Hot Management Info for 2005 

December 2005 - When Not To Write A Report

Taken from The Member Newsletter of the American Management Association, October 2005.

To reduce your workload, review the reports you issue and determine those you don’t need to write or those you can change. For example:

• Consolidation. Some reports can be combined, saving both writing and reading time. (The report to the City Council can be virtually the same as the Planning Commission reports, but adding perhaps only a short paragraph.)
• Simplification. The current level of detail may be too much. (Does the Planning Commission really want all what you give them?)
• Elimination. Some reports can be done away with altogether. Too often, reports that are originally requested as one-time projects, end up as recurring documents. (For staff hearing officers just fill out a form.)
• Reduced frequency. It may be enough to issue the report quarterly or semi-annually.
• Replacement. You may be putting out a report with lots of facts about which no one cares.
• Hold a meeting. Often, a report is issued to solve a problem, but that problem could be more effectively handled in a face-to-face meeting.

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November 2005 - Sweat The Small Stuff

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October 2005 - Hiring The Wrong Person

Reader Response

Do you have any information on calculating cost per hire?

Tracy Lawson, PHR
Wilmington, NC

The Doctor's Response

The HR professionals suggest that there are many ways to answer your question. One suggests that your question is “the last great black hole of HR.”

I put your words “cost to hire” on Google and found several great articles. I particularly liked:

http://hr.monster.com/articles/cost/

http://www.findarticles.com/ p/articles/mi_m0FXS/is_1_80/ai_69294704

The bottom line is that it costs a lot more than you think it does.

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What do we planners do when we feel removed from a disaster and somewhat helpless? Keep your ideas coming. Send them to me to share or, better yet, to APA who is trying some coordinated efforts. I suggest:

1. Get out your checkbook. Send one today and another when it becomes clear where the money is most needed. My favorites:
   Salvation Army, www.salvationarmyusa.org
   Red Cross, www.redcross.org
   
   
2. Check on your family and friends. I found the telephone wasn’t useful but did make connections by email. Fortunately my associate, his family and friends are all fine.
   
   
3. Share your good ideas. Here is one that I think is fantastic:
   

   September 2, 2005
   Dear fellow planners,
   For the Hurricane evacuees —

   I know there are cities and towns in this country that must have extra available housing stock. In Florida we are now receiving 3,000 new arrivals a day (up from our historical 900 a day) and these people were living somewhere before.

   My question is, can APA as an organization, and we as planners located all over the country, quickly develop a list of locations with existing housing stock where people can move permanently and be absorbed into existing communities? I believe such a list would be very worthwhile and that way we would be able to help guide people to permanent new homes, not just cots in sports arenas.

   I know there is a Hurricane help website at www.Katrina.com. We could provide the information to APA and then have a link from www.Katrina.com directly to the APA site. Should not be difficult.

   So this message is a request to our excellent leader, Paul Farmer, FAICP, to consider helping us make it happen. Please?

   Thanks.
   Mary Anne Bowie, AICP

4. Think again about our code of ethics. Are we, as planners, adequately engaged? While the following will offend some, the author does make some useful points.

   AUSTIN, Texas — Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now.
   To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

   This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

   This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

   Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

   One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault."

   Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's delta.

   But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short- term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies—ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

   Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

   Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

   Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.

   Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44% reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

   The commander of the corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.

   Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

   In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans—it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

   Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35% of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen.

   Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

   The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

   This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

   The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

   This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

   Molly Ivins is a syndicated columnist based in Washington. E-mail: info@creators.com.

Reader Responses

Thankfully, the community planning community has room in it for the expression of the full spectrum of political/social opinion. It's too bad the writer can't keep his negative, off-topic opinion to himself. Keep up the good work!

George A. Berger, AICP
City of Newport Beach, CA

In regards to the comment below, Ms. Ivins seems to be more interested in "tearing down" rather than "building up."

Jeffrey R. Anderson, AICP
Moline City, IL

I may be making a poor choice in responding to Mr. Saulnier's comment, but these issues require enlightened, analytical response from our professions. I encourage Mr. Saulnier to participate in one of many forums where extensive, substantial dialog is taking place, such as at www.planning.org. Many of us are attempting to rise to the occasion in both our personal and professional actions, large and small. While many urge immediate action and change, part of these actions of response and recovery includes assessment, planning and negotiating changes in policy and practice that should be beyond politics and that will take years to implement. Sadly, by resorting to labels (as did Ms. Ivins), Mr. Saulnier only proved Ms. Ivins' point. And I believe the word he was looking for is "drivel."

Bob Kull, PP, AICP
Planygy, LLC

Gee, I liked the dribble - some of the few honest assessments of an administration out of control.  Since its your website, Paul, you keep forwarding whatever you feel is relevant. Mark Saulnier can disgard it if he doesn't find the material relevant.

Mike Harper
Washoe County, NV

Well, I'd like to thank you for publishing Molly Ivins. I still must admit I find it hard to understand how one can be a professional planner and a political conservative since so much of conservative political dicta dismisses sound planning practices and the facts of how the world works as "liberal dribble." But best of all is how today's conservatives just can't debate issues, but prefer to throw around labels. What a shame that political discourse has disintegrated to to this level.

Daniel Lauber, AICP
River Forest, IL

Molly Ivins has been a favorite of mine since I lived in Austin many years ago. Way out here in Reno, Nevada, several of my staff members and I just spent three days at our Emergency Operations Center assembling a plan to receive up to 300 evacuees in Reno. Although FEMA decided over the weekend to halt evacuation flights, the experience reminded me that our Community Development Department was given this important task because planners are uniquely qualified to do emergency planning... and yes, planners do make a difference in people's lives!

Sincerely,
Adrian P. Freund, AICP
Washoe County, NV

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How often do you hear your elected officials suggest that government needs to provide better and more services at less cost?
A current example is the City of San Diego that the national media is calling Enron by the Sea because of our severe financial crisis and even the threat of bankruptcy. We are also in an election cycle for the Mayor who resigned and two city councilmen who were just convicted of bribes and extortion. The candidates all have a simple fix, just get the bureaucracy to be more efficient!

I have long ago given up the notion that simply asking people to work harder and be more productive has any positive effect. Likewise, you can only squeeze the efficiency sponge so many times before it stops giving up liquid.

So, what is the answer? I recently had the opportunity to look at a large city department of development that seems to do it well, in which a new director took over ten years ago. Over that ten-year period, workload (applications) increased 84% while staffing decreased 1.4%. Even so, the timelines are short, customers are happy, and elected officials are supportive. I asked the director how he did it. His response:

• 20% of the improvement came from asking people to work that were not working. There is a recent book out titled, Its OK to Ask People to Work. It used to be that you could roll a bowling ball through the office at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon and not hit anyone.
• 20% came from carving out work to eliminate. These employees were working hard but on work that was not producing a useful product that helped the bottom line. These employees were transferred to more meaningful work.
• 40% came from reengineering and systems improvement.
• 20% came from managers actually managing. I would include in this category making the first three items above happen. Also important would be learning how to empower employees and stop micro-managing.

You too can do more with less. Give it a try!

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Gardiner Morse, the senior editor at Harvard Business Review recently wrote an article suggesting that incivility in the office place is like hidden harassment. I have extracted the following points from her writing.

• Sexual harassment is so destructive that most companies have zero-tolerance policies. Yet other types of antisocial behavior go largely unchecked, even though they can be equally harmful.
  
• Incivility can be costly in terms of lost productivity and turnover. It corrodes people's productivity, performance, motivation, creativity, and helpfulness.
  
• Incivility is any disrespectful behavior such as:
  • A boss chewing out a subordinate in front of colleagues.
  • An assistant refusing to lend a hand in a crisis.
  • An employee spreading rumors about a coworker.
    
• With fully loaded costs of turnover estimated to average $50,000 per employee across all U.S. jobs and industries, the dollar impact of incivility is clear.

So, what to do?

• Have zero tolerance.
• Take an honest look in the mirror (executives should use peer feedback and other methods to gauge their own civility).
• Weed out trouble before it enters the organization (ask how job candidates behaved in previous jobs).
• Keep your ear to the ground.
• Interview former employees to find out why they quit.
• Heed warning signals.
• Don't make excuses for high-ranking instigators.
• Teach civility.
• Crush incivility when it occurs.

All of this reinforces another concept I have been teaching in my management classes. Organizations can not afford to have a___ h__es on their staff.

Reader Response

Is there any case law to support this? I currently have a number of unhappy unionized employees who have been quite uncivil towards me recently. I have verbally reprimanded them for their behavior, but have not yet taken it to the next level.

Anonymous

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The only case law likely relates to standard employee-employee relations and issue of insubordination. I suggest you discuss specific issues with your organization's Human Resource experts and attorneys.

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This topic or conflict seems to plague many planning directors as well as leaders and mangers in general. The following abstracts are some thoughts by Pattie Vargas in SD Training Trends, May 2005.

Leaders lead and managers do. While it is true that both roles require very different skills, the line between the two is becoming more and more blurred. The traditional view of the manager, who simply told people what to do, is passé. Managers are being compelled to the front lines where they belong, giving instruction, providing guidance and — dare we say it — leading the charge.

John Kotter in What Leaders Really Do writes:

• Managing is working within boundaries, while leading is expanding boundaries.
• Managing is controlling resources, while leading is influencing others.
• Managing is contracting how and when work will be done, while leading is committing to get the work done no matter what.
• Managing is waiting for all relevant data before deciding, while leading is pursuing enough data to decide now.

However, the merging of management and leadership skills requires a change in mindset from focusing on management as a process of control to one of having the ability to develop and articulate a vision, plan the appropriate strategy and inspire others to follow.
Organizations need both management and leadership and it is becoming increasingly important that they inhabit the same bodies. Managing is a subset of leadership — the good leader must both lead and manage equally well.

I believe we are in a new age of planning. Communities are desperate for the kind of leadership planning can provide. But we also need to deliver the goods. Planning departments in 2005 need directors who can both lead and manage.

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In my management classes, I am continually asked the difference between being the Director and one of the staff. What does being a manager and a leader really mean?

Some of the best answers come out of Jack Welch's new book Winning. Welch was the 40-year chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric, who was described by Fortune as the "Manager of the Century." I know that most of you are not doing enough reading, particularly about management and particularly about management in the private sector. But trust me — read it. I'm only a third of the way through and am already excited. Here are a few tidbits from the book so far:

• One day, you become a leader. On Monday, you're doing what comes naturally, enjoying your job, running a project, talking and laughing with colleagues about life and work, and gossiping about how stupid management can be. Then on Tuesday, you are management, you're a boss. Suddenly, everything feels different — because it is different. Leadership requires distinct behaviors and attitudes, and for many people, they debut with the job."
• Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
• When you are an individual contributor, you try to have all the answers. That's your job to be an expert, the best at what you do, maybe even the smartest person in the room. When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions.

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Good management is all about relationships. Some useful tips on this come from a book by Jerry Acuff, The Relationship Edge in Business.

The first step is to believe that relationships are important. Once you do this, learning what interests other people is another key to success. To do this, Acuff shows a three step process.

1. Have the right mind-set. You have to think that relationships are valuable and believe that you are someone with whom other people would want to have a relationship. You must also think well of others and learn to think as much as you can from the other person's point of view.
   
2. Ask the right questions. The goal of asking questions is to discover common ground. This could be mutual friends, interests or concerns. If there is no obvious common ground and the other person is passionate about something that you know nothing about, your goal should be to learn from him or her.
   
3. Demonstrate your professionalism, integrity, caring and knowledge, and, when appropriate, do unexpected, inexpensive thoughtful acts based on what you've learned about the other person. This process can take weeks or even months of thought and care to apply.

Think well of others, even the JERKS. Imagine that every person has the words "Make Me Feel Important" tattooed on his or her forehead.

Abstracted from summary books.

Reader Response

Great, simple, straightforward and practical advice.

My new boss doesn't do any of this. His approach is:

1. Have the Right Mind-Set:
   Tell staff their work is laughable, garbage, incompetent and unacceptable. Get up and leave one-on-one check in meetings when you are through. Leave your subordinate sitting there knowing every move they make is a lose-lose situation.
2. Ask the Right Question:
   When asked a question to establish your preferred direction, policy choice, etc., refuse to answer or, when pressed, reply that the subordinate is a "professional" and should know the answer. That I, the boss, will recognize good work when I see it and return garbage when it shows up.
3. Demonstrate Your Professionalism:
   Bump up assignments by 45 days so that the original agreed-upon deadline is now two weeks overdue! That will really show the staff who is boss. And, Caring. Sit on vacation requests for 4+ weeks, even when the 4-day vacation request is submitted 8 weeks before the event. You have been told the event is a major family wedding across the country and requires detailed coordination with extended family members. No work-related events are scheduled remotely close to this activity. When you grant the request, comment "Go ahead and try to get cheap seats now."

Signed,
Looking for the Exit

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A reprint from Career Builder.com by Henry Neils with commentary by the Management Doctor

In some ways it was a typical breakfast meeting. The waitress was pleasant, the eggs were average, and the restaurant was full of busy people. We shared a cup of black, coffee-like substance, and the first few times my client took a sip he managed to spill quite a bit of it. His trembling hand was just one of the symptoms of his burnout. That's why we were meeting. He wanted to know if I could help him. I picked up a fork and explained that as long as I used it for eating, the fork would last indefinitely. However, if I began to use it to drive nails or dig trenches, it would soon break. The key was to use it for what it was designed to do. The look in his eyes told me he got it, but I still went on to say that people are like the fork. When they do what they are not designed to do, they eventually break. Sure enough, I had him take his MAPP Assessment and it showed that he was designed to work on projects where there was a definite goal. He derived immense satisfaction from reaching goals. He also needed to work by himself about half the time. He was a scientist and enjoyed lab time, doing calculations, and interpreting test results.

What his job required on a day-to-day basis was another story. His primary task was to supervise a dozen people and maintain operations. No goals. No projects. No time alone. Consequently, his job was sucking the life out of him. Much credit for his recovery goes to his boss who was willing to change the job content to fit the design of a valuable employee.

So how do you know if you, a loved one, or someone who reports to you is suffering from burnout? Here are the early-warning signs.

1. Chronic fatigue - exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being physically run down
2. Anger at those making demands
3. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands
4. Cynicism, negativity, and irritability
5. A sense of being besieged
6. Exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things
7. Frequent headaches and gastrointestinal disturbances
8. Weight loss or gain
9. Sleeplessness and depression
10. Shortness of breath
11. Suspiciousness
12. A feeling of helplessness
13. Increased degree of risk taking

Comment by the Management Doctor
I see this same problem over and over again in my consulting practice with planners. Too many move into management because they get higher pay and they are conditioned to assume moving into management is moving ahead. Then these people find themselves in a job that is not satisfying which leads to burnout. As managers, we need to find out what our people are good at and what they like to do. Then, we find the right job for them including the right pay. In this way, we focus on people's strengths rather than their weaknesses. This is a win-win situation for everyone.

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I just discovered a neat little book on decision making, To Do or Not To Do, A Wisdom Heart Press Book, 2004 by Gary Winters and Eric Klein.

The authors start with this good advice:

• Hands on as much as needed.
• Hands off as much as possible.

Written as a parable, the book suggests five alternative ways to make decisions depending on:

1. To what degree do you want your staff committed to the decision?
2. How much time is available to make the decision?
3. How accustomed is your team to making decisions together?

They also suggest that when people do things because they want to, they usually give their best effort. When they do things because they have to, they often do the minimum to satisfy the requirement.

The five ways are:

1. Now Hear This (the boss makes the decision and announces it)
2. Trial Balloon (suggest a decision and get some feedback)
3. Buck Stop (gather others ideas before making a decision)
4. Life Raft (all in this together, consensus decision making)
5. You Tell Me (they make the decision)

Reader Response

I've always thought it wise to require staff to have a list of alternatives before asking my opinion. That way, they have buy-in regarding the decision-making process and often have alternatives that are acceptable.

Pat Cecil
City of Grand Junction, CO

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Good managers remember to recognize and motivate employees. Great managers do it every day. Here are some proven methods for making sure that praising employees becomes part of your daily routine:

• Make employees a part of your weekly "to do" list. Add the names of the people who report to you to your list of goals to accomplish. Then cross off names as you praise them.
• Use voice mail. Rather than using it only to assign tasks, leave employees voice mail messages praising them for a job well done. Do it from your cellular phone on the way home.
• Write notes at the end of the day. Keep a stack of note cards on your desk, where you can't ignore them. At the end of the day, take a minute to write thank-you notes to any employee who made a difference that day.
• At the beginning of the day, put five coins in your pocket. Then, during the day, each time you praise an employee, transfer a coin to your other pocket. It may sound corny, but once you get in the habit, you'll start relying on tricks like this one.

—Adapted from Inc. magazine