Building a High Performance Management Team

Some years ago I had the opportunity to provide BI support to the management team of a 400 person organization that was struggling with performance. This is the story of how we were able to use a Performance Management program to create a remarkable change in the culture and operational dynamic of this team.

I remember well the first meeting I went to, where the business unit head expressed his dissatisfaction, and then each of the regional managers went around the room in turn, making excuses for their poor performance. Some then left the room to get on the phone and shout at their staff. What a complete and utter waste of time!

It's tempting to think that these managers, or the millions of others like them that we meet every day are simply incompetent. But in this case, the problem was systemic. These managers simply did not have the information they needed in order to engage constructively with each other. In fact what had happened prior to that fateful meeting was that each regional manager had cobbled together their own summary of performance, and the business unit head had received the only organization wide view of the data the evening before. This group did not have shared perspective on the situation, and did not have detailed analysis that would help them ask the right questions of each other.

Six months later, this team was firing on all cylinders. They were accustomed to getting a detailed information package analyzing activity in every office in every region several days before meeting. During their monthly management meetings, instead of making excuses, they could collaborate together to understand why offices with similar characteristics in different regions performed differently. In fact, they soon began moving work around between regions to optimize the total organizational performance. It was a pleasure to meet, ask key questions and collaborate on productive solutions.

Of course it is not always this easy. Some information cannot be shared broadly for security or regulatory reasons. Some management teams will continue to behave in dysfunctional ways regardless of the information they have before them. But over time, persistent presentation of the best possible information about the true state of affairs has the potential to completely change an organization for the better. Why not try it in yours?