The time pie
We want to exchange the command & control style for a style which focuses on removing obstacles for teams so that they can work effectively. At a government organization, we set up a process to resolve teams’ obstacles. These were obstacles the team themselves could not resolve, such as a lack of workspaces or missing licenses for tools. The obstacles were visualized on a board in a central place in the organization. Management met weekly to coordinate with team representatives who had reported the obstacles. We noticed that the obstacles were not resolved quickly. The managers in question said they had no time to support the teams in resolving them. They were well aware things blocking the teams from delivering should be high on the priority list. But their full schedules prevented them from pursuing and resolving the obstacles.
- Organize a session with the involved managers.
- Ask each manager to draw a circle on a piece of paper. The circle represents their workweek. We will make a pie chart of this.
- Agree on the categories to be mapped. Think of operational management, administration & reporting, vision development, process improvements, removing obstacles for teams, attention to individual employees, customer contact, etc.
- Then, extract from last week’s schedule how much time was spent on which category. Draw the proportion between the categories as pie slices in the circle (percentages of your time).
- Then create another circle with a pie chart for the desired time distribution across the categories. How would you like the time to be divided?
- Each manager holds the pie charts with the current and desired distribution next to each other. Work on the following questions: what holds us back from changing it? What does the current distribution bring us? What are we keeping out of sight? What are we not discussing, and why not? What is the relationship with how we are managed, assessed, or rewarded? What could we change ourselves? Where do we start tomorrow?
By tackling these kinds of issues, awareness is created about the changing role of managers.
