Skipping Design Research Can Be Costly

Skipping design research can be costly. For example, high-end German automobile manufacturers were stunned when U.S. customers would not buy cars without cup holders. While drinking coffee in the car seemed unthinkable to Europeans, it wouldn’t have taken much design research to learn how important it is to U.S. car buyers. The manufacturers, forced to retrofit, created some of the most complex, expensive, unreliable and least user-friendly cup holders ever produced. Design research findings are not typically assembled in the form of data and reports but are instead stories and characters, often captured on video. Such findings resemble and evoke real experience more powerfully than data and reports can, vividly conveying the desired emotional connections between people, products and services, and they help a company to triangulate these findings with appropriate technologies and economic objectives.

Source: The Evolution of the Design-Inspired Enterprise | Gabriella Lojacono, Gianfranco Zaccai | Rotman Magazine, Winter 2005

The Best Bosses Shield those Who Work for Them

Annette Kyle managed some 60 employees at a Texas terminal where they loaded chemicals from railcars onto ships and trucks. In the mid-1990s, Annette led a “revolution” that dramatically raised her unit’s performance through a host of changes, including better planning, greater responsibility at the lowest levels, improved and more transparent metrics, and numerous cultural changes. She personally sewed “no whining” patches on workers’ uniforms, for example, to discourage the local penchant for complaining and auctioned off her desk to workers for $60 because, as she explained it, “I shouldn’t be sitting behind a big desk. I should be contributing to team goals however possible.”
This transformation virtually eliminated the penalties that were levied when ships arrived at the terminal’s dock but (despite considerable advance warning) workers weren’t ready to load them. These “demurrage charges,” which cost the company $2.5 million the year before the revolution, were down to $10,000 the year after. Previously, it had taken more than three hours to load an average truck. Afterward, more than 90 percent were loaded within an hour of arrival. Surveys and interviews by University of Southern California researchers showed that employees became more satisfied with their jobs and felt proud of their accomplishments. I asked Annette how she could make such radical changes in her giant company. She answered that her boss shielded her from top-ranking managers—he found the resources and experts she needed but never discussed these moves with senior management until they succeeded.

Source: Why Good Bosses Tune in to Their People by Robert I. Sutton | The McKinsey Quarterly

Criticizing your servant

Criticizing a subordinate can be a real test for even the most seasoned manager. Too often what is supposed to be a constructive session turns into a futile confrontation, with mutal gripes and hard fellings, but no solution of the problem.

5 simple suggestions can help the manager make criticizm sessions more productive and problem-solving.

1. Get to the point. Don't ecade the issue. Skip the small talk and go straight to the target: "Bill, I want to talk to you about your late reports". This advice appears cold and heartless. You probably fell that a warm and friendly opening, such as " Bill, How are you? that will relax your subourdinate and ease the path to solving the problem.
But. it rarely works out that way. Stalling and beating around the bush usually only increase the anxiesties on both sides.

2. Describe the situation. Use a descriptive opening that is specific. not general. Avoid evaluative openings at all costs.
example: Bill, I can no longer deal with you late, sloppy reports." Descriptive: "Bill. you've been late on three reports in the last two weeks.