Execs who make too many small decisions

[Mark Levison]

What game would play with Execs in a large organization to help them see that their habit of making many small decisions (aka micromanagement) is killing them on multiple levels. Killing engagement, increasing cycle time/project length etc, ...

Challenges I will only have a short period of time with the execs.

Thoughts?

Mark

[George Dinwiddie]

In physical world, I like the Human Knot for demonstrating this,
comparing untangling with direction from outside vs self-organization.

- George

--
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* George Dinwiddie * http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
Software Development http://www.idiacomputing.com
Consultant and Coach https://pragprog.com/titles/gdestimate/
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[David Chilcott]

Another one I have used is creating an obstacle course with tables and chairs in a conference room and having one person "direct" their partner across the room. Allowed directions include "Turn Left", "Turn Right", "Stop", "Forward" - The objective is to see how many times a team can touch alternate walls in the room in a 3 min. time period. Round 2 is to do it again where the person touching the walls can self-direct walking around the obstacles keeping count of the number of times they were able to traverse the space and touch opposite walls.. Round 3 is that BOTH people self-direct walking and counting walls touched. Debrief what they notice, how this is both like and unlike  their current workplace and productivity circumstances.

Friendly tip:  For some reason it seems that making the obstacle course more "disruptive" impacts the learning.  So I turn tables on their sides or ends, make a weird pile of chairs in various orientations, make some parts random and other parts like a maze, some wide open spaces, some choke points, etc. You get the picture. Involve the participants in setting up and taking down the barriers.  You make have to add to the randomization and chaos depending on how much "freedom" they have to "make messes" 

D ;-)

                                                                                                                                                                                   

David Chilcott

Outformations, Inc.

510.393.8522  |  d...@outformations.com  |  www.outformations.com

                                                                                                                                                                                

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[James Thomas]

I am releasing a game about command and control vs self organization tomorrow. Its called the alphabetization game. its very similar to 60 paces game from what I am told. https://miro.com/miroverse/agile-games-alphabetization-game/

[Mark Levison]

Interesting - Thanks all.

George - know and love the game. Can't imagine virtually.

David and James - have used that game. I even use a variant of this in my CSM.

All ideas focus on a manager who deals with a couple of teams. The problem I want to bring to light is executives in $1+ billion (Canadian not real money :-), organizations that micromanage down to the small decision level. I wouldn't expect execs in a billion dollar org to make many decisions that are smaller than millions and yet at least one is routinely going down further than this.

I looked at Troy M's traffic light simulator: https://github.com/FocusedObjective/FocusedObjective.Resources/blob/master/Spreadsheets/Traffic%20Light%20Delay%20Simulator.xlsx 

The problem with the traffic light sim - two fold:

- it's not hands on/way too intellectual

- It's not painful enough -> from teams to Sr Execs there are four levels. Some decisions can be delayed by 1+ mth, when an experiment could be run in hours/days.

Cheers

Mark

[James Thomas]

A very interesting problem. 

you could add an element to the the first part of the game I suggested (the alphabetization game). Start by asking them how much it costs per person/team company for a month of work first. Then proceed with the alphabetization game as normal but silently tally the number of questions for each question that the manager/exec asks to get the job done in the first round.  At the end multiply that that tallied number against the number you came up with at the beginning. The second round do normally and ask how long they think that it would take for their people to come up with that decision? whatever the case i will/should be shorter than the first round considerably in terms of time/money 

also this seems more about delayed feedback than just command and control. maybe the battleship game could help here to find ways to at least close the feedback loop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdSFwnJC8b8&t=4s ?

I would love to know where you end up and the game that helps you solve this. I'm sure your not alone. 

[Timofey Yevgrashyn]

Hi Mark,

Your question is just reminded me that I've recently shared with my C-level team the video from Henrik Kniberg
The resource utilization trap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CostXs2p6r0

His twist of "ball points game" clearly shows the management wish of utilization to impede flow and value delivery.

I guess if you have time with execs you could play this experience themself (a plenty online ball-points analogs) and facilitate it the same way as Henrik.

Cheers

Timofey Yevgrashyn

Author of ScrumCardGame - simple Scrum simulation

http://scrumcardgame.com
http://www.facebook.com/scrumcardgame

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