Agile PLM - The CIO's Guide to Oracle Products and Solutions - page 19

ability to delegate the customer service task to her staff. “What you talk-
ing about?” she asked, bewildered. “Why, your secretaries are calling up
customers on their own,” Harari replied. “Oh, really? Is that what they're
doing?” she laughed. “You mean you didn't delegate that task to them?”
Harari asked.
“No,” she said. “I didn't even know they were doing it. Listen, Oren,
my job is to get everyone on my team to think creatively in pursuit of
the same goal. So what I do is talk to people regularly about why we
exist as a company and as a team. That means we talk straight about
our common purpose and the high standards we want to achieve. I
call these our goal lines. Then we talk regularly about some broad con-
straints we have to work with them, like budgets, ethics, policies, and
legalities. Those are our sidelines.
“It's like a sport. Once we agree on the goal lines and sidelines, I leave
it to my people to figure out how to best get from here to there. I'm avail-
able and attentive when they need feedback. Sometimes I praise; some-
times I criticize—but always constructively, I hope. We get together
periodically and talk about who's been trying what, and we give con-
structive feedback to one another. I know that sounds overly simplistic,
but I assure you that this is my basic management philosophy.
“And that's why I don't know what my assistants are doing, because
it's obviously something they decided to try for the first time this week.
I happen to think it's a great idea, because it's within the playing field
and helps keep high standards for being number one in our industry. I
will tell you something else: I don't even know what they intend to do
with the data they're collecting, but I know they'll do the right thing.
“Here's my secret: I don't know what my people are doing, but
because I work face to face with them as a coach, I know that whenever
it is they're doing is exactly what I'd want them to be doing if I knew
what they were doing!”
The Harari story is one of my favorites because it encapsulates into one
very brief story exactly what a good manager is supposed to do to encour-
age innovative thinking in his or her employees.
Harvard Business Essentials (2003) refers to the need to create an
ambidextrous organization—one that gets the work done today and also