I just love contrariness. That old adage "for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction" can be applied to a variety of situations. Take for example the ideas expounded by
Wolf Rinke in his book, "Don't oil the squeaky wheel". Here, Wolf urges us to abandon conventional perceived management strategies and be contrary and brave. Some of his ideas are counter intuitive and challenging. For example:
Don't oil the squeaky wheel. The usual method of dealing with problem people is to spend more time with them to try to correct the squeaking noise. Rinke says we are oiling the wrong wheel."If you spend more than 5% of your time with trouble makers, you're messing up. If you want your team members to be positive, trusting, turned on and tuned in, then you must spend the majority of time with people who behave like that."
Don't satisfy. Most think that only if we exceed expectations then we will remain on the 'radar screen'. Rinke says that if you consistently fail to meet expectations you remain on the 'radar screen'. A bit high risk for my taste though!
Don't make decisions. Get others to do it for you. Get your colleagues to take ownership. "Ask a lot of questions, this gets them thinking that it's their own idea. The best results happen when you get other people to make your idea theirs". The two best questions are, "What are you going to do about that?" and, "What do you think?" Rinke says that mastering the art of these two powerful enquiries is the key to becoming an effective leader.
Don't have goals and objectives. Have a HOG instead. Humongous over-arching goal. This is something that provides a backbone and provides people with 'laser straight vision and direction'. Rinke states that a lot of managers and leaders overwhelm their people (sound familiar?) with too many aims and initiatives. He asks us to think about what is really important and have one critical goal that you implement and drive home so that every team member internalises it.
Don't have people work for you. This is Rinke's favourite of his 20 tenets. He calls this the secret to leadership effectiveness. He urges us to switch the way we think of employees. Treat them as if they were volunteers, say things like 'Please, could you do me a favour?'. If you treat people like volunters, you achieve tremendous improvements in employee satisfaction. Imagine that, being nice to people is a contary management tool!
Vertical Classrooms. No, not kidding, it's not some form of climbing wall or outer space classroom. Reseachers at
the Mayo Clinic have been experimenting with a chairless classroom where children are encouraged to move around more. It is hoped that keeping the pupils on the move will lead to fewer problems with obesity. The children were given motion sensors to wear and allocated vertical work spaces to which they could attach laptops with wireless internet connections. The lessons were viewed as movies and listened to on iPods as podcasts. The team leader and obesity expert, James Levine says early results suggest the children were burning more calories.
Virtual teachers make one move closer to reality!