My job is to make things better. I have implemented many things to date, and want to do much more. My boss seems to be holding back---for a reason I don't understand and possibly he can't tell me. At the same time, I think he wants me to keep going. He and I are both so busy I get very little agenda time with him just to talk about what's going on and where should we go. I'm starting to get frustrated with the pace of change to the point of looking elsewhere. Our customers are clammoring for change, etc.---what are some things I can do to speed this up?

-- Tim Thomas (tthomas@accessone.com), October 03, 2000

Answers

Perhaps your boss doesn't really want to change. Maybe he's threatened by change. Most managers won't rock the boat and will defend the status quo unless they see a benefit for themselves. What's his gain in initiating the changes you recommend? Does he see the benefits as well as you do?

Maybe he's too busy to give careful consideration to your recommendations and doesn't want to act until he understands what you want to do and the ramifications.

-- Jeff Gossett (gossettjl@bowater.com), October 03, 2000.

Are you the only one in the business who feels frustrated? Why not sound out support from the team and approach your boss together (with a recap of your recent ideas and future solutions of course!).

Alternately, just go play golf together.

-- Amanda Wise (amanda_wise_2000@yahoo.com), October 04, 2000.

Hi !

i have several ideas to speed things up....:

1) try using open book management. For example, show to your boss that the change is improving the company's financial statement.

2) try to discuss with your boss about the need for change.

3) if both of u seem to have no time to discuss face-to-face, try sending email instead.

4) try to build support for change by having a notice board where employees can give their comments. Your boss will support the change (hopefully) if majority of his/her employees are supporting change.

5) have a weekly review of the changes that have been done to evaluate the need for future changes.

If u choose to implement any of my ideas, please inform me of the results . thanx !

-- Ashadi (neometal2@eudoramail.com), October 04, 2000.

From: Mark Zorro To: Tim Thomas

You say that you are starting to get frustrated to the point where you are looking elsewhere yet you are worried about your bosses agenda time. If I told my boss that I wanted a meeting with him because I was getting frustrated with the pace of change to the point of looking elsewhere and that particular boss valued my contribution to the organization, I would expect to get agenda time.

But lets say that rushing around like charging rhino's is the culture of your organization and you don't have a sane culture which incorporates the value added time of conversations, of stopping to evaluate where you are heading. Then you have supplied an answer to your own question. If your boss doesn't have time to listen to someone who is frustrated enough to want to leave, then he should at least have time to listen to a frustrated customer.

Of course, you don't send him a frustrated customer nor do you assume that your customers are clammoring for change. You arrange to do a survey of your customers. You have to prove your proposition by getting data to support your conclusion. If your customers are really clammoring for change you should be able to discern what questions will be important to your customer, because those answers are going to be important to your organization.

Ask well formulated and intelligent questions. Ask them factually rather than emotionally. You said your job is to make things better but your job is also to make things better for yourself. It's not a question of whether you want to do more, it is a question of whether what you want to do aligns with what the organization wants to do.

Implementing things doesn't necessarily make you a great corporate soldier, if you don't have time to monitor and evaluate results, then that maybe a reason why your boss is also all at sea without anytime. Rocking the boat is a good thing to do, but not if your shipping out water from your own boat.

My advice is that you don't help your boss to understand but you try to understand your boss and understand your customers. The more wins you create for him and your organization, the more wins you are creating for yourself. By the sounds of things, you sound like someone who does take initiative, but initiative is pointless without connection and standing back to evaluate the impact of those initiatives.

When you do that I believe that your boss will have time to talk. Lets face it, your boss is probably talking to outside vendors about issues that will help him progress his organization. You are also an internal vendor who also needs to market and gain the attention of this important internal customer you call your boss.

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), October 05, 2000.

I suggest you try looking at your situation from a systems theory approach. Firstly, you do not make things better but rather act as an intergral component in the system, sensitized to entrain to and amplify disturbances that further enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the net energy utlization of the system. Secondly, for your input to be effective it needs to be phase coherent with the system and then effectvely amplified sufficently to generate chaotic changes before re-establishing global system coherency at a higher level of organization. Based on the above principles it appears that you are not phase coherent with your boss, therefore no further momentum can develop. You need to re-evaluate whether your ideas are coherent with the system. If you feel they are then they must be coherent on some level with your boss. You then simply have to present the ideas in a manner which can be recognized (entrained to) and amplifeid by your boss. Once this is acheived the resonnate amplification between you needs to entrain others to a point of critical momentum and then sit back and enjoy the ride.

-- Andrew Cramb (livingsystem@rabbit.com.au), November 14, 2000.

There's another way to go about it, albeit a risky one, and that's to say, very bluntly, what's on your mind. If your boss won't listen, then go to his boss - or better yet, as high as you can go. This is a high-risk, high-reward proposition and could get you fired, no doubt about it. But if there is an upper level manager or executive in your company who you think might listen, then it might be worth the risk - especially since you're thinking of leaving anyway. The key is make argument factually, to show them where the business is being hurt and how your ideas can improve it. If they don't want to listen, then perhaps they're more concerned with playing politics then they are with actually getting anything done. In that case, you have your answer and it's time to go.

-- Peter Davis (pdavis@rexallsundown.com), March 21, 2002.