High Output Management
High Output Management by Andy Grove is the best management book I’ve read. It is also the only one, but I don’t think that matters; it’s a classic for a reason. Written before I was born, the advice is timeless even if some of the terms aren’t. I had to look up what a “tickler” file was (a low tech reminder system).
Your job as a manager starts to make more sense if you change your thinking to consider how you and your team can be leveraged, i.e. making your team more effective. Prior experience leaves me realizing many managers don’t think in this way.
What is a manager’s job?
- The output of a manager is the output of his organization and those under his influence
- Applying leverage gets the most value out of a manager, e.g. review output early, spot check work, monitor the decision making process
On Working
- Knowledge work forecasting can be done with the calendar
- fill in holes between time-critical events with non-time-critical
- say no to work earlier than later
- allow slack
- Managers should carry an inventory of discretionary projects in addition to reactionary work
- Managers must add value. Are they doing anything with the group? Training? Hiring? Improving the group’s output?
On Taking Notes
- The output of reports and plans are much less important than the process of creating them.
- Take notes always - you may never refer to them, but writing things down force you to think about and categorize info
On Planning
What is the current environment?
- Customer perception, technological changes, vendor performance
What is the environment in 2 years?
- What will customers expect, what tech will exist/change, how will vendors change?
The present status?
- List capabilities and current work
- What is in process, what percentage don’t complete the process?
How to close the gap?
- What do you need vs what can you do to close the gap to determine strategy - What you do to implement a strategy are tactics. Strategy at one level is another level’s tactics
- What are you doing today to solve or avoid tomorrow’s problems?
On Decisions
Before decision making processes occur, determine the following
- what decision needs made
- when does it need made by
- who will decide it
- who needs consulted prior to making decision
- who will ratify or veto the decision
- who needs informed of the decision
On Results
- Management by Objectives (MBO)
- Where do I want to go? (Objective)
- How will I pace myself to see if I’m getting there? (Milestones/Key Results)
- Culture should value and emphasize output, not knowledge. Creating tangible output should be valued and rewarded
- Objectives should be set so that after pushing hard there’s only a 50/50% chance of achieving
- The responsibility for teaching subordinates is on the supervisor, and mistakes shouldn’t be learned or paid for by internal or external customers
On Training
- One of the highest leverage activities for a manager - if you can improve 10 people’s output by 1% over a year you gain about 200 hours of work
- It is a continuous process, not a one off event, and training should occur at all levels
- How? set a schedule with deadlines, create an outline for the whole course, and develop the first lecture. After presenting, iterate - there’s no way it’ll be perfect the first time.
Management Styles
- As a subordinate moves from low familiarity to high with a given role or task, hands on management should be inversely correlated.
- People with Low Familiarity get detailed instructions with when and how. Medium Familiarity get support, encouragement, communication. High Familiarity is primarily mutually agreed objectives and some monitoring. This is referred to as task relevant maturity.
- These can change as events dictate - new/novel situations or ones that require swift action may require immediate direction by managers.
On one-on-ones
- Should occur on the subordinates terms/office
- Subordinate should drive the agenda and outline which both people have access to
- Managers should be getting performance indicators, statuses, and potential problems
- Managers role is to learn and coach by asking one more question until both parties are satisfied
- Consider you’re coaching a high performance sports team - be tough, drive towards good performance
On Performance Reviews
- The ultimate purpose is to improve the subordinate’s performance. To highlight skills gaps and opportunities, and to increase motivation and performance
- They are not reserved for certain organizations but are useful in all organizations regardless of size
- When reviewing managers, consider whether output indicators are from previous managers, or the time offset between a manager’s work and the output of their organization.
- “The performance rating of a manager cannot be higher than the one we would accord his organization”. Performance over appearance.
- Level - be entirely frank. Listen - really understand if a message is being received, and continue until it is. Leave yourself out - don’t convey your own anxieties, guilt, emotions.
- Convey only major themes, not a list of everything you may have noticed. Your goal is to improve performance, nothing else.
- They should contain: job description, accomplishments, strengths, opportunities. Statements with examples, and illustrations of how to improve. Does not meet, meets, exceeds, superior.
On Interviewing
- It’s a crap shoot, but you’re trying to gauge technical knowledge about the specific role, and what they did with that knowledge, any discrepancies, and operational values
- Describe projects, weaknesses, what they achieved, failed, what did they learn, problems, why are you ready for this job, why should company hire you
Measurement
Grove even provides a scoring mechanism to guide your activities.
| Production | Points |
|---|---|
| Identify the operations in your work most like process, assembly, test production | 10 |
| For a project, id limiting steps, map out flow of work around it | 10 |
| Define the proper places for equivalents of receiving inspection, in-process inspection, final inspection of work. Decide if monitoring is step or gate-like. Under which conditions can things be relaxed or sampled. | 10 |
| Id six new indicators for group output, measuring quantity and quality | 10 |
| Install new indicators as a routine, establish regular review with staff | 20 |
| What is the most important strategy you’re pursuing? Describe environmental demand that prompted it, current status, momentum. Will it work? | 20 |
| Simplify your most tedious time-consuming task. Eliminate at least 30% of total steps | 10 |
| Define your output: What are the elements of the org you manage and can influence. List w/ importance | 10 |
| Analyze your information- and knowledge- gatheringsystems. Balanced headlines, weeklies, etc. Redundant? | 10 |
| Tour your office, production, etc. Create a once-a-month excuse to do so | 10 |
| Describe how you will monitor the next project you delegate to a sub. What will you look for, how, how frequent? | 10 |
| Generate an inventory of projects to work on at discretionary times | 10 |
| Hold a scheduled one on one with subs, make sure they understand the point, have them prepare. | 20 |
| Look at your calendar for the last week. Classify l/m/h leverage. Plan of action to do more high-leverage, what will you reduce | 10 |
| Forecast demand on your time for next week. If more than 25% mission oriented how to reduce? | 10 |
| Define 3 most important objectives for org over next 3 months. Support with key results/milestones | 20 |
| Have your subs do the same, discuss | 20 |
| Generate an inventory of pending decisions you are responsible for. Take 3, structure decision making process for them, using six question approach | 10 |
| Evaluate your own motivational state in terms of Maslow, do the same for subs | 10 |
| Give your subs a racetrack, define a set of performance indicators for each | 20 |
| List forms of task-relevant feedback your subs receive. How well can they gauge their progress | 10 |
| Classify task relevant maturity of each sub as l/m/h. Evaluate management style most appropriate for them, compare with yours and how it should be | 10 |
| Evaluate the last performance review you received, and the last set you gave. How well did the reviews do to improve performance? What was the nature of communication during each | 20 |
| Redo a review as it should have been done. | 10 |
There you have it. If you haven’t read it, give it a read - it’s highly worth $5 and a few hours of your time.