Sunday, January 07, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, 'that Open-door Policy can encourage lazy interaction'
As a motivational speaker, I’ve addressed many blue-chip clients about the management policy that says “Any problems, my door is always open…” And I’ve found that it depends very much on what you call a problem…
The air-conditioning has broken down or the boilers are overheating. You can hardly say “Apply to my secretary for an appointment.”
Or a staff-member is wanting to come out with some private anxiety affecting their work - maybe marriage trouble or some worsening addiction. Naturally that is to be encouraged, before they have second thoughts and go back to hiding it.
The trouble is that almost any office-task can be described as a problem. Indeed, this is encouraged throughout business. ‘Problem: solution’ is the standard executive drill.
Managers delegate problems precisely so that they don’t have to worry about them till the other person delivers the solution. And this is where an Open Door policy brings out the lazy side in the appointee.
Take a junior in their first few weeks with the firm, having to familiarise themselves with a product or service that is entirely new to them. It may be quite a struggle, digging down into a new subject, while also acclimatising to working life itself, and this is meant to be a major test of intellect, judgment and character. So they should not expect to have their hand held at this time.
But if the manager’s door is always open, they’ll be tempted to keep cutting corners and going in to ask things they ought to be deducing for themselves.
That is a particularly obvious example of the negative effect of open doors. But many other kinds of personnel may also be tempted into lazy habits, sliding into casual conversation, in lieu of the formal memo that was asked-for, or just those time-wasters who’ll grab any excuse for a chat instead of working - in this case, exploiting the manager’s wish to appear democratic and unstuffy.
The Alternative Open Door - ‘Walking the Talk ’
Aware of the limitations of the Open Door policy, some managers have tried to re-invent it in reverse, going round the departments informally to pick up atmosphere - or ‘Walking the Talk’. This offers certain advantages that go with neutral territory. For example, it encourages people to mention matters that they might hesitate to raise at a formal meeting - yet if it can be seen as a time-wasting issue, the manager is free to move on tactfully without actual confrontation.
The drawback is that it sets up the curious prospect of the manager inadvertently wasting the time of a busy achiever, in the interests of looking like a good team-player and ‘one of the lads’.
Whichever form your Open Door policy may take, it can be shown-up as inefficient by reference to the two kinds of working time: Controlled Time and Response Time.
In Controlled Time, you are working on a job whose duration you can control. In Response Time, you are reacting to an interruption - which may take up any amount of time. As a manager gets interrupted on average every eight minutes, this greatly limits his Controlled Time, so the conclusion is that interruptions should be discouraged as far as possible.
And More Time Management tips Where These Came From…
As you can see, the Open Door policy is just one aspect of Time Management that needs active questioning.
Others range from prioritising your tasks and rationing paperwork to identifying false emergencies and how to keep meetings brisk and brief.
You can find out about these and many more in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website www.carolespiers.com
Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint slides for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.
Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management immediately. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24
Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.
To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
The air-conditioning has broken down or the boilers are overheating. You can hardly say “Apply to my secretary for an appointment.”
Or a staff-member is wanting to come out with some private anxiety affecting their work - maybe marriage trouble or some worsening addiction. Naturally that is to be encouraged, before they have second thoughts and go back to hiding it.
The trouble is that almost any office-task can be described as a problem. Indeed, this is encouraged throughout business. ‘Problem: solution’ is the standard executive drill.
Managers delegate problems precisely so that they don’t have to worry about them till the other person delivers the solution. And this is where an Open Door policy brings out the lazy side in the appointee.
Take a junior in their first few weeks with the firm, having to familiarise themselves with a product or service that is entirely new to them. It may be quite a struggle, digging down into a new subject, while also acclimatising to working life itself, and this is meant to be a major test of intellect, judgment and character. So they should not expect to have their hand held at this time.
But if the manager’s door is always open, they’ll be tempted to keep cutting corners and going in to ask things they ought to be deducing for themselves.
That is a particularly obvious example of the negative effect of open doors. But many other kinds of personnel may also be tempted into lazy habits, sliding into casual conversation, in lieu of the formal memo that was asked-for, or just those time-wasters who’ll grab any excuse for a chat instead of working - in this case, exploiting the manager’s wish to appear democratic and unstuffy.
The Alternative Open Door - ‘Walking the Talk ’
Aware of the limitations of the Open Door policy, some managers have tried to re-invent it in reverse, going round the departments informally to pick up atmosphere - or ‘Walking the Talk’. This offers certain advantages that go with neutral territory. For example, it encourages people to mention matters that they might hesitate to raise at a formal meeting - yet if it can be seen as a time-wasting issue, the manager is free to move on tactfully without actual confrontation.
The drawback is that it sets up the curious prospect of the manager inadvertently wasting the time of a busy achiever, in the interests of looking like a good team-player and ‘one of the lads’.
Whichever form your Open Door policy may take, it can be shown-up as inefficient by reference to the two kinds of working time: Controlled Time and Response Time.
In Controlled Time, you are working on a job whose duration you can control. In Response Time, you are reacting to an interruption - which may take up any amount of time. As a manager gets interrupted on average every eight minutes, this greatly limits his Controlled Time, so the conclusion is that interruptions should be discouraged as far as possible.
And More Time Management tips Where These Came From…
As you can see, the Open Door policy is just one aspect of Time Management that needs active questioning.
Others range from prioritising your tasks and rationing paperwork to identifying false emergencies and how to keep meetings brisk and brief.
You can find out about these and many more in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website www.carolespiers.com
Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint slides for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.
Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management immediately. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24
Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.
To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 7:22 AM 
