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Where systems or processes are concerned, it really is essential that everybody use them uniformly.\u00a0 <\/span>Imagine an assembly line.\u00a0 <\/span>Each station on the line must perform its function in a very precise way, each and every time, or stations further down the line won\u2019t be able to do their work.\u00a0 <\/span>But for the most part, management challenges don\u2019t lend themselves to an assembly line approach.\u00a0 <\/span>They tend to be unique situations that require specially crafted solutions.\u00a0 <\/span>However, that\u2019s not to say that there couldn\u2019t be two or five or a hundred specially crafted solutions that would all work equally well.<\/p>\n For most of us, the joy of work is in figuring stuff out . . . doing or trying things that haven\u2019t been done or tried before.\u00a0 <\/span>When we\u2019re told, \u201cHere we are at A, and you need to get us to D,\u201d that\u2019s a great assignment.\u00a0 <\/span>Right away we\u2019re thinking, \u201cI wonder if there\u2019s a way to get directly to D without going through B or C.\u00a0 <\/span>Or maybe it would work better if we went from A to C, then back to B and finally to D.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>On the other hand, if we\u2019re told, \u201cHere we are at A, you need to get us first to B, then to C, and then to D,\u201d all the joy, excitement, and creativity just went out of the assignment.<\/p>\n Micro-managing can tear the heart right out of an organization.\u00a0 Leaders set a broad direction and then get out of the way. Tell your people what to do, but let them figure out how to do it.\u00a0 They may not complete a task the way you would have completed it, but so what?\u00a0 As long as the end result is what we wanted, who cares whose method achieved that result?\u00a0 Besides, that’s when innovation happens and breakthroughs occur . . . when someone takes a fresh look at a situation and decides to address it in a way that no one has thought of before.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where systems or processes are concerned, it really is essential that everybody use them uniformly.\u00a0 Imagine an assembly line.\u00a0 Each station on the line must perform its function in a very precise way, each and every time, or stations further down the line won\u2019t be able to do their work.\u00a0 But for the most part,<\/p>\n