Job Descriptions Are Useless...Questions Answered
My last blog, Job Descriptions are Useless, generated a lot of responses and alignment.
I did receive a couple of questions, which I really appreciate. So, I decided to write another blog to address these questions as best I can. Here are the questions.
What about younger, less experienced hires who don’t know “what” to do or “how” to do “it”? Are you saying that the 3x4’s if accurately defined are sufficient?
Where do KPIs, OKRs etc fit with this approach?
What about younger, less experienced hires who don’t know “what” to do or “how” to do “it”? Are you saying that the 3x4’s if accurately defined are sufficient?
Key Accountabilities, aka 3x4’s, are designed to be a context for what you are to be accountable for. This is critical for a couple of reasons. First, context drives people's mindsets, which determines their actions. Strategy or honey-do-lists are not sustainable models for driving actions. Context is.
Second, one of the challenges I routinely hear in organizations is: "We struggle with accountability." Well if that’s true, let’s start by telling people what they are accountable for and then hold them to account for their accountabilities. 3x4’s create clarity and simplify alignment. Accountability starts with aligning on what someone is accountable for.
Key Accountabilities/3x4’s do not mean that you should not train people in what to do or how to do it. If you hire someone for a manufacturing or supply chain position then I’m certain you should teach them how to do the job to be done. I don’t want people working in a manufacturing facility that don’t know how to run the machinery. That is not the same as telling someone what they are accountable for.
Examples of this can be seen on the TV show, Undercover Boss. This is where leaders go undercover in their own companies to learn about their company from the inside. I remember the joy I felt when a warehouse employee was teaching the undercover boss how to use and drive a fork lift that goes up several stories to pick up product. The comments from the employee were great, expressing concern over their boss's ability to learn and safely use the fork lift. You don’t want people doing jobs that they don’t have the knowledge or skills to perform, especially ones where they can injure themselves and others. That same employee clearly knew what he was accountable for and easily spoke about it to his undercover boss.
Learning how to do a job doesn’t alter what you are accountable for. Actually, learning how to do the job and do it well is a demonstration of being accountable for the job.
If you want to be a financial advisor, you need to pass your series 7 and 63 exams and get licensed. Doing the studying and prep necessary to pass the exam doesn’t alter what you are accountable for in the job of financial advisor, but it does demonstrate being accountable.
My son was a summer intern working for a start-up supporting marketing. He was studying data analytics. The marketing manager would have conversations with my son about what they were trying to understand about the market and then my son had to figure out where and how to get and present the data to the marketing manager. I guess in a larger company he could have been taught how to do it, but in a start-up he had to figure it out on his own. Teaching him how to do it could have been effective. Or, it could also have limited him by robbing him of the opportunity to figure things out for himself. I believe employees figuring out how to do their job, if appropriate, makes them a more valuable employee, because they have demonstrated their ability to think for themselves.
My other son wanted to move from a business development role to a data privacy role. In this new role, they absolutely taught him what to do. He was taught there were four specific things they were looking for in contract language and shown examples of typical language. He was given contracts to review and then he reviewed his findings with his manager. In his situation, they worked this process for several months before he was even moved into his new role. Ultimately, he demonstrated his acumen for the role which led him to being the only non-attorney on this team.
Too often, we conflate teaching someone how to do a job with controlling how the job gets done. Sure there are times when there is a proper way to do a job, but there are just as many times where once there is a solid foundation of knowledge of how to do the job, people doing the job figure out how to do it better.
An example of this is Lean. When implementing Lean initiatives, it's the employees doing the job who are tasked with removing waste and streamlining processes. They know better, because they do the job.
The CEO of one of my clients expressed concern that our work sessions would take his , directors out of the office for too many days. The CEO was concerned because he believes his directors run the business. Well during our one of our work sessions there was a breakdown in the manufacturing facility. The directors were informed and they instructed the employees to figure out a solution. The employees did; and the supervisor said that in addition to surprising them, they came up with a better solution than the supervisor would have come up with on his own.
When I was a manager, I told my employees: "Don’t come to me with a problem without having three possible solutions and a recommendation for which one to implement." Then we would talk about what to do from there. I did this because they were closer to the problem than I was and at the same time I was developing them to think for themselves.
3x4’s/Key Accountabilities are not designed to replace training. They are designed to create context, focus and accountability for the job to be done.
Where do KPIs and OKRs fit into this approach?
First let's remember, 3x4’s/Key Accountabilities are designed to be a context to define what the person performing the role is accountable for.
KPI means Key Performance Indicators and OKR means Objectives and Key Results. Both are valuable and have their place. Key Accountabilities/3x4’s in my model are not designed to replace the need for goals and objectives for a job.
Having not been familiar with OKR’s I did a little research, which revealed that OKR’s are intended to provide a framework for groups, not individuals, to give team members clarity on what they are trying to achieve, including identification of milestones on their path to the ultimate outcome.
KPIs are measurable targets that reveal how individuals or businesses are performing in reference to meeting their goals.
I can see how KPIs can be a valuable tool in managing individuals. And, yes, you need to measure what you expect. But for many roles it is not that simple.
I had a client who was the EVP of North American sales for a $18+ billion dollar business. We were hired to train 45 VP’s of sales in the organization. Prior to program development, I asked him, “How will you know we were effective in our training?” To which he responded, “I’ll just know.”
At the time, I thought, well that’s not helpful. I have no target to hit. Years later I came to understand what he meant. He would know if the program made a difference based upon who they were being as leaders. No KPIs could hold them accountable for who they were being.
And oh, there is much more to performance than KPIs. As one example: I have a "No assholes" policy. What that means is as a leader, I will not put up with an asshole even if they are meeting their performance objectives. There is more to performance than results.
Conclusion
3x4’s aka Key Accountabilities are designed to help employers get to the core purpose of a job and to create context for what is expected of an employee in that role and to help the manager hold employees accountable. It does not preclude you from providing the appropriate level of training and education to effectively carry out the duties of the role.
KPIs and OKRs are valuable tools to keep score and track progress for what teams and organizations are working on. 3x4/Key Accountabilities do not preclude you from creating specific goals for a given role. By example: In sales I could have a $1M sales goal and one of my 3x4’s could be Ensure Sales Goals Achieved.