Hack:
"If They Only Knew"

By Nicole Sanchez - Executive Director, Berkeley Alliance and MBA Candidate ('12) at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business at www.berkeleyalliance.org

September 18, 2010 at 10:00pm

Moonshots

Make direction setting bottom-up and outside-in

Redefine the work of leadership

Stretch management timeframes and perspectives

Summary

A stockroom employee of a national-chain discount department store describes the "game" she and other front-line workers play as they observe management's questionable decisions.

Problem

“Sharon” is someone who, at 65 years of age, has never managed another person professionally. The bulk of her working life has been spent working in the stock room of a chain discount department store in a San Francisco suburb. Her non-union job earned her little more than minimum wage, but the incentive for staying was access to health benefits for her family. I asked her first what she thought it took to bring about change in a large organization. “Change in my company is easy. If they don’t like what someone is doing, they get rid of that person and bring in someone else. We get new managers constantly.” I asked about whether or not any of these changes were positive in the eyes of workers. “You just said ‘change,’” she noted. “Positive change is something else. That, I never saw.”

Sharon told me about a game that she and the other stockroom employees would play. It was called “If They Only Knew.” The game was simple: think about management—from the store manager to the CEO—and imagine what life in the stockroom would be like “If They [Management] Only Knew.” Here’s an example:

Several years ago, senior management implemented a policy to reduce the cost of packaging as inventory made its way from warehouses to retail outlets. In auditing shipments, they learned that many boxes were sent from warehouses only half-full. This was deemed wasteful, so management demanded that more inventory be moved with fewer boxes. This policy change had far-reaching consequences that could have been prevented if they only knew who staffed their stockrooms. Stockroom employees consisted of two “types,” (1) temporary—often very young—workers; and (2) older (50 years+) individuals who had been employees for many years, hanging on to their jobs largely to remain eligible for health benefits. Neither was suited for the change in product packaging. Inventory became damaged at much higher rates. Boxes were packed too tightly, too heavily, and were easy to drop. Second, workers were getting hurt at a much higher rate. Despite the pleas of stockroom employees to their store manager, the policy did not change.

IF THEY ONLY KNEW was played in jest, but everyone in the stockroom knew that they held valuable information that was simply not making it to top management. Employees joked:

"If they only knew" that the reason they won't be increasing profits is because everything is breaking before it ever gets out to the sales floor.
"If they only knew" that workers' comp claims are about to increase is because few--if any--of us can lift these boxes without hurting ourselves.

...and so on.

The point being, management didn't know. They could not know, because they did not ask. Not only did they lack a system of input from employees, they flat-out refused to listen when approached. Workers were blocked at every turn, and were left holding critical information that took nearly a year for management to ultimately sort out.

Solution

Imagine that front-line employees in your company are playing "if they only knew."

When management is getting ready to design and implement a decision--even one that seems small-- take the time to consider the voices of employees who will most directly be affected.

Practical Impact

Better decisions overall, with more clarity about implications.
More ownership of successes and failures across the entire organization.
Demonstrating that management values the front-line experience. It is difficult to believe that some companies still don't do this...
Challenges management to acknowledge and remember that they don't hold all of the information and answers.

First Steps

Play a round of "If WE only knew" with fellow managers, focusing on decisions that have not been successful in the past.
Identify who in the firm might have been able to help management predict those undesirable outcomes. Whether we--as managers-- like it or not, there was likely a group of people who saw disaster coming.
Build a cross-functional team made up of people from several levels of your organization to own this challenge

Credits

"Sharon," the 65 year-old stockroom employee and her fellow mischief-makers. They tend to keep management on their toes.

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