copyright julian birkinshaw 2014 reinventing management professor julian birkinshaw london business...

Copyright Julian Birkinshaw 2014

Reinventing Management

Professor Julian BirkinshawLondon Business School

Creating Happy Workplaces ConferenceMay 2014


Who are you happiest with?

Friends

Parents/relatives

Spouse

My children

Co-workers

Clients/customers

Alone

Boss

3.3

3.0

2.8

2.7

2.6

2.4

2.2

2.0(Rating is on a 1-5 scale)


What problem was management invented to

solve?• How to routinise

and standardise work?

• How to maximise employee discipline and diligence?


What are today’s management challenges?

• How do we change fast enough to stay relevant in a turbulent world?

• How do we innovate boldly enough to stay ahead of our competitors?

• How do we create an organisation where people are able and willing to do their best work?

Agile

Innovative

Engaging


Koontz & O’Donnell, Principles of Management, 1955


Broadening our concept of innovation

FROM NEW PRODUCTS

AND SERVICES

TO NEW WAYS OF WORKING


Reinventing management at HCL Technologies

• Employees first, customers second

• Value is created by client-facing employees

• Managers and support functions serve them through:

– Open 360º feedback– Smart Service Desk– You & I


Reinventing management:challenge the underlying

principle

EmergenceBureaucracy

How do we Coordinate How do we Coordinate Activities?Activities?

Traditional Principle Alternative Principle


Emergence

Shared Space: An intriguing analogy


Eliminating unnecessary processes

• 2001: Seeking growth

• Biggest blocker: the budgeting process

• Solution: Eliminated traditional budgeting, desk heads now evaluated on ROI versus peer units

01 02 03 04 05 06

3.2

2.6 2.6

3.5

4.1

5.1

Profit before tax for Wealth Management (ex US) in CHF Billion


Experimenting with a non-bureaucratic approach

Hypothesis:

Peer review is more effective than direct oversight for

managing the expense claim process


A new management process

Control group

Standard sign-off process for expense

claims

Test group

No sign-off required, employees put their expenses on-line for

all to see

Hypothesis: Peer review is more effective than bureaucracy for managing expense claims

After 4 months, employees

happier, total claims lower,

processing costs lower

Pre-measures of costs, employee satisfaction etc.


Part 2: Making it personal

Management: “Enabling your employees

to do their best work”


Key features of effective management

What employees need•Give your people important work to do•Provide them with space •Provide support when it is needed•Given people recognition & praise

What they often get•Confusing or unclear objectives•Micro-management and meddling•Lack of information, lack of concern•Limited or no feedback


Why don’t we do what we know we should?


DiscussionIf we know what “good management” looks like, why do we struggle to do it

consistently? And what techniques could we put in place to help us?


Is being a good manager an

“Unnatural Act”?


So how can you improve the quality of management in your

company?

Learn how to see the world

through the eyes of our employees


Cutting through the hierarchy: How do you get closer to the

front line?

• “Management by walking around”

• Skip-level meetings• Web-enabled chat / discussion• Front-line work• “Smokers corner”• Reverse mentoring


Turn your employees into promoters

Net Promoter Score: How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910

Detractor Neutral Promoter

Extremely likely

Not at all likely


The “Net Management Promoter Score”

How likely is it that you would recommend your line manager to a colleague as someone they should work for in the future? (1=not at all likely, 10=extremely likely)

Detractor Neutral Promoter


A top quality boss is the best single predictor of employee

engagement


A new management style

Before

Traditional style of supervision

of team

After

Supervisor spends 5 hours more per week providing

feedback and coaching team

Hypothesis: A greater emphasis on ‘coaching’ will increase the effectiveness of my team

Intervention: Supervisor has 5 hours per week freed up (fewer meetings)

Team are asked to look for new ways of increasing cross-selling

Result: Team members more engaged, significant increase in cross-selling from lower performers

copyright julian birkinshaw 2014 reinventing management professor julian birkinshaw london business...

Documents

copyright julian birkinshaw

feedback slide

scale slide

best work slide

principles of management

personal management

expense claim process

intriguing analogy slide