Overhead Elimination - Aditya Yadav

1. “Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76
*

2. *
*A Typical Global Company
*Fortune 500/1000
*200 Divisions
*40 Countries
*25000 Employees

3. @ Acme Inc.
*

4. *
*Original Question “Is there a problem with our
Management Style? How do we know? What
should we do to make things better?”
*The Correct Question - “Yes! 99% Firms have
serious problems with Management. In
summary their Management Overhead goes out
of hand so fast that all they are left with is
Bureaucracy. Allow me to tell you how to fix it
once and forever and make sure it never goes
out of control ever again.”

5. And The Philosophy Behind The Answer
*

6. *
*Hope you have seen the presentation on
Synthetic Management!!!
*Now lets first outline the top things a
Mid/Senior/Top Manager does
*Lets identify if anything is wrong with those
*And lets discuss how to fix them!

7. *
Purpose
Thinking
[Actual]
Leadership
[Actual] Management
Business Function
Knowledge [MBA]

8. *
* The Managers Dozen
1. Make Plans
2. Assign/Allocate Tasks
3. Monitor Tasks
4. Create Reports
5. Needs Lots of Meetings & Communication to Know Everything
6. Route Messages & Communication Upwards/Escalation and Downwards
7. Restrict Information to Derive Power
8. Take Decisions
9. Approve/Deny
10. Enforce Policies and Procedures
11. Create Elaborate Documentation
12. Take & Assign Credit For Everything
And to Top it All every manager spends 90%+ of his time on “Synthetic Management”

9. *
* We modelled our businesses on the lines of Pyramid Builders, we divided work into
small parts inconsequential by themselves, we focused on the hands and not the
brains, which led to an over emphasis on Planning and Execution as per plan.
* We created a world where everything is specialized, right from receiving phone calls to
sending marketing campaigns or access controlling SharePoint portal.
* We then spent decades in the hope of making things more efficient by making things
more and more meaningless, adding standardization and processes even when not
required at all, we wanted people to NOT THINK, we wanted them to follow
instructions
* And then we created trainings for meaningless niche skills and killed every desire and
ability to self learn, we complicated things by mind bogglingly complex certifications
for things that were so simple to start with....
* We geared our businesses to hire, promote and reward such people...and then we
realized that this entire thing doesn't work at all... And we didn’t realize that we have
moved from the Industrial Era to the Knowledge Work Era half a century ago.
* We have Mass Produced Incompetence at an Unprecedented Global Scale.

10. *
* Make Plans
* Ref: Last slide
* Specialization is needed for something's, but specialization for EVERYTHING just breeds
Incompetence
* If you don’t need Ph.D.’s for something always hire Generalists
* Mostly: Incompetent people (or High Risk situations) require Planning and Execution as per Plan
* Capable people deliver an Emergent Strategy and Execute Intelligently and Iteratively
* Assign/Allocate Tasks
* Ref: Bottom Up Empowerment
* Somebody/Few just has/have to articulate what needs to be done and why
* From that point onwards Capable people will self elect to do what's needed
* You don’t need a Manager or anyone else to decide that for them and play God
* Doing that converts them into Brainless Incompetent Minions
* Monitor Tasks
* Why do you even need someone to Monitor Tasks?
* Put up a Dashboard on a Live Wiki, use a Card Wall e.g. Trello…
* Let everyone update it and collaborate and co-ordinate between themselves

11. *
* Create Reports
* Why does a Manager have to create the same report week after week?
* It promotes Synthetic Management
* Again: Keep a live Wiki w/ Metrics and Graphs aka Dashboard and auto-generate the dashboard’s on basic data
* Anyone who needs to know can see it anytime without asking or bothering anyone. And comment on it
* Needs Lots of Meetings & Communication to Know Everything
* When Managers call for every meeting…. More than the number of meetings everyone else has between themselves on their
own
* It just means the Manager needs to Know what’s happening and Alter The Course Of History as per his whims and fancies ;-)
* When people collaborate they use Hour long Huddles to brainstorm or sort out things or 15 minute Standups to coordinate
with everyone else, meet face to face or call up each other to get work done
* Eliminate the Wastage of Meetings
* People who need to meet should meet, when they want, with whoever they want
* And anyone who needs to know can ask them Face to Face or lookup the Live wiki
* Route Messages & Communication Upwards/Escalation and Downwards
* Nobody is sure why a human is needed for something like that
* Some people drop the phrase “Accountability” or some other nonsense like that
* Basically Everyone who needs any information should have it and get it
* Managers restrict information to Derive Power which is absolutely not desirable
* Again r’ber transparency, communication w/ everyone who needs to know, status on the Live Wiki

12. *
* Restrict Information to Derive Power
* Unlimited Information might confuse the Naïve
* But it leads to Super Optimality for the ones who are Capable
* Managers actually hamper the Team and The Organizational success by “You weren’t told because you didn’t needed to
know then”
* Approve/Deny
* Ofcourse “We need someone to oversee and approve/deny requests e.g. for resources, money etc.” Really???
* Agreed! Mediation is needed sometimes to break deadlocks and resolve conflicts
* But if everyone knows the Individual & Team Rules/Budgets/Policies, which they should then Individuals can decide for
themselves and Teams can do the same, they can directly get into touch with the Resource Provider
* The key is - Minimalism
* Enforce Policies and Procedures
* If everyone knows the policies and procedures, can ask each other and the business functions originating that policy
* Capable people will simply follow it, if they miss they will correct themselves on self realization or being reminded by peers
or the business function
* Not sure why one Needs a Manager to Enforce Policies and Procedures
* The Key is - Minimalism
* Create Elaborate Documentation
* Oh yes Mindless Documentation.
* No comments. Just get rid of it!

13. *
* Take & Assign Credit For Everything
* This is the electronic age
* Everyone either knows or should know who does what and who achieved what
* The team should decide sharing of credit/rewards/wealth between themselves
* Not sure why a Manager gets to decide who gets what and who doesn’t
* Some things might appear strange to you!
* And they will, because most organizations are run absolutely Top Down…
* If you haven’t seen a Bottom Up Organization in reality you won’t even be
able to comprehend how such things can even work and you will question
my Sanity!!! [Trust me it’s a very normal reaction to this presentation]
* Incompetent people need to be controlled
* Competent people don’t, though they might need some co-ordination and
collaboration to do their work

14. *
*If you FIX all that …. You will be left with Coach’s
and Not Managers….Free of Bureaucracy
*The Managers will have no other option but to
convert themselves into Coach’s helping with the
action on the ground rather than Oiling and
Greasing a Legacy Industrial Age Machinery and
converting everyone below them into
Inconsequential Cogs In The Wheel.
*Vaccinate your Business: Kill bureaucracy in its
infancy forever.
*Now you know how!

15. *
Is…..Management Overhead gone Berserk!!!

16. *
Aditya!!!