What to do in a large company with incompetent management

If you want the world to change - become this change yourself.
M. Gandhi

A survey in a previous article showed that you are most interested in “what can be done” and “how to work” in a situation when the top management of the company is occupied by incompetent individuals. Incompetent, both in the core business of the company, and in terms of managing qualified engineers, who require a considerable amount of non-financial motivation to work effectively.

In a competitive environment, these managers would fly away in a jiffy. More precisely, they would not even get into such positions. But they got, thanks to kinship, sandbox friendship, affection by previous “deeds”. Often, they form the management hierarchy under a method of "negative selection" - they go to reduce the quality of specialists, if only "under them" there is a controlled mass that does not create competition for them.

They form a community that receives state support of various types (administrative, judicial, power, financial), covering up management errors at the expense of state resources. Heavy man-made disasters are a consequence of their management.

"Can't change anything?" “We pitch into another system while there is thicker balanda”?
How to change the place of work, residence, citizenship, many articles are already devoted here.

But what if you don't want to give up what you hold dear? What to do if you wanted to continue working in a large and important company for the country?

Let's analyze ...

1. Do not fix what is not broken.

So, you want to have a good leader, and not negative characters from the previous article .
You are unhappy that you have a “slave-holding” top management in your company, which at your expense solves your personal problems and realizes your personal desires.
And where did you get the idea that slave top management is bad for you?

Remember about duck typing?

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.

If the subject of management behaves like a slave, then there is no point in applying to it a management calculated for a different type of personality.

If you want to be ruled not as a slave, then your reaction to management should be different from slave ones. Respond to exposure as a free, conscious person.

For example, a slave can be bent to the base with a whip or gingerbread.
In turn, a conscious person knows the limits of his possible actions and is able to reasonably and firmly bring them to the attention of even incompetent leadership. Examples of what not to do were given in the last article:

In any case - do not violate GOST, SNIP, safety regulations. Do not get sleepy at the controls of the aircraft. No more risky experiments with nuclear power plants and turning off methane sensors in mines. Remember that with this you kill not only yourself.
Top managers do not commit a crime with their own hands, but yours. Evil is powerless without your complicity. Do not go for a small price against conscience and against the law.

Read also this article about the accident at the Chernobyl NPP . Realize that then, that now - top-management will not be in prison. There will be one who executed the criminal order. If you wish, you will find other examples that are more appropriate to your situation.

To risk other people's lives when the chief shouts is a sure sign of the slave warehouse of the individual. In a broader formulation:

Influenced by the whip or stick, worsen the lives of other people - a sure sign of the slave warehouse of the individual.

A conscious person seeks to improve the lives of people, does not suit the slave trade, does not go to wealth and power "over the corpses," through betrayal. So does the slave, knocked out in the gentlemen.
A free person does not set himself the goal of receiving a lot of money, because he knows that money is a means, not a goal.

If you think that the slave component does not dominate in you, let's continue further.
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2. Engineering analysis

At the level of abstraction available to me, the situation with an incompetent top manager looks like a partial failure of the regulator in the control system.

The regulator does not respond optimally to the feedback, i.e. forms the wrong control action.
The conditions of the problem under consideration are such that it is not in our power to replace the regulator.

Let's translate this into a more understandable language.

There are large rich companies, in which the share of the wage fund (FOT) in operating expenses is from 5 to 15%, and the retained earnings for 2015 exceed 100% of the FOT. There is no crisis for them, except for the fact that they themselves declared (see the previous article ).
But at the same time, top management increases payments to itself many times, and it spits on the team, plunges it into poverty and slavery. Immediately, from the wrong decisions of this guide, companies lose many times more than they saved on salary ...

The root cause is the limited managerial abilities of this top management. They can only squeeze the cash flow directed to the development of the company, and redirect part of the pressed into his pocket.
Others in the HSE and the MBA courses are not taught, only to such techniques.
And maybe they are learning, but we were not lucky - we got some dropouts.

Is it possible to teach the "financiers" (in fact - the staff, sharpened only for cash flow management) to manage a technology company so that the company grows and does not wither? Will they be able to make technologically correct decisions on disposition of available finance for the company?

Is it possible to "teach the old dog new tricks"? And whether?
As for “whether” we have already agreed that this article is about the case when “it is necessary” to at least consider such an option, since “it is not in our power to replace the regulator on our own”.

Returning to the analogies, having a defective regulator, we can:

1. Strengthen the feedback signal (suddenly the signal will pass and ... will penetrate).
2. Switch feedback to those channels that are still perceived by the regulator.
3. Switch feedback to higher level controls.
4. Embed another internal regulator into the object, which will simplify the “external control” of the object to the extent that even the existing regulator can cope with it.

Immediately we can say that top management is a link in a multi-level management system, the elements of which have different goals, tasks and interests. The better you understand this system, the more effective your impact will be.

Study the system and the elements you want to influence.

Otherwise, it will be a situation that is symmetrical to the one you are complaining about (incompetent management), but the result will not be symmetrical, but the same will make you worse, and the system will not care.

Red Cross - top management inadequately perceives (ignores) internal reporting on the state of the company.
Fire - internal orders of top management do not correspond to the state of the company (I don’t need to explain why I drew fire on the side of employees).
The figure does not depict government agencies, but all elements interact with them.

3. Impact on the employer unfriendly methods

3.1. Courts

In the previous article there are links and examples, which show that the courts will not help you much.
You will even win the trial - get some money in the set with the subsequent dismissal.
Positive changes within the company will not make it.

3.2. Trade union promotions

At first glance, this tool gives better results. Look, Coca-Cola was really trying to get a salary increase .
Aeroflot has a billion for the pilots to sue. True, they were never paid, and union activists were imprisoned in prison . It seems like they recently released it - the investigation lasted so long that they spent their time in prison.

The trade unions are a tool of the working class, moreover of the last century. The methods of neutralizing trade unions have long been tested and polished - the creation of fake trade unions, the bribing of activists, custom-made criminal cases for the incorruptible, and so on.

But with regard to protecting the interests of IT engineers, in my opinion, the classic union is an ineffective tool. Will there be enough people willing to risk health when moving to the bunks, when the alternative is to risk moving to more IT-friendly countries?

It’s another matter if the employer himself requested the creation of a real trade union, so that it was with whom the problematic issues were resolved. And so that all this seriously, and not window dressing ... but in what dream did you see this?

In a typical case, courts and trade unions are perceived by the employer as unequivocally “unfriendly” feedback mechanisms. Although they really work, but from the point of view of our goals they work inefficiently, it is better to use other methods.

Moreover, the interest of state structures is that there are fewer problems from the population. Trade union actions are a problem. And I don’t like how they prepare to solve this problem.

In the city of Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region, exercises were held to suppress riots in case of workers' strikes, reports Russia TV Channel 1 - South Urals .
The plot of the exercise: "For several months the workers were not paid for the work, the strike began ... The police, the special police forces, the Emergencies Ministry acted strictly according to the instructions ... to disperse the demonstrators, the experts undermined the noise charge and went on the offensive ...".

3.3. Italian strike

In Wikipedia, “work by the rules” is put on a par with sabotage and strike .

Who would add there addition:

To approve such job descriptions and business processes for which the company is not able to work normally is sabotage, not by employees, but above all by top management.

The effect of such a "strike" in any case, in spite of will, is manifested in sufficiently bureaucratic mature companies.
Especially in companies where uncomplicated top management decided that it was enough to fix business processes on paper, and then even low-skilled cheap personnel could cope with their work.
Often, on the contrary, in order not to overwhelm all the deadlines for accomplishing a genuine task, a lot of energy must be invested in overcoming the employees' desire to work on slowing down instructions.

Here is a fresh example of feedback to employers through faithful execution of job descriptions.

It is not surprising that this method, which directly indicates “who's the fool here”, is also considered by employers to be unfriendly.

Further in this article I would like to dwell only on friendly methods based solely on the kind word , and consider the requirements for the format of this kind word, which increase its effectiveness.

4. Strengthen the feedback signal

At first you do not notice ...
(M. Gandhi)

What is the interest of bad top management? Bad - who does not think about the true good of the company, in particular about the state of its employees. They want more money in their pocket, and ... cover their tracks.

Have you noticed how they adore structural changes not to be carried out in the form of a full-fledged project? Neither estimates of the initial state, nor measurable targets, nor tracked KPIs, nor conclusions on the results. A sure sign of preparation for avoiding responsibility. A sign that the real goals differ from the declared ones, that the companies are expected to become worse, and some small people will receive an increase.

In this case, require the middle management to make important changes in the form of the project and track the achievement of the promised goals.

If you receive a refusal or no response - this is also good, then it is classified as “Incompetence” or “Conscious Wrecking Actions”. It will be useful in the future search for the reasons for the failure of the company and will be proof of your competence in project management, awareness of the business processes of the company and an indifferent attitude to its condition.

Accumulate statements and documents showing the impact of management decisions on the state of the company.
For example, the impact of the decision to reduce the real salary of employees through the waiver of compensation for inflation.

Identify indicators that predictably react to incorrect actions of top management.

Let's give the management a disagreeable feedback through the quitters. But do not expect that HR will collect statistics for you on this feedback, it is better to collect it yourself.

Each separation is a random event. Statistics already has a different weight, it already shows a conscious decision:

Management's decision to reduce the attractiveness of the enterprise in the labor market and the replacement of qualified personnel for personnel with no work experience.

5. Switch feedback to those channels where the regulator has a higher sensitivity

Inputs for feedback, which always "work" with any top management - these are financial indicators.

The fact is that top management receives instructions from higher level regulators precisely on these inputs, and reports in the language of financial indicators.

Build a model of financial performance depending on things that interest you, for example, the salaries of engineers. When the predictions of such a model come true, it works.

As a result of this study of the company, one day you will find that you know finances better than top management, and even more so - business processes. If this chaos can still be free to call business processes ...

6. Switch feedback to higher level controls

What to do if you give feedback in the language of external reporting, i.e. bring facts about the negative impact of management decisions on the internal state of the company, and on financial and other "external" performance indicators, but the top management still does not perceive it?

Then, to save the company, you need to look for ways to feed this information to the inputs of higher level regulators.

In order for the feedback signal to get through the "input filter", the reported facts should not contain emotions and should not be of little significance.

For example, my previous article contains the words "slave owners" and "rats."
Judging by your vote, this is a correct estimate for the top management of rich large enterprises, who are cutting themselves more and more from the payroll each year due to the ruin of employees. But such an emotional coloring reduces the value of the message in the feedback line. Such a "negative" will be rejected as noise, for an understanding in which there is no point in wasting precious time.

Single opinions from strangers are ignored as irrelevant.
Therefore, if the signal contains not objectively measurable facts, but opinions / assessments of employees, then this should be the opinion of a significant share of the team. And the less this team looks like a swan, a cancer and a pike, the weightier its opinion is, the easier it is to receive it, and the easier the task is to solve how to deliver this signal to the addressee ...

6.1. Minority Shareholders

A minority shareholder who is not directly admitted to the management of a company can take part in improving its quality unless it makes a fuss in the press or by suing the top management.
That's just the material he must request in an official way. And then his wings are already preparing to cut with the help of the Central Bank itself .

Serious disagreements between shareholders are likely to end amicably, a banal greenmail .

Whether it will lead in parallel to positive changes within the company is generally impossible to say.

Hmm, stop, I kind of intended only to write friendly methods, when suddenly again ...

6.2. Major shareholders

What is the interest of large owners in the general case can not be established. Maybe one still enjoys his position, and the other is already dreaming to jump and get lost. Theoretically, it can be assumed that there are even those who understand with age how great it is with a clear conscience to go to Allah .

One thing is common - a lot of money, enough for any personal expenses. Another thing is that their "there is not much" in matters of preserving and expanding power ...

In principle, holding a bad top manager on the throne for them can make no big sense. It is clear that there are nuances of the "son of a friend" type, but if he manages so badly that it becomes a well-known fact, then it is possible to replace him with a more suitable one. Bringing more money with a lower level of public discontent.

6.3. Board of Directors

CD is a structure of respected people who must follow the work of the top management of the company.
Alas, a typical situation is when members of the board are paid in such a way that they can no longer see any shortcomings in the work of top management. And if a member of the Board of Directors still does not agree with the actions of the top management, then it is he who leaves the company, and not the top manager ( example 1 , example 2 ).

It can be concluded that SD in Russia is more of a decorative structure in which the right people are put in, “for remuneration” or “for retirement”. Personally, I have no belief in the effectiveness of feedback in the SD, because I have not seen any mention of cases of positive influence from the SD.
But you assess your situation without prejudice - all of a sudden your company in the SD has a person who can change something for the better.

6.4. Audit

As one of my many bosses says, the auditors are our friends who help us make the company better, they need to tell everything honestly about the company.
On the basis of the information gathered, the audit helps to correct the official international reporting of the company, removing everything from it, obtained by the e ... unnecessarily risky way - what can then have to be given.
I will not repeat here the previous article, I will only add that theoretically the interest of the audit is in preserving its image of competence, honesty, impartiality, objectivity.
If the audit does not notice violations, then it runs the risk of getting a nasty blow to the image through the press. However, they are not used to.

7. Change the object of regulation by integrating an internal regulator into it.

The Theory of Automatic Control shows how difficult it is to control an object with a delay. Primitive regulator with this trite can not cope, and the system goes hawking.

Unfortunately, latency in IT response is typical. Engineers were fired, but the infrastructure still works for some time by inertia, without proper maintenance.

A close-up (or malicious) top management decides that, for example, an IT system has already been created, you can no longer invest in it, and employees can be reduced. Meanwhile, the IT server should be slowly replaced with new ones, the software is constantly being patched, upgraded, rewritten from scratch, the seasonal fluctuations of the load, the oversized woodpecker destroys the entire civilization , etc.

Therefore, one of the ways to improve is to find opportunities to simplify the control object by adjusting it to the limited capabilities of a primitive external regulator.
For example, eliminate the delay in the object's reaction to the control action and turn it into a “linear link”.

Infrastructure works by inertia, does not immediately break? Or maybe you just do not want to identify an increase in the flow of problems and accidents? Or you can not bring their causes and severity to the top management?

“Accident XXX due to increased load on Oracle DB servers, the reason is unknown, since no dba. The accident withdrew in 40 minutes "
It still doesn’t sound convincing enough for top management, dear colleagues.
First of all, at least “DBA” in Russian name, so that it is clear that we are talking about an employee.
If you need a DBA, then prepare the material with a comparison of financial losses (not only past, but also projected) with savings in wages. And prepare the material, who and when made the decision to freeze the DBA salaries, how many months later the loss of qualified personnel followed, how many months HR has failed to find an employee for a vacancy. How many new employees, if they find him, will still enter the specifics, and through how many people who have already received work experience will be lured to another company.

It is necessary to identify a financial parameter that is sensitive to poor management by top management and present it to the authorities in reporting.
But do not say directly: "This is the deplorable outcome of your idiotic actions." If you say “everything is lost, and you are to blame for this,” the mechanism “I am the boss, you are a fool” will work, the messenger with bad news will be beheaded, and the search for options on how to shift responsibility to the innocent will begin.

The message to the boss should not lead to a “loss of face”. The decision of the chief should not look like it was taken under your pressure; it should correspond to the objective situation.
Therefore, it is necessary to submit feedback in the form of a parameter that is understandable to the authorities, which has a good response to management decisions.

Give it a go.

Put more money in here - more will come out of you. Gain cash flow is equal to the fact, the delay of the output stream is such and such. You want to save and invest less money in the team - but you get an even bigger minus from here. All with the faithful work, here's a look at the system of accounting of the amount of work. All this must be presented as impersonal pressure of circumstances.

Is it possible that a situation in which a top manager could manage, could at any time turn a company away from the abyss, but did not do this? Only if he is not just stupid and greedy, but has a task from higher level regulators to maliciously ruin the company, and guarantees that for him "nothing will happen." This was done when the enterprises of the USSR were destroyed, but we are now considering a different situation.

So, when a person sees reporting on a regular basis, when he knows that it does not disappear, but is saved, it has the strongest impact, it really does lead to the right decisions. As Muller said in “17 Moments of Spring”: “The terrible thing is these archives ”. With their help, you gain the ability in some way to direct the decisions of your superiors on the right track.

We had practical experience in increasing the number of units in the period of the announced reduction. Our feedback signal made its way through at least 2 managerial levels to a person who was targeted and charged with a bonus for thoughtless, unreasonable, staff cuts. Everyone came to him with trembling knees and with their proposals to reduce staff by x%, and crawled away psychologically crushed, having undertaken to reduce 2% of the number of units. , .

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Quite a lot of effort requires a way to change through the "good word", do not you find?
What will you do?