ROBERT TOWNSEND ON HOW TO KEEP THE ORGANISATION LEAN, FIT AND VITAL
Use this to help you decide when to expand the workforce.
Robert Townsend (1920–98) was an American businessman who is best known for turning Avis Rent a Car into the giant company it is today and for his number-one bestseller Up the Organisation, a book which, I believe, should be on every management course reading list in the world.
His often humorous asides, suggestions and exaggerations usually contain within them an essential truth, e.g.:
To keep an organisation young and fit, don’t hire anyone until everyone is so overworked they’ll be glad to see the newcomer and won’t mind where they sit.
Robert Townsend
Townsend is not suggesting that you work people into the ground. However, he recognises that very often an organisation will create a post almost as soon as the workload starts to increase and there is insufficient work to keep the newcomer occupied, which can cause friction with other staff.
WHAT TO DO
- Recognise that people like to be busy at work and that a certain amount of pressure is good for both staff morale and productivity. When a team is busy they often pull together. A shared sense of purpose and pride in working hard unites and motivates them. So don’t jump in with new staff too soon.
- Look for the signs that people are genuinely overworked rather than just busy. Such signs include: increased sickness and staff turnover, missed deadlines, short tempers and arguments between staff members and staff and managers.
- The trick is to react to the increased workload just before the problems listed above occur. This is not easy. It’s the type of judgement call that relies on your knowledge of the staff and business conditions. Is it just a temporary increase in work or is it here to stay? If a hard-working member of staff who seldom complains is wilting and moaning about workloads, you need to respond to what is happening. Rely on your tacit knowledge to make the call.
- Tacit knowledge, or what Professor John Adair calls deep knowledge, resides in your subconscious but informs your thinking and actions on a daily basis without you being aware of it. This unconscious knowledge is the sum total of all you know about your job, the organisation and the people who work in it. The more information you can collect, the more useful this knowledge will be to you. Therefore, use meetings, management by walking about, conversations at the coffee machine or over lunch and every other interaction you have with staff, customers, suppliers and investors to add to your store of knowledge.
- Record briefly any interesting comments, events, trends, problems, opportunities, threats or juicy gossip in your learning journal (see How to get the most out of this book).
- All of the above information will compost down in your subconscious and form linkages and connections in your brain which will enrich your tacit knowledge. When faced with a problem, this knowledge will resurface and provide you with an answer.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- When was the last time I checked that everyone in my team was fully employed?
- Is there anyone in my team who is overworked? Do I need to redistribute work?