Assignment - Deadline: Monday, August 18
A. Post two paragraphs inspired by one or more of the study guide
questions/thoughts for the week.
B. Post two separate comments to one or more of your
colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.
Questions - First Who
. . . Then What
- How
might you tell if someone is the right person on the bus?
- How
might you tell if someone is simply in the wrong seat as distinct from
being the wrong person on the bus entirely?
- Think
of a case where you had doubts, but your organization hired anyway. What
was the outcome? Why did the organization hire anyway, and what do you
learn from the situation?
- If
compensation is not the primary driver for the right people on the bus,
then what are the primary elements in getting and keeping the right people
on the bus? What role does compensation play?
Source: “Jim Collins
– Good to Great: Discussion Guide.” http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/discussion-guide.html
I wanted to discuss a situation where a former unit where I was employed had doubts, but hired anyways. The results cannot be described as anything, but disastrous. The job - Director of one of the University’s Centers - had been filled by an interim director for nearly two years. The Center had already been through one failed search. The second time around did not prove any easier. Of the three finalists, one decided to withdraw his application and another was deemed not a good fit for the Center’s current work culture. Thus, by the process of elimination only one candidate remained and was offered the position, although few were enthusiastic about the choice.
ReplyDeleteSoon after the hire, the new Director came into the position trying to fit the Center into a similar model she used in her previous employment without ascertaining whether such a change was necessary. Conflicts flared up internally and externally. Staff, including myself, began looking for other job opportunities as few were in agreement of the new (some would say, misguided) direction the Center had taken. Within two years, 9 of the 16 full-time staff found other positions. Six months later, finally realizing their mistake, upper administration offered the Director a termination package. It was definitely a difficult lesson to learn, but this experience definitely illustrated the truth of not hiring when you still have doubts about your candidates.
I feel like a lot of my career growth is the result of "learn by doing". I once pushed upper management to hire an individual simply out of need to fill the position. That individual turned out to be a very bad fit for the type of work we did at the time. He did not last long and we ended up having to do the whole process over again. I learned in that instance that it is better to leave the position open until you find the right fit.
DeleteAfter reading the question "How might you tell if someone is simply in the wrong seat as distinct from being the wrong person on the bus entirely?" it reminded me of a scenario when I worked at Best Buy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working in the computer department, our supervisor was knowledgeable of computers, understood sales goals and although only a few years older than myself, had been with the company almost a decade. Despite all of his efforts to increase sales, our department unable to meet the store and company expectations and ultimately, he was demoted back to the sales floor. However, to this day, I still feel he was supposed to be on the "bus" but was just in the wrong "seat."
When I put in my two week notice at Best Buy, I found out a massive shakeup company-wide with executive management and supervisors was coming down the pipe. Eventually, my former supervisor left the company, and from what I was told, was doing well in a non-retail industry.
Ten-of-thousands of supervisors and managers across the company were laid off or let go; partly because of the business model change, but also because many stores across the nation were not meeting the goals set by the traditional "brick and mortar" standards, and the company had not fully adapted to the market change with companies like Amazon.
Based on Collins definition of the "bus," my supervisor, unfortunately, was in the wrong place at the wrong time when other people needed to get off the bus, and ultimately, cost him a future with the company.
Good story, Mike. As a supervisor, sometimes it is difficult to see the "bigger picture." You are so caught up in day-to-day details, that you do not see that previous methods need to change to stay relevant in your field. We also need to know how to recognize the talents of our co-workers to ensure they are placed in a position within the organization mutually beneficial to the employee and company.
DeleteThink of a case where you had doubts, but your organization hired anyway. What was the outcome? Why did the organization hire anyway, and what do you learn from the situation?
ReplyDeleteJiffy Lube, my previous job, comes to mind. In the years that I had worked there it was ran by a Tyrese Gibson. Great boss who made it a point to get involved in the surrounding community. Anything you could imagine promotion-wise Tyrese was doing. We were the top seller out of all the Michigan Jiffy Lubes, which was a total of thirty-four stores. That all changed when Tyrese got another job opportunity. This all happened right around the time I was hired at the center.
With Tyrese gone, corporate brought in another manager from a closed store. I am not sure what there reason was for hiring a failed store manager. This proved to be a bad decesion. The new manager, Tyrone, changed everything. He brought his same bad practices to a thriving store. The decline was almost immediate and slowly workers started to leave. I got out of that terrible situation the minute Feodies hired me. Needless to say, that Jiffy Lube is closed and the last time I saw Tyrone was at a AMC.
Joshua - That is a sad story which keeps repeating itself. I am sure Tyrone was given the position, because the hiring manager did not want to take the time to do a proper search. To the hiring manager, it probably appeared to be the easiest thing to do in the short term, instead of being concerned about long term results. At a conference I attended earlier this year, it was said you should not hire someone when you feel that person "will do." Instead, you should take your time and make sure you have the "right" person for the job.
DeleteOverall, I had a hard time with this chapter. It is somewhat inconceivable in my mind for an organization to figure how who to hire before you really know what you want them to do. It makes sense to me to have good people on your team, but it doesn't make sense to build a team with no specific goal in mind. I understand that the whole point of the concept is that it is counter-intuitive, but I am having a hard time putting my arms around the idea.
ReplyDeleteI think that what they author is leaving out is that every company evaluated did have a fundamental purpose for its existence. The leadership may not have had a specific articulated goals for the company, but the companies each had a product or process that they based their operations on. All goals and directions developed did have the basic concept of growing the business. Yes Kimberly Clark sold the mills, but they did not get out of the paper business. In that instance I can understand a company making a drastic change in strategy and how having the right people on the team can aid in that change. Yet, I don't think you hire people for a specific job without an understanding of the contributions that individual can make beyond the job description.
My example is somewhat in reverse. I had a contract with a San Francisco advertising agency for GM that setup shop in Troy. Majority of the staff came from a variety of local agencies. One new hire in particular came from a local agency and had been in the business for several years. He was much older than our manager and others on the team. Requirements of the job were not foreign to him. With that, he came into work, did his job and left. A lot of the younger staffers we in the mindset that one needed to be there all night (in for the long haul, part of the team, company culture, etc) to the job. Not so. Needless to say, he did not stay there very long (a month) and went to work for another organization. In this instance, what happens when management is in the wrong seat? You have an employee whose had longevity and expertise in the field and because he's not trying to 'fit it', he's an issue (they talked about him BAD when he left). I understand in learning the culture of a new organization, but when management's decision making is based on juvenile rhetoric, what do you do?
ReplyDelete