Best Fit Model – PeopleFit’s Capability Assessment Triangle

I will propose adding a third qualifier to the two most common sets of qualifiers:

Can
1.? Knowledge, skills, experience, education – what can I do because I’ve done it before?

Will
2.? Values, preferences?- what will I do because I find it appealing?

The Missing Link
Area number three, problem solving capability, answers the question that behavioral based interviewing misses – what could I do if I had aforementioned items number 1 and 2?? It has to do with one’s potential capability.

Could
3.? Problem solving capability (information processing)?- what could I do because my mental bandwidth can contain it?

Coming Next?
What does problem solving capability look like by level and how does that align with work levels?

I’m?OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

It’s?easy to walk on water when you know where the rocks are.??? –? Gerry Kraines

I’ve found that managers are highly capable of assessing the relative cognitive capability (by work level) of their employees when they are given a work levels framework.

People Are Different, and It’s Not Just about Experience and Education
If you are an experienced?manager of multiple people, you know there are differences in mental bandwidth, and this characteristic is irrespective of years of experience, education, training and skill sets.? Meaning, there are assignments you would give to one employee, that you would not give to another, and the bigger assignment does not always go to the employee with more experience or more education.? So what makes the difference?? I would argue it is their current problem solving capability (which increases over time but at different rates in individuals).

The Theory Base
Elliott Jaques, who discovered this phenomenon and incorporated it into his Requisite Organization meta-model, called this capability, complexity of information processing.? It’s the way that?one groups, massages, chews on, and uses information to solve problems, i.e. work.? Think mathematics.? First I add single digits.? Then double.? I move on to subtraction, multiplication, division and then algebra.? If you try to teach these subjects before the student is ready, it doesn’t “compute”.

In my next post, I will begin to spell out what problem solving looks like at the different levels.? With these rocks visible, you may be able to walk on talent assessment water farily quickly.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

The Dangers of Overhiring
Focusing on hiring the brightest candidate can lead to overhiring, which, unless you are building bench for growth, creates drag in the system over time.

Back to Work Levels
I think the ‘best and brightest’ default strategy is compensatory for the fact that we really don’t understand how to match employees to roles.? Although we intuitively know some roles are more complex than others, most lack a clear model that elucidates the universal differences in job complexity.

Problem Solving Pattern
Understanding how the work in the roles is different is a stepping stone toward thinking about the human side – the problem solving capability needed to be successful in the various levels of roles.

Talent Assessment
In my next posts, I will describe the differences in problem solving patterns.? Understanding the patterns is a key managerial leadership knowledge set which is?essential for?accurate talent assessment.

Have you ever overhired?? How long was it before you stopped congratulating yourself for a great hire, and started kicking yourself for the mistake you made?? My guess:?Six months

I’m OK. You’re OK. Let’s fix the system.

]]> http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/why-you-shouldnt-hire-the-best-and-the-brightest-candidate/feed 10 http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/why-training-rarely-solves-the-problem-im-ok-youre-ok-lets-fix-the-system http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/why-training-rarely-solves-the-problem-im-ok-youre-ok-lets-fix-the-system#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:46:48 +0000 Michelle Malay Carter http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/?p=690 Management’s Magic Bullet – Training
Training is a fabulous thing – if people need to build knowledge and skills.

But how often are issues at work really caused by someone’s lack of knowledge or skill?

What does training NOT address?

• What the accountabilties of my role are, AND what the accountabilities of others’ roles are.
• Whether I have the explicit requisite authority to carry out those accountabilties.
• Whether my authorities that I have in relation to others who do not work for me have been shared with those over whom I have authority.
• When others to whom I do not report have authority over me.
• A clear, integrated context set for me by my manager within which my peers and I can make clear trade off and priority decisions.
• Whether I have the resources necessary to do my job.
• Whether I have the raw cognitive capacity to do my job (regardless of training or desire)
• Whether I value the work of my role and are willing to commit my energy to it.
• Whether my manager has the raw cognitive capacity to set context for me and add value to my thinking.
• Whether my manager values managerial leadership behaviors rather than just the “technical” side of his role.
• Whether the vertical structure of my organization is requisitely designed to cover all the levels of work with exactly one role within a reporting chain.
• Whether there are systems in place to support the proper exercising of accountability and authority.
• Whether the system rewards only output or both output?and effectiveness.

Have you been sent to training that was a clear waste of your time?? When you returned, did you say, I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system?

]]> http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/why-training-rarely-solves-the-problem-im-ok-youre-ok-lets-fix-the-system/feed 7 http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/undercover-boss-well-meaning-window-dressing http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/undercover-boss-well-meaning-window-dressing#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:34:46 +0000 Michelle Malay Carter http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/?p=687 I must admit I’m touched by the hearts of the CEOs who agree to go undercover to experience their organization on the ground floor.? They seem to geniunely care about the people, not just the publicity afforded to their organization by the show.

Systems Drive Behavior
However, in the end, their righting single incidents or donating toward a personal financial burden of an employee simply perpetuates the idea that good intentions with a handful of feel-good outcomes makes everything right.? Systems drive behavior!? If you don’t tend to the dysfunctional systems, the dysfunctional behaviors will continue.

Managers Are Accountable for the Output of Their Employees
In the show, when these CEOs come upon a manager who is failing in his/her managerial leadership duties, the CEO usurps the authority of their accountable manager by taking action directly with the manager.? To add to that, the action takes the form of “be nice now”, and as the camera fades over grateful smiles and joyful tears, everyone appears to live happily ever after.??

Creating an Accountability Leadership Culture
A clear, requisite framework of accountabilities and authorities would do more for these workplaces than all the good intentions and fatherly advice we see.

Managers-Once-Removed Should Be Accountable to Identify Talent
The CEOs often identify promising young talent, and at least once, a Training Future Leaders program is set up, but it begs the question, who is accountable for identifying talent and what is it that we are looking for?? And is it all about training?

A System for Talent Assessment and Management
An understanding of work levels could create a science-based foundation for fair and consistent talent assessment and management system.

Call Me!
So I’m sending a shout out to Larry O’Donnell of Waste Management, Coby Brooks of Hooters, Joe DePinto of 7-Eleven, and Dave Rife of White Castle:?? You’re OK.? Your employees are OK.? Let’s fix the system!? It’s clear you have both a head and a heart.? Let’s put them to use toward designing systems!

Executive Leadership Defined
Creating and tending to the system is executive level work.? Through this, you ensure your operational organization is designed correctly and a leadership system is in place to ensure employees have what they need.? PeopleFit can provide you a framework from which you can make informed and intentional decisions in the areas of organizational structure, talent management and managerial leadership systems.

Assuming you have been employed at full capacity in your previous work, adding a time element to your resume’s bullet points is one of the best ways to demonstrate your level of capability, and there is plenty of research to back up my assertion.? Below is the question and my response:

“I get calls on my resume but they aren?t for the right level job. What am I doing wrong?”

What Adds to the Weight of a Role?
One of the key items that adds weight to a role is time (within managerial hierarchies – not necessarily associations or independent consulting roles).? Any given type of work can exist at a variety of levels.??For example, sales work can range from “Do you want fries with that?” to determining whether a potential market overseas is viable.

You Know This in Your Gut
If the longest deliverable in your role is 2 months, your role is fundamentally different than one that carries a longest deliverable of 2 years. So when describing your experience, specifically state some of your longest term deliverables as a way of indicating the level of complexity you can handle.

Amazing Research Correlations
Research by Elliott Jaques, validated at least six times, has shown that time span of discretion (aka the length of the longest task in a role) is the king kong indicator of what people will say is felt-fair pay for a particular role. I believe 30 potential variables were evaluated and the correlations between time span and felt fair pay ranged between +0.84 and +0.95.

Another Look at the Same Issue from Requisite Reading
This same phenomenon is why your former salary is a proxy for your ability, and recruiters and prospective employers are always curious about it.? My colleague Forrest Christian details this in his blog post, Why Recession Grads Make Less Over Time.

This Doesn’t Help the Underemployed
Unfortunately, if you have been underemployed, time spans and former salaries are going to work against you, since they reflect the level of capability you’ve been in a position to exercise, not your potential capability.? Behavioral-based interviewing has this same issue.

What does your resume say about you?

I’m OK. You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Throwing The Baby Out with the Bathwater – Egalitarianism
We are kidding ourselves to believe?managerial hierarchies can be?egalitarian.? Power must be exercised.? We can “nice up” the word power by calling?it leadership or authority, but?it is power just the same.

So then the question becomes,?if power must be?excised, how can we set up a managerial leadership system to channel power to every one’s advantage??

Designing for Good Power
Elliott Jaques’ Requisite Organization Model outlines just a system.? Here is how it addresses power to create an environment of trust and fairness.? Without trust and fairness, employees disengage.

Operationalizing Good Power

• Granting managers the authority they need to hire their people, refuse unacceptable candidates and remove non-performing employees.
• Pairing the aforementioned authority with managerial accountability for the output of their employees.? No more scapegoating.? Employees are accountable to do their best.??
• Employees are?judged by their EFFECTIVENESS, not solely their output so no employee has to resort to cheating or short sightedness to “make their goals”.
• Offering a science-based means to ensure that employees have managers who are cognitively more capable than themselves.
• Offering a science-based means to ensure that employees are hired and/or promoted into roles that suit their capability.

Starving Bad Power

• Clearly defining accountabilities, authorities and escalations procedures so no employee has to resort to manipulation to get his work done.
• Making sure there are not redundant layers in the organization that bog down work or leadership vacuums (too few layers.)

Making sure that at least two sets of eyes are on each employee by:

• Making managers-once-removed accountable for the fair treatment of their subordinates-once-removed.
• Making managers-once-removed accountable for the career development of subordinate-once-removed.

Disallowing No Power

• Making all managers accountable to exercise managerial leadership, not just to contribute on the technical part of their role.
• Making all employees accountable to give their best advice and speak their minds.??When managers are accountable for the output of their employees,?managers actually want to hear the truth?so they can make changes.? Scapegoating is no longer an option.
• Making all managers accountable to listen to the advice of employees, but pairing this with the ultimate authority to decide.

What kind of power do you experience in your organization?

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Employees Crave True Leadership

Management Myth Busted
Simply having?more experience does not automatically qualify someone to be a thought leader for anyone with less experience.

Danger, Danger – Promotions by Tenure
Many a mistake has been made promoting by tenure (aka experience) when the decision should be based first upon the promotion candidate’s cognitive capability for higher level work.? Knowledge, skills and experience play a part, but they mean nothing if the?candidate cannot handle the complexity associated with the higher level work.

Even leaders have leaders so how do we sort out who leads whom?
Fortunately, outside of organizations, no forced sorting is needed.? People naturally find and align themselves with those who can offer them leadership.? Within organizations, if we subordinate employees to a manager who is not more cognitively capable, the employees will suffer.?

Let the Disengagement Begin
When their manager “feels” like a peer, they will feel the inherent unfairness of the situation.? The may feel micromanaged.? They will ask for the big picture view and not receive it.? They will resent that their manager has the right to assess their performance, and they will be incredulous that their manager is paid more than they.??Their whole work?experience lacks integrity for them.

It’s Time to Create a Collective Understanding – Work Levels
Understanding requisite work levels has a partner reality – understanding the requisite cognitive level necessary to be successful in a given role.? When someone is not yet?cognitively capable of the work in a role, no amount of experience can fill the gap.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Have you experienced being asked to submit to the leadership of someone who could not be your thought leader?? How did it go?

What Drucker was drawing a line between was the operational work levels in an organization and the strategic work levels in an organization.

Doing Things Right aka Current Operations
The work of requisite work levels 1 through 3 is to make the best use of current resources to most effectively deliver today’s products and services to today’s customers.? Theirs is to decide how to make the best of what has been allocated by the executive levels.? This is where the money is made within organizations.

Doing the Right Things aka Strategic Intent
The work of requisite work levels 4+ is decide how current operations needs to change in order to deliver goals that fall out more than two years.? Theirs is to decide whether the organization is doing the right things to be viable in the future.

No Need for Leadership Snobbery
I’ve said before in one of my most visited posts, that innovation must occur at all levels, although it will look different by level.? Leadership is the same way.? If we use Elliott Jaques’ requisite organization definition of leadership:?The ability to set purpose or direction for others and then get them to move in that direction with competence and full commitment; then all managers must be exercise leadership, for that is their role.?

It’s not just executives who are leaders.? I daresay that?minute-for-minute, first line managers spend more time exercising leadership than executives do.

What do you think?

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Photo credit: gmeaders_ch

?

Mismatch to Role

What to Do?
We all mature in cognitive, problem solving capability over our lifetimes. Eventually this employee might mature into being capable of a higher level role, but it will not be training that gets him there.? In the meantime, when this situation is encountered, it is in every one’s best interest to reassign the person to a role that matches their current capability.

This post is number three in a series of four. The series titles and links are listed below.

1. Possible Negative Manifest Behaviors of an Underutilized Employee
2. Possible Positive Manifest Behaviors of an Underutilized Employee
3. Today’s Post – Possible Negative Manifest Behaviors of an Over committed Employee (not yet cognitively capable of the work level required of the role)
4. Possible Positive Manifest Behaviors of an Over committed Employee

No Need to Fire, No Need to Label
When a employee is over committed, it does not mean they cannot contribute.? It means they cannot contribute as needed in their current role.? When managers see this type of behavior, it’s time to consider redeploying the employee into a position where they can shine.

• Doesn?t get started on assignments in due time
• Needs excessive hand holding or detailed assignments
• Doesn?t connect the dots like peers
• Relies on peers to get work done
• Doesn?t take into consideration everything you would like him to
• Doesn?t understand what you want from him
• Spends time on less important tasks; ignores or procrastinates on more complex tasks
• Focuses too closely upon detail
• Turns in sub-standard work believing it to be acceptable
• Gets less work done than peers (despite long hours and commitment)
• Takes more time than peers
• Is in a different class than peers?(they ridicule/reject or pity and protect him)
• Doesn?t respond to training

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.