System Management

I read high output management and see quite a lot of things that match with my initial thought.

[Input + black box process + external energy = output 🔁 feedback loop]

• Get your resource, concrete process + more energy, you will get any output
• To scale your process tunes your input, only good qualities input (good QA processes) at match amount of demand (good forecast) come in
• Create concrete process, communicate, training to your team enough
• Choose right way and how to your external energy to make leverage to your entity, what is most effective way to take any action as individual, team or even organization
• Set a regular feedback loop to reduce any uncertainty factor and prepare process to handle surprise event

Lowest value process should be perfect and carefully quality control more than later process with higher value outcome.

Also tracking error, loss and efficiency with quantifiable outcome is the only way to measure something in long term. Anything could be measure by quantifiable outcome. Outcome is not equal process or activity but what end product of each process should look like?

Output Measurement : Cut it by cost, economic outcome, satisfaction level of service, downtime, error or bug or whatever you can count.

Good manager also forecast output on their process to see expected vs. actual target. This process will give both clear picture of how good your production process has and how good of each indicator effect to your forecast outcome.

Moreover, I felt that I need to reflect myself more often than before. I need to deconstruct my thought and assemble them again by the end of the day, which I totally feel great for this thought.

I always tell myself that I need to convey my mind to my target all the time, but with applicable way that match with your conversation partner.

Manager Task

What manager do

• Be the medium of knowledge under your team, gather information that relates to your team or neighbor or even your subordinates. And provide to the one that need it through the right format.
• Reflection and feedback loop on what the team do, how well is it? the only important thing is process, not some particular result
• Make decision. or at least take clear assumption and suggestion. But these steps should base on clear process of information gathering which is the most important role of manager.
• Leading by doing thing in the way you want to be. Visibly. Do what you want other do and vice versa.

Managerial Output = Sum(Leverage(n)*Action(n))

3 way to get high output

1. Increase speed of each action
2. Use high leverage way
3. Swap leverage to right action

Writing the report is important, reading it often is not. Process to review anything and sense some insight is important, the insight itself is not.

High leverage way : choose your action wisely(what make the most output for "the organization")

• High leverage activities means what you do and it effect
• Vertical : Single person with long period of time : one-on-one, performance review, interview, promotion, stop valuable employee from quitting
• Horizontal : Every person at that time : meeting, teaching, orientation
• Both of the previous bullets : document your process, communication your vision or principles, planning process then boiled down to key task that need to be deliver each day
• High leverage activities means they effect through a lot of people once they've completed
• A production plan that announce to your subordinates or your influences team
• A teaching tools that make your team ready to work effectively
• it's also mean to give on one person and change their activities to more leverage entire of their life/
• A one-on-one meeting to review performance
• A quit subordinates handling
• Also includes delegate your task to your subordinates
• Should delegate the experienced task of yours, to know where and how to check how well of that task could be
• When delegate task, the frequency and and step of monitoring should follow what QA does it practices
• Observe in low level stage of production > check on draft content not the latest stage like final production
• Random check by concentration level of that task, if it important and need it quick, check quite often
• Give them guided principles not action steps > micro-manage made your subordinates does not process their own thinking, they will want more next action from you
• Take average half a day per week with one of your subordinates
• Also Avoid the negative leverage activities likes
• Express some depression through your team or your influence > it effect to your team performance
• Not well prepare on high leverage activities also mean the negative leverage on that activity too

Speed up your action

• Other effective action is speed up your actions is applied with production engineer mindset
• Schedule the time
• Group the task with related action
• Forecast and say no of some action that you're really not available at lowest stage
• Fill in your active action through each week
• Make some slack on your schedule, mostly between your critical action
• Observe when new action comes in, say no at this stage
• Reduce bumps or interruption activity that cause the down time of your system likes
• Plan your week, run your forecast
• Group same input /problem as the new procedure to action > for readiness of your delegation
• Revised the approach your handle your task, both your brain and your paper > is that really make sense? by now? or it's quite obsolete task or action

Meeting

• There are 2 type of meeting, process orientaed and mission oriented
• Process oriented is arraged when you required regular meeting to convey message or obtain information
• One on one meeting : exhange information between manager and subordinate, predefined agenda by subordinate, take note seriously, follow up task each time of meeting, start with some dashboard of key indicator of what subordinates are responsible for, potential problem which might occurred, some gut feeling also should share in this meeting
• Leverage : take around 1-2 hours to change next 80-160 working hours of your subordinate, sense some shitty smell during one on one
• You will never get information which cannot be shared to other in team meeting, and if you’re not active to set regular pulse checking to your team member and wait for them to reach you, that will be their last word with your team
• Staff meeting : all subordinates or team meeting, also need to agenda and sent prior of each meeting to get discussion through related team task if those task are bolied down to only 2 people, change to next agenda and keep to one on one or private discussion, I don’t waste other people time and you should too, what manager do is facilitate the meeting, try to get most discussion point without dominate any thought of your subordinates
• Performance review : share related information outside your team
• Mission oriented meeting : try to find some critical decision from the meeting, so it’s very important to have clear why we should meet, is this meeting worth or can it just have private conversation with 2 people and be sure is include not too many people(>8 is too much)
• Why
• Who needed in what specific action
• Scheduled and specific time
• The most people important thing is if you spend your time on process oriented meeting, it should reduce ad hoc meeting like mission oriented one. If you spend more than 25% of your time in ad hoc meeting, that is a sign of management malfunction

Decision

1. Free discussion : everybody should convey free speech, so if all member in meeting is in the same level, the free discussion might not be made. Because of sounding dumb or every one waiting the tone of the room to thrust to final decision before even give any word
2. Clear decision : note that the more confilct has the more clear decision and detail should be made and if final decision cannot conclude in limited time, the manager should take charge and make clear decision
1. Don’t push decision too soon or too late, both of them effect negative leverage
2. Most decision has unhappy person involved but you have to get full support from that decision
3. What need to answer in order to get clear decision
1. What decision need to be made
2. When does it have to be made
3. Who will decide
4. Who need to get info or consult prior in order to get decision
5. Who will approve or reject this decision
6. Who need to be informed thus decision

Planning

1. Determine what is the market demand for your project
1. Who is your main demand? market demand from your client either external or internal : if you're accountant, your client might be financial management team who would like to see real time transaction reporting, if you're product team who need to kick off new product to the market, what is you targeted client, what do they need?
2. Determine current demand of your environment : show leading indicator to measure your current output that your demand perceive, how satisfy level of your current demand
3. Forecast demand in some future timeline, a month, a year whenever : analyze the gap between current production line
4. Plan to do to close the gap
1. What we need in order to close that gap?
2. What can we do to close that gap?
3. At when?
5. Who should involve with your plan? what will they do?
6. Communicate your plan
7. Get "Yes" from all of your involved people, yes does not mean agreement but means commitment
8. Breakdown What do we need to do until we see the thing that need to be done today in order to solve tomorrow problem that related to demand gap

If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

How to scale your organization?

What is the organization?

• Scalability model : when you create the single breakfast restaurant, few restaurant, national scale restaurants and global scale restaurant : the organizational structure is different.
• How do we advertise our product? local or national or worldwide?
• Do we want our manager control by their task(cut by task i.e. accounting, production, developer) or by their local team(cut by product, regional)?
• Product on shelves, we want to build single menu to serve all standard customer, but can customer in each area want the same things from you?
• Properties, plant and equipment, we want to have single point of control at single head quarter to easily communicate or we want to give flexibility to do everything by team level decision?
• All come back to, how you build your organization?
• (Vertical team) Functional team : normal silo group breaks down by what they do.
• (Horizontal team) Mission Oriented team : decentralized unit, each serves each demand from customer, each group own all function from location determination, construction their own site, purchasing, operation, product, marketing, legal and CEO. In the end of each point in time, submit their financial or output performance to CEO.
• (T shape team) Hybrid team : what will be good to group for economy of scale purpose, group it by function, what need to serve demand promptly, group it by mission.
• Remember that their are no single solution for this. How do you find the solution that serve all demand(market volatility) and supply(economy of scale)?

You may encounter the situation which you are one of the mission oriented team and find out that you manager really does not know anything about your technical problem.

Dual reporting

• Functional cut : who set standard, principle or working, training by their functional head.
• Mission oriented cut : give specific market demand problem to solve.
• Each person can grow by vertical ladder > control their functional base team, do training and create effective performance monitoring
• Or grow by horizontal ladder > serve bigger demand

Modes of control

If you’re in volatility environment, you will need to really address your cultures.

Don’t make contract under volatility environment. You will take the most of your energy to adjust the contract to match to your environment speed.

Free market exist under competitive environment. If you want your team to compete each other.

New joiner tends to start with self interest mindset :

1. Begin with clear task, clear step what to do : they don't know what the group like is, so we should start with clear, no volatility job style
2. Get some amount of success : if he has good start, he start to care more about their group interest, feel like home place, worry less about himself, start to think as a team.
3. Perceive Value as a team : He tends to start doing what his supervisor won't say to control their project
4. Less micro manage and give more freedom : At that point that employee could go from super specific, no volatility job style to more VUCA mode.
5. *If you move to other company as manager level , try to match their value quickly > turn to ready for VUCA mode
1. Know the structure of the team
2. Know how each people interact
3. Know how each people do their job : mission base or process base, practical or big picture, active or passive mode, fast thinking or detail thinking, blame other or point that finger to themselves

Player in your team

This also means your team member, your subordinates.

When any people doesn't do their job, ask yourself, are they have no motivation or no capability to do their job.

The sentence above consists of 3 steps to work with your team.

1. Assess both motivation level and capability level of your subordinates
1. Motivation are based on anything, but refer to Maslow pyramid(adjusted) : most of your team will care 4 step of these for high motivation
1. Are they now living good?( Current life situation, Plan A) have good place to leave, good meal, good transportation at work, do they have fixed amount of anything to pay for their debt > most people satisfy this level of needs, may observe from how their take care of themself
2. Will they be in trouble in case anything bad happen to them? (most negative outcome of your future, individual plan Z) > what they do if they don't have working job, how long they gonna stay last from their saving
1. What they worry for their life, their parent(insurance for their family)? their children(children scholar)? their health(firness or insurance)? their relationship(amount of time)? > mostly could provide by government service in many countries
2. This could be solve by any of your infrastructure that your company base line facility > monthly saving, insurance for
3. Environment support for their end in mind, is their team capable of doing great things? What about their organization? What about societal level?
4. What is the ceiling of their success?(Plan B) is it limit the ceiling or unlimited success outcome?
1. How they value their success? Impact, Recognition, Payout, Change, Ideal picture, Power, Understand the causes of life or anything