Here is a great quote…
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right ~ Henry Ford
I’m going to adapt it…
Whether you think they’re X, or you think they’re Y – you’re right ~ James Lawther
Feel free to tweet that quote, it will do wonders for my ego, though it is unlikely to do as well as Mr Ford’s.
Theory X and Theory Y
You have heard about Douglas McGregor before and his contrasting management views of the world:
- Theory X: workers are lazy, have little interest in working and are only in it for the paycheck
- Theory Y: workers are intrinsically motivated and will push themselves to do rewarding work
Which is the right theory?
Theory X and theory Y can’t both be right. On balance workers will tend to behave one way or another; which leads to the question… on average, are we all angels or slackers?
Can’t be right can
Both theories are bang on target…
If you believe your team are lazy good for nothings:
You will monitor their every move and hit them repeatedly every time they step out of line. And if you do that, the minute your back is turned… your employees with hit Facebook with a vengeance.
Theory X managers are absolutely right.
If you believe your employees will do the best they can:
You will give them opportunities, back them to the hilt, praise them for their efforts. And if you do that, the minute your back is turned… your employees will hit that spreadsheet with a vengeance.
Theory Y managers are absolutely right.
So here is the real question
Did Dr McGregor know or care which theory was right, or was he just a very astute people watcher?
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Read another opinion
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James,
I agree with you. And I disagree with you. :-)
And McGregor was both.
Annette :-)
I guess you may well be right
Hello James,
I have just finished overseeing a project through to a successful conclusion. The project got off to a difficult start on day 1. Why? I choose to get up and speak the truth of the situation as it occurred to me. This did not go down well with the client nor the salesperson. At the end of the discovery-analysis phase, I choose to communicate, more forcefully, the facts of the situation. This did not go down well with the client. And I stuck to my gun pointing out that which nobody wanted to deal with. We accepted the path chosen by the client. During the UAT phase, with the feedback in from the critical business users, the client chose to change direction that which I had advised earlier in the project. We redid what had to be redone. And this week the project went live successfully: all parties felt good about working together, all parties are at a place of mutual respect, and the ‘technical’ solution works.
How did we arrive at this place? All the way through piloting this project I chose to show up and travel from the stand of each and every person is ‘whole-complete-perfect’. Did I have evidence for it? No. It is simply a choice that I made. Having made that choice, this choice enabled as all to deal with the stuff that was getting in the way of each of us showing up for ourselves and other members of the team as ‘whole-complete-perfect’. To use the analogy we were clear that the original condition of the mirror was perfect. The mirror was not shining-reflecting because some dust-dirt got on to it. So instead of blaming-criticing-jettisoning the mirror we simply cleaned off the dust-dirt.
I go as far as to say there is no more fundamental choice in the way we live-experience our lives than the choice we make about our fellow human beings:
a) whole-complete-perfect; or
b) not whole, not complete, not perfect.
It occurs to me that we have built many of our institutions on the basis of choice b – it is the default. Which may explain why it is that we have turned heaven into hell.
All the best
maz
But Maz, isn’t it more productive to point the finger of blame at the mirror cleaner?
I couldn’t agree more
James,
I wonder if there is a correlation between whether you choose X or Y and being a glass full/glass empty sort?
Adrian
An interesting thought Adrian, maybe there is