We were grateful that someone else had come to help us accomplish more together. Everyone loved sitting down and showing her how we worked —where we kept our design files, what tools to download, which meetings to attend. I have been learning a lot from his incredible blog posts recently as well.Back when our Facebook design team still fit around a conference table, a new designer joining our merry band was a momentous event. John Shook is a true sensei with 11 years of Toyota history and real world experience in helping organizations with Lean transformations. 'Managing to Learn' is an excellent book for managers and coaches of A3 authors/advocates.The turning point was walking into a design critique and noticing that our regular room didn’t have enough seats for everyone. Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, I realized that the old way of doing things was no longer working. Each time, new faces were introduced to the current team and our existing processes.Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Lean Production, Lean Thinking, Lean Enterprise, Lean Learning.A few months later, another person would join. Toyota Production and Management System. 0 Comments But the broader notion of the A3 as a process embodying the way of thinking represented in the format captures the heart of Lean management.In this context, an A3 document structures effective and efficient dialogue that fosters understanding followed by the opportunity for deep agreement.John Shook.As soon as I figured out a better process, a few more people would join and the gears would get clogged once more. This pattern kept repeating itself. There were more unexpected issues, more announcements to communicate, more decisions to keep track of.
Add in time to follow up on any action items, and you’d barely be able to do anything else. If you did weekly 30-minute one-on-ones with everyone, that alone would take 15 hours — nearly half of the workweek. Looking back, these are the five most striking contrasts between managing small and large teams:Direct to Indirect Management. If your team is five people, you can develop a personal relationship with each individual where you understand the details of their work, what they are good at, and maybe even the hobbies they enjoy outside the office.If your team is 30 people, you can’t manage them all directly, at least not to the same degree. While the core principles of management stayed the same, the day-to-day changed significantly.People often ask me what’s different about my job now than when I started. ![]() ![]() When did I become the kind of person who intimidated others? I’d always prided myself on my approachability.What I learned is that it didn’t matter how I saw myself. “Well Julie, you’re kind of a big deal — they were intimidated.”It was the first time I’d ever heard anyone refer to me as “kind of a big deal.” It was hard to compute. “But why didn’t they tell me that?” I asked incredulously. Are your suggestions being taken as orders? Are your questions coming off as judgements? Are you presuming that things are rosier than they really are because you’re not hearing the full story?Happily, there are some countermeasures you can take to make it easier for people to tell you the truth. Or they might be trying to make your life easier by not burdening you with new problems or imposing on your time.Be aware of this dynamic. They might not want to disappoint you or have you think badly of them. They might think it’s your prerogative to call the shots. I’d receive 10 emails about 10 completely different topics. More people meant that we could tackle more projects, which mean that my time fragmented. We would get so deeply into the flow of our work that hours would pass unnoticed.As my team grew, my capacity to spend long, focused blocks on a single topic began to shrink. My opinion is….” You can also ask directly for advice: “If you were me, what would you do in this situation?”Context Switching, All Day, Every Day. When I managed a small team, I spent many afternoons with a handful of designers at the whiteboard, exploring new ideas. Use language that invites discussion: “I may be totally wrong here, so tell me if you disagree. Own your mistakes and remind your team that you are human, just like everyone else. I discovered a few techniques to make this easier: scanning through my calendar every morning and preparing for each meeting, developing a robust note-taking and task-management system, finding pockets for reflection at the end of every week. As the number of projects I was responsible for doubled, tripled, and quadrupled, my ability to context switch also needed to keep pace. I’d mutter that every day felt like a week.Over time, I came to understand that this was the job. I’d lose focus during presentations. At any given moment, I can list dozens of areas that I could be working to improve.But at the end of the day, you are only one individual with a limited amount of time. It might be projects falling behind schedule, miscommunications that need to be cleared up, or people who aren’t getting what they need. As my scope grew, those days became rarer and rarer until they ceased to exist completely.The more you look after, the more likely it is that something under your purview isn’t going as well as it could be. But I’ve come to accept that there will always be a dozen different issues to work through at any given time — some big, some small, some unexpected — and as the manager of a large team, you learn to roll with it.Pick and Choose Your Battles. When I managed a small team, there were days I’d walk out of the office with zero outstanding tasks left — my inbox was cleared, my to-dos were crossed off, and nothing else needed my attention. Managing To Learn Shook How To Run AnFor example, no CEO is an expert across sales and design, engineering and communications, finance and human resources. What matters more is that they can get the best out of a group of people. As teams grow, managers spend less time on the specific craft of their discipline. How could a sales executive be expected to know how to run an engineering organization, or a chief financial officer become a strong chief marketing officer?Nowadays, I don’t think an executive swap is as far-fetched as I once thought. It took me a long time to get comfortable operating in a world where I had to pick and choose what mattered the most, and not let the sheer number of possibilities overwhelm me.People-Centric Skills Matter Most. I remember hearing about a CEO who made the executives on his team switch roles every few years, like a game of musical chairs. What are the most important topics for you to pay attention to, and where are you going to draw the line? Perfectionism is not an option. Best hard drives for mac video editingSuccess becomes more about mastering a few key skills: hiring exceptional leaders, building self-reliant teams, establishing a clear vision, and communicating well.People who master those skills will be well-equipped to lead teams of any size.
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