone they are the boss
b. Occasionally reminds everyone they are the boss
c. Rarely makes a point of being the boss
13) The subject is
a. A weak leader, unable to motivate their team
b. A weak leader but able to motivate their team
c. A strong leader but unable to motivate their team
d. A strong leader and able to motivate their team
14) When their team has a specific goal, the subject
a. Demands results, but doesn’t participate in the effort to achieve them
b. Demands results and participates superficially
c. Participates in the effort when necessary to meet the goal
15) The subject
a. Is openly held in disrespect by the team
b. Is held in disrespect by the team, but not publicly
c. Generates neither respect nor disrespect
d. Is respected by their team
16) The subject
a. Gives obvious preferential treatment to some people because of their colour, religion, gender or origin
b. Denies being biased, but doesn’t give equal opportunity to everyone
c. Isn’t biased and gives equal opportunity to everyone
17) When promotions and prizes are concerned, the subject
a. Gives them to those he likes
b. Sometimes gives them to those who deserve them and sometimes gives them to ‘followers’
c. Almost always is just and impartial
18) During a crisis, the subject
a. Disrupts the group’s unity
b. Doesn’t affect the group’s unity
c. Helps the group stick together
19) Which is more important to the subject
a. Work to be performed perfectly
b. Work to be performed quickly
c. Either speed or perfection depending on the situation
20) The subject is
a. Excessively involved in all situations
b. Not involved enough in all situations
c. Adequately involved in all situations
21) If the subject were to replace you temporarily, their performance would be
a. Unsatisfactory
b. Regular
c. Good
d. Better than yours
22) In choosing between the urgent and the important, the subject
a. Doesn’t know the difference between them
b. Usually tends towards the urgent
c. Distinguishes well between the two
23) The subject
a. Wastes too much time on urgent problems
b. Gives equal time to urgent and important matters
c. Gives more time to important matters
24) The subject is
a. Not very creative and resists new ideas
b. Too creative and change-orientated, disturbing the atmosphere
c. Is adequately creative and change-orientated
25) As far as creating an environment where people feel free to be creative or suggest changes, the subject
a. Blocks innovative and creative ideas
b. Doesn’t block them but also doesn’t create them
c. Promotes creative or innovative ideas
26) As far as the team is concerned, the subject
a. Usually chooses the wrong people
b. Sometimes chooses well and sometimes chooses poorly
c. Usually chooses the right people
27) The people who work around the subject
a. Rarely feel motivated to work
b. Sometimes feel motivated to work
c. Usually feel motivated to work T
28) The subjects use of financial resources is
a. Poor
b. Average
c. Good
d. Excellent
29) The subjects use of his own time is
a. Bad
b. Average
c. Good
d. Excellent
30) The value the subject gives to training and related matters is
a. Too small
b. Sufficient
c. Great
31) The subject performs tasks
a. Almost always poorly
b. Sometimes poorly and sometimes well
c. Almost always well
32) Regarding opinions that differ from their own, the subject
a. Never accepts them
b. Usually doesn’t accept them
c. Sometimes accepts them
d. Almost always accepts them
33) People find the subject
a. Untrustworthy
b. Occasionally untrustworthy
c. Very trustworthy
34) The subject represents the company
a. Poorly, raising concern about it
b. Neither poorly nor well
c. Well, leading people to trust it
35) The subject's knowledge of his area is:
a) Insufficient
b) Sufficient
c) Profound
36) The subject:
a) Gives obvious preference to people of a certain gender
b) Denies being biased, but doesn't give equal opportunity to everyone
c) Isn't biased and gives equal opportunity to everyone.
Time management
A Semco Lexicon
Semco is focused on the crucial corporate tasks of making, selling, billing and collecting.
Time Management
1) Begin at the end. Set a certain hour at which to leave the office and obey it blindly. I chose 7pm, but before I had often worked until midnight. If you normally work until 7pm move your leaving time to 5.30 or 6. If you take work home at weekend, establish a 60-day programme to halt this insidious practice.
2) Sift through that stack of papers on your desk and decide which are the most important. (Deciding that everything is equally important is cheating, Start again). Spend several hours, or even a whole day, if that's what it takes, discovering what's in that pile. Begin with the most difficult, complex, or time-consuming documents. In other words, go through the pile in order or importance, not appearance. You won't get a fals sense of accomplishment that way. As you go through it, divide the papers into three categories:
- Priority items, which require your personal attention and represent matters of indiputable importance. Don't put more than five documents in this category.
- Items that can be handled only by you, but can wait. At first this category seems the most enjoyable, because so muc appears to fit in it. Think hard about whether you are really the only who can deal with an item. Whether your subordinates or colleagues are overworked should not weigh in your decision; the control of time is nothing if not an excercise in selfishness. Load them up with everything that fails 'the Test of the Seventies'. (No this isn't a quiz to see if you remember Watergate. Ask yourself: Is it possible that someone else could do this task at least 70 per cent as well as I could? If the answer is yes, let him.
Items you think would be good to look at, but never quite get around to. These include newspapers and magaines, lenghty reports, copies of memos- you get the idea. We've all grown accustomed to receiving vast quantities of information. As a defance, we tend to read a little of everything. This is among the most serious causes of time illness.
The Key to Management is self-esteem. You must maintain it even though you may not be as well informed about some essentially menaingless report or arcane issue as your associates. You must be prepared to go to a meeting and endure comments such as " You mean you didn't read'short-cuts to a Better Casting Project " in the latest Foundry Lovers' News? Better to suffer the humiliation of saying you didn't and ask someone to be kind enough to summarize it than to have had to read all the articles that cross your desk. Legions of executives believe they will be regarded as ill-informed dunces if they let their subscriptions lapse to The Wall street Journal, The Financial Times, Time and L'Express, not to mention assorted local papers, financial newsletters, Fortune, Forbes, and so on. Publications work hard to convey their indispensability. Don't let too many succeed.
Due to (what else?) lack of time, I used to leave magazines and newspapers on a table in my office to read later. When more periodicals would arrive, I would carefully add them to the pile. I felt depressed just looking at it, fearful of all the information I had not absorbed. Then one evening the pile collapsed. That was my cue, and I finally gave the magazines the dignified burial they deserved, without opening them. I estimate that the ratio of useless to relevant reading material is about 20 to 1. With that im mind, my advise is to reduce the literary inflow to a maximum of two newspapers a day, two weekly magazines, and two publications in a specialized field. Start being proud of not being aware of everything. Get off distribution lists. The reward will be an opportunity to engage in that under-appreciated occupation, contemplation. Aristotle, who didn't subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, once said ' Thinking requires leisure time.' If you are not in posession of leisure time, you can't be thinking that much. ---> For Me personally, I make an effort at being selectively ignorant. After a 6 month information blackout with no TV, Music, Radio, Movies, Video Games, I've continued with being proud of not being up to date on everything. When people criticize me for being out of date with things I proudly say : Yes, I live under a rock!
If you think you can manage your time without making any investmentt in fixed assets, you are wrong. There is one essential acquisition: another rubbish bin. I know. You laready have a perfectly good one. But most people have enough on their desk to fill two. At first, using this second bin will take courage. You will have to toss into it impressive reports and unread magazines. But remember the question Alfred Sloan, the legendary head of General Motors, used to ask:' What is the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out?' If you don't tremble, sweat or grow short of breath, go ahead and pitch it. Eventually, your second rubbish bin will become a baby sitter for your in-tray. Leave it in place a few more months, a magnificent symbol of freedom.
4) Think hare before accepting that invitation to lunch or to visit a supplier or to make a speech to a trade group. The first response is usually to reach for the Filofax and, if the appropirate space is blank, scrawl in the new commitment. Adopt a new party line: "Thanks but I just can't fit it in ". Or you might ask, Have you tried X? Or; - I can't make it, but do let me know what happened. Or, as a last resort: I'm really sorry, but I'll be on my honeymoon. Say what you have to, but take part only in events that are absolutely, positively essential. That lunch to get to konw supplier Z better or to impress customer Y, like those it's-probably-a good-idea-to-be-there meetings, play upon insecurities. I've never met a supplier who lowered his price because he found me great company at lunch or a customer who gave me an order because the Beaujolais I served at dinner made him giddy. Participate only in what you're sure will generate return for your investment of precious time.
If you have to meet someone, do it at the office. The surrounding discourage people from drifting from the subject. But don't provide visitors with a cub of coffee: it's an invitation to an easygoing, unproductive conversation. By leaving an intruder uncaffeinated, you are contributing to his health and he may not be so quick to return either.
5. Rationalizing time without talking about meetings is like a soccer match without a riot. Is there anyone who works in an office who doesn't go to too many meetings? For starters, remember that man is a social animal. We feel more comfortable in the presence of others. Meetings give rise to the sense of being part of a group, of solidarity even with the ever-present rifts and jealousies of business. And, of course, corporate communications systems are usualy slow and often inadequate, so meetings let us catch up. To eliminate meetings is to go against human nature and diminish corporate efficiency. But making meetings more effective is not all that difficult. Through trial and error, we at Semco have come up with some recommendations.
- Begin on time (five or ten minutes late is still on time, unless you're Swedish). Just start with whatever is there. Do this a few times and those who are usually late will get the messgae.
-Don't start a meeting without first setting a time to stop. And don't go beyond it by more than a few minutes. When you are in your own office, get up from your chair and say " Ok Then" when you want to end a session. Sometimes I sit on the edge of my desk from the start. It may not be polite, but it works.
-Go over the agenda in front of everyone. List subjects in order of importance. Don't give in to the temptation of clearing up old items, or getting rid of uncomplicated new items, first.
-Delegate to one or more people any item that might take more time than is allotted for it, or that provokes a discussion that drags on without hope of resolution.
- Don't have meetings that last longer than two hours. After that, attention drops by the minute.
- Avoid "Dog and Pony Shows" Keep reports short and discourage the use of charts and tables. Avoid overhead transparencies too and don't ever turn out the lights.
-Be a bear about interruptions. The only excuse for breaking into a meeting is a customer with a problem.
-Transform as many meetings as possible into telephone calls or quick conversations in the hall. People tend to call meetings for problems that can be resolved in 10 or 15 minutes over the phone or even in a fax.
6. About the telephone: anyone who takes a message at Semco asks the caller to detail the subject - that's detail not state. Ask your secretary or assistant to say automatically that you cannot take a call - before the caller is asked who he is, of course. Take the list of callers from a given day (or several days) and return only those from people you truly need to talk to, such as customers. As for the others, they will either:
-Call again and again, until they give up, at which point you know that subject was not important
- Call one of your associates.
In any case, prepare to hear how talking to you is harder than talking to the Pope. Take it as a compliment.
7. Make time to think. Try blocking out a half-day a week on your agenda. I find Monday and Friday mornings are good because I can clear away post- and pre-weekend distractions. During this half-day, avoid your office. Camp out in an unused conference room or even better, stay at home. Thinking is difficult. It requires concentration and discipline. Give it the time it deserves. Aristotle would approve.