July 5th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
5 Comments »
I’ve adopted a management technique which I feel adds significant value to my direct reports. I’ve been doing this for many years, both in my current job and also at Microsoft before this.
360 reviews
This is hardly a new or novel tool, but I think it’s worthwhile to explain the approach.
Twice per year I talk to all of my direct reports. I ask them for feedback on me and I ask them for feedback on each other. I explain very carefully that all feedback will be kept confidential, but I strongly urge each to take issues with their peers directly to their peers. Still, there is a place for confidential feedback and this is an appropriate venue for that.
I then meet with each of the direct reports of my direct reports. I typically set this up in 15 minute increments. These are obviously much more effective when I send an email explaining what I’ll be doing. I request that the individual come prepared to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses, not only of their boss, but also of their boss’ peers.
Often, an individual won’t say anything meaningful. I ask probing questions to try to bring out feedback, but I’m very careful not to “lead” the discussion to arrive at some pre-conceived notion I have in my head. Questions I ask include the following:
- Imagine the perfect “VP of Whatever Your Boss Does.” What is the difference between your current boss and that perfect boss.
- Tell me some of the feedback your boss has given you that has helped you improve.
- How often do you have one-on-ones with your boss?
These are just a few examples, but it’s important to ask these probing questions as people initially feel uncomfortable with this approach. They feel like they’re “squeeling” on their boss. It’s critical that you make it clear to people that this is a way to help these people improve; it’s not punitive. I try to enlist my directs to get the message out that they want hard feedback.
Once I’ve gathered all of the feedback, I synthesize it, roughly categorize it and then put it into summary form. I then give it back to the employee to whom it’s directed. It might look something like the following:
- You’re very well liked by your direct reports. They’re very loyal.
- One said she’d follow you anywhere.
- Another said you inspire him to improve.
- Others outside of your organization are afraid of you.
- One person said: “I get hives whenever he walks down the hall oustide my office.”
- Another said: “I have nightmares about this person.”
- You’re generally recognized as being highly capable, technically. I saw this myself in the way you handled the such-and-such project.
- There is a perception that you continually miss deadlines. While the data doesn’t show this, you should understand that this perception exists.
- One person believes you steal money from poor people. I don’t agree with this one, but you should know that at least one person has this perception.
- Your peers generally feel like you’re weak at follow through and strong at motivating.
- And so forth.
As I go through this with them verbally, I will paranthetically add my own comments: I agree with this perception, I don’t agree with this perception, I’ve noticed this example, etc. Examples of those are italicized above.
The last time I did this, I tried it via email. It was good and bad. It was good because I think people prepared more. However I didn’t like losing the interactivity.
One last thing. If you’ve never had your boss do this for you, ask him/her to do it! It’s a lot of work, but it’s a great tool for your own personal development.
July 5th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
No Comments »
And now another leadership book by Arbinger Institute. Can’t get enough of the stuff.
June 30th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
18 Comments »
Many of you probably don’t know that members in the United States and Canada have a ward web page on lds.org.
Before I go any further, let me just say that we’ll be working on a version for all international units. Don’t expect it until at least 2008. But in the meantime, the current version works for those in the U.S. and Canada and many people don’t even know.
You get features like:
- News and information from your ward and stake.
- Ward and stake calendar (integrated with a calendar from Church HQ).
- Lesson schedules.
- Membership and leadership directories.
- Addresses for missionaries serving from your ward.
It’s a great tool for your ward! The key is that the ward leadership and councils need to use it.
If your ward isn’t using the ward web site on lds.org then ask them to start. Teachers should be updating their lessons plans, the calendar should be kept up-to-date, and so forth. This is a wonderful and only takes a little effort to get people using it.
One known issue is that the signup process is a little arduous. A member needs to know his/her membership number (can be found on your temple recommend if you have one) and confirmation number. Both pieces of data can be obtained from your ward clerk.
In the future, we will make this process easier.
Check it out by clicking here..
June 5th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
14 Comments »
Who uses instant messaging? Reads blogs? Publishes blogs? Uses MySpace? Who buys stuff online or downloads videos?
Kids, right?
Piper Jaffray recently executed a survey of a sample of the 232 million Internet users in North America. By extrapolating the data, they estimate that over 100 million use instant messaging, over 100 million read blogs and almost 100 million participate in one or more social networking sites.
I assume there are close to 11 million teenagers in North America. So who is using all of these services?
You! You’re coming home from work, putting the kids to bed and plugging in. It’s interesting because many of you probably think about stuff like blogs as something you do, but that isn’t that common. Fact is that it’s way more common than people think.
[Joel: My quick assumption of 11 million teenager users was wrong. The data says there are actually closer to 30 million.]
June 3rd, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
111 Comments »
We’ve begun thinking about what is next for LDS.ORG. As we do this, we’d love to get your input.
Take a minute and answer the following two questions. Our team will read each response.
1) What is the Church doing well with the Internet?
2) What is the Church not doing well with the Internet?
Feel free to forward these questions. We’d love all the thoughtful responses we can get!
May 25th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
6 Comments »
I just started reading this one and am loving it. It can be dry and redundant, but the examples of commerical entities using mass collaboration are worth wading through a few moments of drudgery.
May 11th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
7 Comments »
When I worked in the mobile devices division at Microsoft we had an ongoing discussion about who our customer was for our mobile device offerings:
- The carrier (e.g. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, etc.) upon whose network the device would run.
- The OEM who would make the hardware (Dell, HP, Motorola, etc.).
- The kid who would use it.
- The parent who would buy it for the kid.
- The department(s) within Microsoft which might profit from services sold through the device.
- The random executive or product manager who had an opinion of what features should be on the device.
- And of course: ourselves!
So which are the customers? Answer: All.
Customer: Anyone who lays a legitimate claim to directing your software development work.
Imagine how difficult it is to develop requirements for any one of the “customers” listed above. Now imagine creating requirements which balance all of the needs of the competing interests. Ugh.
We face a similar, though not so extreme, challenge in I.T. We have internal customers (typically product managers) who work for the departments we serve. They have their own management chain who have opinions of what work should be done and how. We have our own management chain which has its opinions. And then, of course, we have the end-users for whom we’re collectively building the software. Pile on top the fact that “knowing what one wants in the software” is not an inherent skill. It’s something most people think they do well, but don’t.
So what to do? Here are some suggestions:
- Start with high level requirements. Make sure you understand what the goal of the project is. Stand firm on this point, and don’t relent for any amount of begging, threatening or bribery. Get the value proposition documented in plain English and make sure your customers, all up and down their management chain, agree. Treat this with the utmost importance and respect. It will become your rock later on when disconnects occur between product managers and their management. The value isn’t so much in having a tool to cover yourself. Rather, documented requirements help you help the customers get on the same page about what is expected.
- Always be an advocate for the end-user. It’s your solemn duty. Whomever your customer is, they care about the end-user, even if they don’t understand how to delight them. Use whatever tools you choose or have available: focus groups, usability studies, contextual inquiry, intuition, whatever. Just make sure you understand the user(s) of the system and that you champion them at every turn. Your customers will thank you (though maybe later).
- Use functional prototypes to narrow the “gap of misunderstanding” up front and get everyone on the same page about what is to be built.
- Prioritize your customers. Understand which is most important to satisfy and take care of the high priority features for the high priority customers first.
- “Just say no” to executive/management pet features. Executives appreciate those who “speak up.” If someone in your management chain tries to get you to add or subtract features and you know in your toes that its the wrong direction, then push back! If you’ve said your piece with all vigor of heart and the answer is still no, then press forward–you’ve done the right thing by speaking up. If having done so becomes a “career limiting move” then you may have the wrong management anyway. I speak from experience. The people in our organization typically take great pleasure in pushing back on me.
Having multiple customers can be a great challenge, but when you mostly satisfy most of them (in priority order) you accomplish something which brings great satisfaction.
April 29th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
26 Comments »
The beta release for the new mormon.org was released this weekend. Have a look.
We started the revamp several months ago. This is a great example of using a high fidelity functional prototype to understand what we were building up front, thereby decreasing development time.
The key new features include video testimonies from actual converts of the Church and an online chat where people who are interested in the Church can chat with members to learn more about the Gospel. We’ve been pilot testing the chat feature for several months and have already seen several people join.
April 26th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
2 Comments »
We had another tech talk last night in Mountain View, CA. About 30 or so people registered–almost 40 showed up. We had folks from:
- Cisco
- Ebay
- Dreamworks
- Oracle
- LinkedIn
- Barclays
- The State of California
- Sun Microsystems
- Sprint
It was great fun to meet LDS technologists (and some non-LDS ones) and talk about the Church and technology.
Thanks to all those who came, especially those who drove down all the way from Sacramento!!
April 19th, 2007 |
By Joel Dehlin |
2 Comments »
Just a reminder that we’re having a tech talk in Mountain View, CA this next week. If you have time, head over to the lds tech site and register so we know how many people to expect.
