GET OUT
OF THE ROOM.
You hired good people. Why is it still so hard to get stuff done?
See what your people are working around.
SEE IF YOU QUALIFY →The work gets done. Look at what it takes.
Nobody failed. This is simply what it takes to get work done here.
Good people can make a broken system look like it works.
You did not get here by being bad at solving problems.
You became the person people called when something difficult needed an answer. You could see the technical problem, make the decision and get things moving. That ability built your career.
Then your role changed.
Your job is to see what is getting in their way. The processes, routines, handoffs and conditions making capable people work so hard just to make progress.
That is a different layer of the organization. And from inside the room, it is almost invisible.
Sarah is holding together a system that is not supporting her.
Go and see where your people’s attention is going.
Into the hard work you hired them to do?
Or into chasing approvals, bridging gaps and keeping the organization moving?
That is the part only leadership can change.
You leave with new eyes.
Not a better list of technical problems.
Not one more answer that depends on you.
A way to see where the organization is making it harder for good people to succeed, where their capacity is going, and what only leadership can change.
→ 10m
At Intel NSG, following the work exposed nine consecutive workaround steps.
Each had been added to compensate for incorrect information entering the product catalog. A one-hour review with IT exposed the underlying problem. The team tested the change, removed the nine workarounds and cut customer sample-response time from ten hours to ten minutes in less than four weeks.
Most leaders will agree with this. Then delegate it to someone else.
Send someone else and you will get their version of the work. If you own the outcome, you need to see it for yourself.
Get Out of the Room is built for leaders willing to go themselves.
Bring one important outcome your organization should be producing but is not.
Follow the work behind that outcome yourself, with the people doing it.
Learn what to look for, and how to look without stepping in and solving the technical problem.
Compare what you believed was happening with what is actually happening. Let the evidence change your view.
This is for the leader who owns the outcome.
You lead a complex part of the organization.
You have the authority to change the conditions around the work.
You are willing to see the work firsthand and discover that something you believe may not be true.
It is not for the leader who wants someone else to go.
You want to hand it to Continuous Improvement and wait for the answer.
You want someone to diagnose the organization for you.
You have already decided your people are the problem.
The operating leader takes part personally.
Working in CI or advising an organization? You can start the conversation with Steve and Maria. Participation itself requires an operating leader to join you.