How hungry is your staff?

How hungry is your staff?

Hungry people get things done. They have energy, ideas, are proactive and even impatient. In my experience, there are not enough staffs that have this quality. Over time staff can get comfortable, fit into routines, get stuck in ruts and lose their edge. How hungry is your staff?

How does this happen?

Simply stated: Leaders allow it. They allow staff to fit into their little niche, doing their thing without needing to pay attention to the mission as a whole. They allow silos to develop where each division does its thing. Sometimes they even add too many staff which relieves their teams of having to train volunteers and needing to work hard. Accountability for getting things done lags and there is not a missional impatience to see things happen. Expectations are tailored to the schedules of staff rather than the needs of the organization.

There is a big difference between a hungry staff and a comfortable staff. There is also a big difference in the results. Where does your staff fit on this continuum? 

Lean staffs with a passionately held mission and vision are far hungrier than a bloated staff with a mediocre vision. It is a good reason to staff lean: Hire the very best, pay competitive wages and staff as lean as possible. Anytime we become comfortable we lose our edge.

This is why staff changes are often necessary when an organization needs to be revitalized. New energy is needed as well as new leadership and vision. Otherwise, the inertia of old ways and comfortable paradigms creates a drag that prevents the organization from moving ahead. 

This is also why it is wise for boards to give a new leader significant leeway to make needed changes. It can be painful but is often necessary.

Seven signs of a hungry staff include:

• A compelling vision that cannot be ignored
• A willingness to do anything with anyone to achieve that vision
• A can do attitude that is willing to do whatever it takes with whatever resources it has to move forward
• A highly entrepreneurial, collaborative, fun and idea driven culture
• Leaders who are in the trenches with their teams - doing what needs to be done
• A self starting staff who don't need much management
• Politics virtually don't exist

Issue Logs: A simple way to force continuous improvement in your team or organization

All organizations encounter issues: Things that don't go as planned or complications in trying to get something done. Usually what we do with these is to complain and then find a work-around to get it done. The problem is that it happens again and again and again. 

In essence we are putting up with frustrations and time wasters that are unnecessary. Rather, we should see each issue we encounter as an opportunity to do something better. Every time!

This is where the issue log comes in. An issue log is a required reporting of anything that goes badly or any disconnect we encounter. You record the issue, rate it in terms of severity and list who was responsible for it (or responsible for the process). The goal is to bring problems to the surface so that they can be diagnosed, resolved, and if necessary the system changed so that it does not happen again and the process (and people) improved. And, not reporting a known issue becomes an issue so there is built in compliance!

Such a system makes a powerful statement within an organization that we are committed to becoming better in every way that we can. Issues can be good things because they show us an area that can be improved. It will also surface employees who are not doing the work they should be doing because their negligence shows up in the issue log. Yes: Accountability is a good thing. And, the issue should not show up again once handled.

Continuous improvement requires the surfacing of issues so that they can be resolved. Those organizations who embrace it see the benefits quickly.