Hack:
"E-Model" of Management: - Employee Centric Model using Wisdom of Crowds

Given the uncertainties and fast paced dynamic environment the need/emergence for an agile company is the order of the day.  The challenge for any organization with its internal processes and inertia is to nurture the human capital to be agile, competent, and which can seize the opportunities in the external environment to gain the competitive advantage. The decision making process needs to be agile to combat the fast changing external environment. As decision makers are humans the agility of workforce is the need of the day. In order to answer the above mentioned problem, the need for a more democratic management model focused on employees is required for any organization to sustain. There are many organizations which have vast Human Talent; the problem they face is to tap those talents to the organizational advantage. How do organizations develop the culture where employees act as brand ambassadors through the organizational citizenship behavior as opposed to view that Human Capital as mere machines of production!

The industrial age has changed and the world has moved onto a technological age and credit behind this transformation is to brain power of humans. In a nut shell, the human power cannot be undermined. Organizations need to innovate their work places from time to time which nurtures and gives an opportunity to explore the hidden talent of their employee asset base.

As a basic premise “organization is about people, they break or make the organization”. So my thoughts were focused on developing a democratic management model called the “E-Model” where employee is the nucleus and gives employees most of it by delayering and empowering the work force. The principles of “crowdsourcing” as management model were the theme behind this model.

The Origin of E Model: Initial Thoughts

In most of the organizations the role of finance function is traditionally viewed as cost function. Being a financial management professional, with a view to change the traditional image and with an aim to become a zero cost function, I was thinking on how do I add value to my organization using my team. The best way I thought was to empower my people using a gaming concept like football or rugby style to improve operational efficiency and to eliminate redundancies in the processes. The aim was to achieve time and cost savings.

That’s how the concept got its first shape using empowerment and crowdsourcing as principles of the above practice. This was put to use at work and I had limited success which typically happens with crowdsourcing themes. Learning from the real experiences I have modified this using a VED prioritization rules.

Let me take you through the model which I think would work in turbulent times and fast paced environments which is highly employee centric:

A Management Model: “E- Model” Based on Philosophy “Employee First and Rest would follow”

A Journey through the Model:  

The aim of this Management Model is to develop an Agile Human Capital combining the principles of wisdom of crowds, employee engagement and empowerment which thrives the organizational citizenship behavior among the employees.

Human Capital is most important and vital & un- imitable resource for any organization to gain competitive advantage and sustainability. The idea is to tap the vast human knowledge available within an organization and to create a right environment for work which in turn helps in innovation and also improves the operational efficiency/productivity.

The model also aims at employee involvement/engagement through wisdom of crowds in aspects of decision making which increases the bonding and loyalty towards the organization by cultivating innovation culture. Such a model thrives on improving the “organizational citizenship behavior” of the employees (namely helping, taking charge, sportsmanship & compliance) across the organization. Citizenship behavior explains the missing link between Job satisfaction and personal performance of the employee.

The Working of E Model of Management

Role Play/Human Infrastructure:

The typical organizational roles have been classified as roles of football like game. A more detailed break up can be organized depending on situation and the complexity of the problem on hand.  A sample role classification which was used has been appended below:

Team Composition:

The model is based on decision making process using the principle of “wisdom of crowds” by forming of Football like teams.  The assembly of team’s members would be in a round/circular fashion denoting that everyone is of equal stature, breaking the traditional hierarchal order. The composition of team members could be based of respective function/cross functions who meet depending upon the nature of problem being solved in the organization.

Place of meeting (“Pitch/Filed”) & Frequency

The team can decide the frequency of such meetings.  To keep/restore the transparency and open cultures such meeting should preferably be held in open floors/shop floors and not in meeting halls or conference rooms.

Game Play:

The manager in such a team would act more as “referee” creating right tone and a right platform for team members for an open communication to discuss the problems they have been facing in their day to day operations.  The team would openly discuss the problems in their day to day work/function or any issues which are being faced by company to knowledge of team members. Managers might even propose the problems he has been facing to seek views of team members.

Classification of issues: A Prioritization Rule

In order to mitigate one of major limitation of wisdom of crowds of decision making and communication i.e. “lots of people have got opinions but not every opinion has equal value” the need for a rule of prioritization is felt.  .The issues raised at the open forum are noted and recorded by the score keeper, in next meeting teams debate and classify the issues based on the below prioritization rules:

 Making Choices: Wisdom of Crowds

The classified list of VED issues is brought to discussion for Team in 3 separate sheets denoting the through the colors of VED and the teams deliberate and brain storm the choices available for each of the issue raised. Manager acts as facilitator creating an atmosphere for team members to voice their views and opinions. Score keeper makes a note of the choices.

Decision Making: Wisdom of Crowds

As this process happen on a real time solving all problems in a single day is not possible. So VED prioritization rule is followed and daily one or two issues are voted for implementation using democratic way of voting after deliberation of the issue on hand. Any effective manager in this stage should set right tone by asking relevant questions involving the issues for implementation of it.

Every day 15-30 min is spent on “pitch/filed’ reviewing the progress and identifying any corrections to originally conceived Plan/strategy. (On the premise of “strategy as iterative process”). Such a model ensures that “feedback” from implementation is incorporated into strategy through the review process. This overcomes most of strategic process which are top-down driven one-dimensional segregating strategy from implementation.  Such a review process re-emphasis that strategy and implementation go hand in hand and are integrated.

Score Cards:

The performance is tracked using “score cards/Score boards” by the score keeper. The Score cards would be maintained covering the following:

• selected choice which covers the implementation progress
•  for employees covering their contribution and a rating system (based on VED contribution)

Score cards are made publicly accessible to everyone through intra net / display boards

Who can play it?

Though this model can be universally applied across the organization, upon seeing it through my personal experience lens, I feel this model is more suited for decisions making / problem resolution in middle and top management. This model would be more useful in cross functional and project teams.  The rationale behind such intuition is the fact that building commitment, buying in involvement is crucial for this model to work and such a buy in is easily obtainable across middle and top management due their competencies and level of understanding. This is not to undermine the fact that personal ego’s and escalation of commitments are high at these levels of management which needs to be overcome before implementation of this model.

The types of Decisions:

The decision which suits this type of model includes:

• Strategic Decisions during turbulent times
• Decisions which require to be acted on quickly without process delays
• Decisions to improve productivity/ internal process
• All Employee related decisions
• Cross Functional Project Management teams
• Product or Process based innovations
• Specific task based decisions