Micromanaging with Microsoft

When so many companies are struggling to run an "Agile Transformation" (which is an anti-pattern) Microsoft helps us by giving a clear example of what we should not do.

We know that the main obstacle for companies to adopt agility at organizational level is the culture, or mindset. The following case makes the point crystal clear.

Microsoft is introducing a "productivity score" in Office 365. Ouch!

This means monitoring the activity of employees through the usage of MS "solutions".

But ... hey, we should be thankful for the honesty of the message. Just have a look at the video and you will see the emphasis in monitoring "how" people work. Results? Outcomes? You are at the wrong place.

And this is the point where we need to be thankful for an example that seems to be extracted from the stone age. The old mindset always focuses on how and aims to standardise what people do, while modern organizations focus on outcomes. Period.

When the world is talking about 4 Days Week, some think that by having people typing more, the organization is going to be more productive.

An electricity company was measuring overtime in the 90s. Furthermore, senior management used to have a monthly meeting to study the reports and a manager responsible for the commercial IT system was often the superstar. What I knew later, was that a brilliant employee on his sector developed a video game in the mainframe (yes, with those ugly green screens) and spent the whole day playing. The game had a key shortcut and when pressed, a working editor screen was displayed. Did I mention that he was brilliant?

Managers who cannot measure what they want, tend to want what they can measure.

Do you measure keystrokes? Activity time? Lines of code? Well ... that's what you will get.

It will not take long for people to realize that by leaving any editor open and something pressing the spacebar, activity reports will go through the roof. Have fun, take a beer, a little stone on the spacebar is doing the work for you. Or at least, the work that the company is measuring you by.

The wrong mindset. The wrong metrics. The wrong culture.

Instead of aiming for an Agile Transformation, check what are you measuring to determine performance. This is the point of "Sooner, Safer, Happier".

If an employee delivers results with less effort, the employee is more efficient. Not less.

To think that if someone has some extra capacity we need to find ways to see and use it, is not necessarily wrong. What is wrong, is to think that the way to do that is by assigning more of the same, raising the bar. This is demotivating and generates a cobra effect.

Instead, make sure people can come up with new proposals, pursuing initiatives that they can present for funding within the organization and you will have commitment, ownership, engagement, happiness, and value.

The 4 Days Week initiative is something we will be hearing more and more in the near future (see video below) and here is the point: if you cannot measure results, there is no way this can be achieved. If you only measure activities, there is no way you will get more in 4 days than in 5. After all, pressing the spacebar for one more day will be more "productive".