Psalmtree Consulting
ACHIEVE PROFITABILITY & GROWTH
Improving Working Relationships
How To Increase Productivity Through Orderly Working Relationships
Management by open door policy has been a popular method for some time. However, there is a downside. When an employee is free to go to his/her manager on a whim, the manager ends up putting out small fires all day long enabling employee dependency. It also reduces the manager’s productivity in his/her own tasks. People also see the company reduced to organizational politics and it becomes a game that isn’t worth playing. People don’t know what is expected of them and they have little respect for other employees and their responsibilities. Delegating tasks becomes fruitless and people often get left in a lurch.
Reduced the number of hours management needed to work to meet objectives by 15% through implementation of a policy outlining the principles of working relationships in the company
Without rules of interaction in an organization the team doesn’t always move in the same direction, so I decided to create “Principles of Working Relationships”. This became a policy that defined the rules of the road for interaction throughout the business day between employees. It would help people work together more harmoniously and avoid common misunderstandings and frustrations. As a result we created an environment with greater accountability and trust, by having rules that required standards for proper delegation of tasks. There were a set of principles that required managers to get agreement from employees who were receiving delegated tasks and those delegations were communicated according to certain standards. In case of an exception and the employee was unable to meet the deadline, that would be communicated and a new deadline set. Guidelines for working interactions required people to respect the organizational chart and communicate to other departments through their managers unless a predefined system of interaction was put into place. This prevented cross-functional delegation without the manager’s knowledge. Reporting loops were established to regulate the completion of work that was delegated. The result was that managers were able to be much more effective carrying out their responsibilities with less confusion and conflict, reducing the average number of hours needed in the office by 15%.
