Subscribe to the Three Star Leadership Blog

The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

Contact Wally about coaching, consulting, or speaking to your group.

When I reviewed Ed Muzio's book, Make Work Great, I said:

"If you're a boss of any kind, you'll get value from Make Work Great, but you may have to do some extra work to adapt the recommendations to your specific situation."

After I wrote the review, I contacted Ed and he graciously let me interview him about how you, as a boss, can use Make Work Great to change the working environment for your team. I created a draft and then Ed and I went back and forth to make sure I conveyed what he wanted to say. Here's what we came up with.

Start by reading the book and doing the exercises. This is a great book, but it won't do the work for you. The exercises are crucial because they're well constructed and each new set builds on previous exercises. Pay special attention to the section on what to do if you're the manager. It's in chapter four, beginning on page 89.

Visit the book web site. You'll find some excellent short videos that will help you master the ideas in the book. One that's especially appropriate for a boss is "Encouraging Excellent Performance." It's also one of the best descriptions I've come across of how to use praise to encourage performance.

Model the behavior you want others to use. When you do, you'll probably find that some of your team members pick up on what you do. Whatever you do, modeling the behavior you want is essential.

If that's all you do, you'll still make an impact on your team. You may want to go further, though and help all your team members use the tools in Make Work Great.

If you want to do that, follow Ed's advice. Be overt about what you're doing. Get it out on the table. Explain to your team members what you're doing and why.

When you discuss work, be overt about the six elements of the work. They are:  what needs to be done (purpose), why it’s important to the company (impact), why it’s important to the individual doing it (incentive), whether it is getting done (progress), what is needed from the company to do it (resources) and what is needed from the individual to do it (capability). 

Follow the advice in chapter 8: "Mobilizing Groups." There's great material there on different kinds of meetings. There are helpful videos on the site, too.

Overtly discussing your own work and intentionally structuring the work of your group help direct the focus of your team members toward what needs to get done, and away from the gossip and conflict found in so many teams.  Ed calls this negative activity "workplace drama." 

He closes the book with specific advice about how to avoid it in Chapter 9. More productive output and less drama is a goal any manager can strive for.

To help with that, Ed is offering a free, no-cost, no-obligation exercise, taken from his Make Work Great training. A click here will take you to the download page for the "Stop the Drama" exercise.

Finally, you might consider buying a book for everyone on your team and using it as the basis of a change program. There are plusses and minuses to that.

The biggest negative is that, essentially, you're asking your team members to do work (read) on their own time. Individuals may resent that, and it's not likely that everyone on your team will read what you expect them to. Not everyone learns well by reading, and there may even be labor agreement issues.

On the other hand, the biggest upside to giving a book to every team member is that it can help you create a common language for discussing work. That can be a big productivity booster, and it can provide a framework for discussing important workplace issues previously swept under the carpet. As Joan Didion said, "the ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language."

If you do give out the book, remember that most work teams don't remain constant. People leave. New people join the team. Think through how you'll deal with that.

Whether you use the book or not, introduce things slowly. Model the behavior that you want.  As Ed says throughout the book, "it starts with YOU." That has special meaning if you're the boss.

Boss's Bottom Line

Part of your job as a boss is creating a great working environment. Make Work Great is one excellent tool you can use to achieve that goal.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.