Friday, January 25, 2008

Do not command and control your clients

All of the go-to books on leadership tell you that command and control techniques do not work. Team-building—allowing people to balance their strengths and weaknesses to evolve into one cohesive, self-managing entity—is the fastest was to increase production, quality, and performance—simultaneously. My team has proven that in leaps and bounds.

command and control ...but did not know that this technique can apply to customers as well—particularly in the software industry.

I mentioned yesterday how our design team has worked with EnvisionConnect users to form a team that was able to work together and redesign our flagship product. After posting that, I was considering how and why that had worked so well.

We've all heard time and time again that,

"Design by committee doesn't work."

This reminded me of something someone told me long before I was a manager at Decade...

"Decade Software is a privately-owned company. It is not—nor will it ever be—a democracy, Mr. Mayor."

The person making the statement didn't understand the benefits of teamwork. He was stuck in the mind-set that command-and-control was the only way to manage.



In later years, my team and I proved that a democracy—a self-ruling people—provides any company—privately-owned or otherwise—the fastest route to success.

...and the same rule applies to customers as well.

Sure, you never please all of the people all of the time, but bringing a group together to understand each other's needs ensures that the final decisions are owned and accepted by the group as a whole.

It worked for development, and it worked for our design team. They did not give development a design based on their vision, telling the customers...

"That's the way it is."

That is another version of command-and-control.

Instead, our design team said...

"Let's get together and define a solution that works for everyone—or at least the majority."

The key to making such a strategy work is teamwork, and the key to establishing this kind of teamwork is honesty. Everyone must learn to say...

"Now, I see where you're coming from. I was wrong. Let's try it your way."

or...

"I see your point, but consider this, and maybe we can find a middle ground."

Is that possible? Can people truly change their perspectives completely? Sure, they can. Remember the guy who said to me all those years ago...

"Decade Software is a privately-owned company. It is not—nor will it ever be—a democracy, Mr. Mayor."

Today, that guy is the current leader of the design team. He is the one that directed them to invite EnvisionConnect customers to join our little democracy.


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