Rule 18: Discuss the Work

There are two types of conversations about work:

The first is a Friday evening conversation.  It is best held at about 5pm in the pub just around the corner from the office in hushed tones.

The first conversation discusses who:

• Who screwed up
• Who is on the way up
• Who is on the way out
• And — in my younger years — who is sleeping with whom

This type of conversation is very satisfying.  There is nothing like a little character assassination to round off your week.  Unfortunately it never goes anywhere and does precisely nothing to improve performance.

The second conversation is about what not who:

The conversation asks:

• What is happening?
• Why is it happening?
• What did we learn?
• What are we going to do next?

This type of conversation is nowhere near as much fun, but it is a lot more rewarding. You just have to follow a couple of guidelines:

Conversational guidelines

• Hold the meeting in the workplace if you can, not a conference room.  It will give context and cues
• Involve the same people — not too many
• Use a standing agenda
• Always discuss the same measures (if you keep changing them you will never get better)
• Make everything visual.  Put the agenda, performance, issues and actions up on a wall.  Make it clear
• Be honest about issues, talk about the evidence, do not offer excuses or cast blame
• Don’t problem solve, do that later, keep the session short and punchy.
• Create action.  Who is going to do what?
• Check the actions, did you do what you said you would, if not, why not?  Should the action change?
• Repeat the conversation religiously  – once per day, once per week, once per month.  Make the gap long enough for the actions to have happened but short enough to keep on-top of the issues
• Hold the conversation in the same place at the same time, then no one can forget

You will know the conversation is not going well if:

• People routinely turn up late.  They are voting with their feet
• People turn up unprepared.  They aren’t taking it seriously
• There is lots of good news and few problems.  People are scared to tell the truth
• The energy is low.  People are positioning and telling tales, not getting to the point and addressing it
• Issues aren’t being resolved.  Why attend a meeting that is simply a talking shop?

Most important of all…

Remember that this is a conversation about what not who.  “Who caused that?” and “What caused that?” might sound the same, but the responses you will get are a million miles apart.

The who is always best talked about in the pub.

Rule 18: Discuss the work

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Image by Hamed Parham