People and Process Optimization Resources

If you ask a business executive, can you manage something without understanding it? Most will say, "no" or "not effectively" and many (having done this a number of times) will cite the aphorism, "you can't manage what you can't measure." Of course, understanding a situation and having metrics that inform you on it it,  quite often do not always equate. Typically metrics are a necessary but not really sufficient part of the understanding. Understanding comes from inter-relating and processing the metrics in a meaningful way- thought, discussion, etc… are usually involved.

Of course, there's another saying, "paralysis by analysis" which is a common affliction but I think if you look at these situations, most of the time, this occurs when there are metrics but those metrics are nebulous, incomplete and even unreliable. There is also a small but significant percentage of the population who, due to risk averse behavior, decision style, personality type…, do this no matter what but we're going to ignore this mental condition for this argument. 

So let's consider a key decision like who to hire for a specific position. What is the cost of Understanding so that you can pick the best, most suitable person?

You have the cost of checking or research including reading resumes, doing a background check, processing assessment results, interviewing...

When you want to improve your ability to select the right people for the job, or manage them more effectively, or develop them optimally, you need to realize that decision support tools have drastically improved in the last few years.    Choosing the right employees and managing them effectively involves ongoing decisions that need to be supported with critical information.  The validated information that is now available inexpensively is a really a game changer  (in the game of management).

... Where Understanding is Key

From ancient philosophers like Socrates to management gurus like Peter Drucker, the point has been made emphatically that self-awareness is key to personal effectiveness and leadership success.  Without it, some say it is impossible to improve. But more certainly, without it, one can say that it is impossible to fully control or understand the impact of your actions and decisions and to be effectively situational.

One way to help understand this is concept that has been around for decades, the Johari Window.  It is essentially a matrix that matches your degree of self-knowledge to the degree of others' knowledge about you.  It's a good model to discuss the implications of blind spots and some of the value for addressing these.

Most of us will agree that understanding each other is important, but many can't really describe what you need to understand.  Many will cite relationship styles, decision making styles, leadership styles and communication tendencies as key issues.  In fact there are quite a number of additional issues that can cause conflict and misunderstanding if not accurately understood. In fact, the worst scenarios occur when people think they understand and they don't (incorrect assumptions).

Tempo is an attribute that relates to a need  or tendency for(or lack of a need) for speed and activity. Likewise, it is related to multitasking and a tendency, if strong here, to "have to have" many things going on at once to feel right about things.   If you are a high tempo person ,  you will have a tendency to love activity and typically  a need to have a lot of balls in the air simultaneously. If your tendency is low, you will tend to be methodical,  tending to focus on one thing at a time.  It doesn't necessarily relate to your energy level but may relate to the perception of others of your energy level.