Your time vs. the time of your subordinates 02/06/2012
I'm constantly struggling to strike the right balance between the value of my own time and the time of my subordinates. On the one hand, I can complete nearly any task more quickly than they can, because I have more experience. On the other hand, I'm in a position as a manager because I can accomplish more by supervising a large number of subordinates than I can by doing everything myself.
Sometimes it's obvious that I should do something myself. If it will take several times longer for a subordinate to complete something, I'll do it myself. (I don't have an exact multiple worked out in my head, but it has to be pretty high - probably above five times longer - before I'll do something myself for no reason other than that it will take a subordinate longer.)
Or if it will only take a little bit longer for a subordinate to do a job, and I trust my subs to do a good job, then I'll let them do it.
But I've been struggling recently when it comes to how to structure the working environment. I see a large part of my role as setting up a working environment in which it's easy for my subs to be productive. I've invested a lot of time in creating tutorials and instructions, for example, and I teach my more experienced subs to mentor the newer ones. Those are one-time investments that pay off handsomely in terms of saving me time.
It's not so easy to decide whether to spend time myself, though, when it comes to creating our list of things for subs to work on. I generate reports of new To Do items for my subs. Without going into excessive detail, they used to have to go three separate places to find (1) their previously-assigned items, (2) current tasks for them to work on, and (3) larger projects for them to work on when they finish their simple tasks.
It seems clear that this is unnecessarily complicated, but I allowed this situation to last for a while because it will take me more time to work all of those sources into our one main project management solution (Teamlab.com). And this extra time won't be a one-time investment; I'll have to spend this extra time every single day. And I usually work very hard to get rid of things that cost me extra time every day.
So in this case, because my role is to make their working environment easy, I did decide to shift everything into Teamlab, even though it will take me more time. But I still face other similar decisions that are even tougher. How do you all decide the value of your time in comparison to the value of the time of your subs?
Sometimes it's obvious that I should do something myself. If it will take several times longer for a subordinate to complete something, I'll do it myself. (I don't have an exact multiple worked out in my head, but it has to be pretty high - probably above five times longer - before I'll do something myself for no reason other than that it will take a subordinate longer.)
Or if it will only take a little bit longer for a subordinate to do a job, and I trust my subs to do a good job, then I'll let them do it.
But I've been struggling recently when it comes to how to structure the working environment. I see a large part of my role as setting up a working environment in which it's easy for my subs to be productive. I've invested a lot of time in creating tutorials and instructions, for example, and I teach my more experienced subs to mentor the newer ones. Those are one-time investments that pay off handsomely in terms of saving me time.
It's not so easy to decide whether to spend time myself, though, when it comes to creating our list of things for subs to work on. I generate reports of new To Do items for my subs. Without going into excessive detail, they used to have to go three separate places to find (1) their previously-assigned items, (2) current tasks for them to work on, and (3) larger projects for them to work on when they finish their simple tasks.
It seems clear that this is unnecessarily complicated, but I allowed this situation to last for a while because it will take me more time to work all of those sources into our one main project management solution (Teamlab.com). And this extra time won't be a one-time investment; I'll have to spend this extra time every single day. And I usually work very hard to get rid of things that cost me extra time every day.
So in this case, because my role is to make their working environment easy, I did decide to shift everything into Teamlab, even though it will take me more time. But I still face other similar decisions that are even tougher. How do you all decide the value of your time in comparison to the value of the time of your subs?
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Firing interns is tough 07/20/2011
When my boss and I sat down with Marco* to talk to him about his performance, he didn’t meet our eyes. His shoulders drooped, and he slumped in his chair. After eight months on the job, we told him, he still required intensive hand-holding on simple tasks, even tasks he had been shown before. Steve, one of the most outstanding interns we have ever had, spent much of his time walking Marco through tasks. We felt that it was time for Marco to move on to other opportunities. We talked it over with him, and at the end of the meeting he slunk quietly out of the room.
Even though I was frustrated at the amount of attention Marco required, it was tough for me to fire him. I could see how dispirited he was. While being fired from a paid job has a bigger impact on your finances, being fired from a volunteer position carries a special kind of humiliation: it’s embarrassing to be told that your help isn’t wanted, even for free. Knowing how it makes the intern feel is what makes it so unpleasant for me.
“You can’t fire an intern.” Daniel, a friend of mine, told me. “They’re working for free!” He wasn’t joking. This is an attitude I’ve heard more than once, but I didn’t expect to hear it from Daniel, who manages employees in his job. It usually comes from people who don’t have experience managing, and who seem to view internships as a form of charity. I believe differently. The strength of our internship program is that we treat interns like employees. We give them real responsibility, allow them to work on real projects, and expect real work from them. We never ask them to make coffee or put quarters in parking meters. That means we need to fire interns who aren’t doing well in our office. But that doesn’t make it easy.
Steve and I spent hours training Marco. As a manager, my primary duty is to empower the interns to do meaningful, useful work for our office, and it’s hard for me to reverse direction on an intern. Up to the moment I fired Marco, I was trying to help him. Once I fire him, I’m shunting him out of our office. I don’t agree with my friend Daniel, but I completely understand the emotions that drive that belief.
I reason with myself that I can only do so much for an intern – Marco needs to reach a certain threshold of performance, or our internship program isn’t sustainable. I’m willing to invest time and effort in an intern, but the investment has to pay off at some point. With Marco, it didn’t.
* All names changed.
Even though I was frustrated at the amount of attention Marco required, it was tough for me to fire him. I could see how dispirited he was. While being fired from a paid job has a bigger impact on your finances, being fired from a volunteer position carries a special kind of humiliation: it’s embarrassing to be told that your help isn’t wanted, even for free. Knowing how it makes the intern feel is what makes it so unpleasant for me.
“You can’t fire an intern.” Daniel, a friend of mine, told me. “They’re working for free!” He wasn’t joking. This is an attitude I’ve heard more than once, but I didn’t expect to hear it from Daniel, who manages employees in his job. It usually comes from people who don’t have experience managing, and who seem to view internships as a form of charity. I believe differently. The strength of our internship program is that we treat interns like employees. We give them real responsibility, allow them to work on real projects, and expect real work from them. We never ask them to make coffee or put quarters in parking meters. That means we need to fire interns who aren’t doing well in our office. But that doesn’t make it easy.
Steve and I spent hours training Marco. As a manager, my primary duty is to empower the interns to do meaningful, useful work for our office, and it’s hard for me to reverse direction on an intern. Up to the moment I fired Marco, I was trying to help him. Once I fire him, I’m shunting him out of our office. I don’t agree with my friend Daniel, but I completely understand the emotions that drive that belief.
I reason with myself that I can only do so much for an intern – Marco needs to reach a certain threshold of performance, or our internship program isn’t sustainable. I’m willing to invest time and effort in an intern, but the investment has to pay off at some point. With Marco, it didn’t.
* All names changed.
It's all my fault; carrots and sticks 03/09/2011
Everything is all my fault. At least, that's my attitude when it comes to management. If my subordinates aren't performing well, it's probably because I'm not managing them well enough.
How would you feel if every time you completed an assignment for your boss, your boss tore up your work after you finished it? Even if you got paid well, it's hard to imagine that you'd want to keep working at that job.
Well, it turns out that if you don't get recognition for your work, that's almost as demotivating, according to an experiment carried out by Dan Ariely. Experiment subjects are asked to complete a relatively meaningless task. They earn money each time they do the task, and the amount awarded decreases each time they do the task. The question is, when will they get tired of repeating the task?
I'm in the middle of introducing a series of new ways to give interns more recognition for their good work. And what fun would a bunch of carrots be without a little bit of the stick? How should I put it? There will be some mild disincentives to unproductivity. There, that sounds suitably benign.
(I'll document all my carrots and sticks on my Work page, along with commentary on how they've worked out so far.)
How would you feel if every time you completed an assignment for your boss, your boss tore up your work after you finished it? Even if you got paid well, it's hard to imagine that you'd want to keep working at that job.
Well, it turns out that if you don't get recognition for your work, that's almost as demotivating, according to an experiment carried out by Dan Ariely. Experiment subjects are asked to complete a relatively meaningless task. They earn money each time they do the task, and the amount awarded decreases each time they do the task. The question is, when will they get tired of repeating the task?
- With one group of subjects, the experimenter asks subjects to write their name on the top of each of their papers, and gives an approving nod upon completing each task.
- With another group of subjects, the experimenter puts each assignment on a tall stack of papers without looking at the assignment.
- With the final group of subjects, the experimenter takes each assignment as it's completed and shreds it in front of the subjects' eyes.
I'm in the middle of introducing a series of new ways to give interns more recognition for their good work. And what fun would a bunch of carrots be without a little bit of the stick? How should I put it? There will be some mild disincentives to unproductivity. There, that sounds suitably benign.
(I'll document all my carrots and sticks on my Work page, along with commentary on how they've worked out so far.)
Carrots and Sticks
I'm recognizing interns' work by doing the following:
What are some ways you encourage your peers or subordinates to do well, or discourage them from doing poorly?
- When they write response letters to constituents, sometimes the constituents reply appreciatively. I'm beginning to forward those responses to the interns who wrote the letter.
- I'm asking interns to prepare reports for our weekly staff meeting, even if the interns' schedules don't match with the meeting, so they'll know their work is being reported to my boss, and to my boss' boss.
- I'm preparing a whiteboard with every intern's name, and some major accomplishment from the past week. This is also a mild stick - interns won't want their name to have a big blank space next to it.
- I'll make a public list of interns interns who consistently do their work in a timely manner, and will keep a separate list for interns who have fallen behind significantly.
- We'll post to our Davis Dollars Facebook page about interns' major accomplishments, and tag them in the post, so it will show up in their news feeds.
- Soon I hope to ask interns to prepare a "portfolio" of their concrete accomplishments, which they can list on their resumes, and which I'll talk about when future potential employers contact me about interns' performance.
What are some ways you encourage your peers or subordinates to do well, or discourage them from doing poorly?
After our bumper crop of summer interns, I'm having trouble adjusting to the quieter office. The biggest thing I'm missing, though, is the energy of the intern team.
I think the energy came not only from how full the office was, but also from one intern in particular, Dao, who brought a lot of excitement to everything she did. Now that she's gone, I'm forced to think hard about how to create that level of energy for other interns, without the gift of an unusually buoyant intern around the office every day.
And I'm finding that I also need to focus some on professionalism, for two reasons: (1) In the absence of energy and excitement, some interns don't engage with the work (translation: they don't work as hard); and (2) in the absence of a sense of professionalism and hard work here in the office, it's hard to get the interns excited about the work. If they see others slacking off, they (justifiably) get the idea that it isn't important to work hard here.
So here's what I'm starting to do, as of tomorrow:
Do you have any other suggestions for encouraging interns to be or
I think the energy came not only from how full the office was, but also from one intern in particular, Dao, who brought a lot of excitement to everything she did. Now that she's gone, I'm forced to think hard about how to create that level of energy for other interns, without the gift of an unusually buoyant intern around the office every day.
And I'm finding that I also need to focus some on professionalism, for two reasons: (1) In the absence of energy and excitement, some interns don't engage with the work (translation: they don't work as hard); and (2) in the absence of a sense of professionalism and hard work here in the office, it's hard to get the interns excited about the work. If they see others slacking off, they (justifiably) get the idea that it isn't important to work hard here.
So here's what I'm starting to do, as of tomorrow:
- Ask interns to be on time. Because they're unpaid, I have been lenient about when interns arrive, but I'm going to start asking interns to be on time. I'll talk to interns gently about adjusting their schedules if they're not able to make it in by the time they have committed to.
- Start work earlier myself. I get to work before we start, and I want to make sure I set the right example.
- Wander around the office more and talk to interns about what they're working. I do this already, but I should do it more, so interns know I care what they're up to.
- Put interns in teams more often. Some interns already work together on projects, but I need to make more of an effort to ask them to work together.
- Encourage interns to work on team activities in our main office. We have several rooms in our office, and most of the interns work in the main office with me. Centralizing more of the activity here will allow other all the interns to benefit from each other's energy on projects.
- Suggest that interns get lunch together. Some interns already get lunch together, but others are shy or haven't connected much with others in the office. Lunch is an important morale-builder!
Do you have any other suggestions for encouraging interns to be or
An interesting article I read some time back identified several types of procrastination. To the best of my memory, the types were:
The solution I've found? Make systems out of everything. Instead of viewing each case as an individual problem to be solved, I try to categorize that problem, and design a policy to address similar problems in the future. I record my policy so I can refer back to it in the future.
The principle here is to reduce the number of times I have to make a decision. I'm so often juggling lots of balls at once that I rarely get time to sit down and concentrate hard on anything conceptually difficult. So I focus those times on designing policies I can apply to lots of situations.
Specifically, I use lots of checklists and form emails. The checklists allow me to break complex tasks into easy-to-digest steps. For example, here are some steps I go through when training a new Davis Dollars intern:
Form emails also reduce the need to make decisions about what to write, and help me avoid forgetting important details. Some of the types of form emails I use:
- Laziness: I put off evaluating my (terrific) interns because I'd just rather read an interesting article about the management style of W. L. Gore and Associates.
- Strategic procrastination: I put off producing a presentation because I work best under pressure, and I would rather focus on more urgent matters right now.
- Indecision: I put off designing a new intern retention program because I'm just not sure how to start.
The solution I've found? Make systems out of everything. Instead of viewing each case as an individual problem to be solved, I try to categorize that problem, and design a policy to address similar problems in the future. I record my policy so I can refer back to it in the future.
The principle here is to reduce the number of times I have to make a decision. I'm so often juggling lots of balls at once that I rarely get time to sit down and concentrate hard on anything conceptually difficult. So I focus those times on designing policies I can apply to lots of situations.
Specifically, I use lots of checklists and form emails. The checklists allow me to break complex tasks into easy-to-digest steps. For example, here are some steps I go through when training a new Davis Dollars intern:
- Confirm the topic she's interested in working on (e.g. community outreach, business outreach, marketing, etc.)
- Make her an admin on our website (www.davisdollars.org)
- Remind her to upload her bio, with a picture, to our About Us page
- Give her an orientation on our Google Docs
- Set her up with a team; make sure she has specific action items to work on at the end of the meeting
Form emails also reduce the need to make decisions about what to write, and help me avoid forgetting important details. Some of the types of form emails I use:
- A standard response to applicants
- An email reminding intern applicants to read our About Us page, and come prepared to discuss ideas for how they would start off their internship
- An intern orientation email with links to our various web resources
- Information about how to get involved in Davis Dollars
- How Davis Dollars benefits Davis businesses
Changes are taking place quickly here in the internship program! These are actually updates from a month ago, but things have been so fast-paced that I haven't had time to write about them until now.
I used to be concerned about starting up intern mentoring (as I've mentioned before). The intern retreat we held convinced me that senior interns actually wanted to be relied on as experts. I was still worried that setting up interns to mentor each other might be logistically difficult.
Well, I should have trusted more in the skills of my intern crew. When Ryan started up in early June, I told him to ask Mark and Jeysree (two senior interns) questions. Both of them were extremely helpful in getting him started. Besides saving me work, this had two unexpected benefits: I got to see how other interns did tasks (which allowed me to make corrections), and it built morale between the interns.
Our first completely intern-planned ownership initiative was completed, as well! Jeysree and Mark carried out the first of the Community Office Hours successfully. Now that Mark and Jeysree will both be gone from the office, I'll have my first practice transitioning a project to a new set of interns.
Last month I also started Jeysree on our first official Learning Project. The idea of the Learning Projects is that we will offer interns specific skills to learn, and assign them a project (e.g., an ownership initiative) that will force them to practice this skill. The ultimate goal is for them to become proficient at a new skill.
Jeysree was working with the Prezi presentation platform (prezi.com). I haven't quite figured out a way to integrate learning projects, though - they sit a bit uncomfortably alongside the ownership initiative structure. Ideally they would mesh, but I'm having trouble finding ways to work them together. Perhaps I need to spend more time matchmaking between interns, skills they'd like to learn, and projects that could benefit from those skills.
The success of the learning projects idea may depend on whether interns are more attracted to a project because of the skills it will offer them, because of the project itself, or because of the people already working on the project. If the latter two are strong attractors, I may need to focus on assigning learning projects to interns already on projects, rather than trying to match interns based on skills they want to learn.
I used to be concerned about starting up intern mentoring (as I've mentioned before). The intern retreat we held convinced me that senior interns actually wanted to be relied on as experts. I was still worried that setting up interns to mentor each other might be logistically difficult.
Well, I should have trusted more in the skills of my intern crew. When Ryan started up in early June, I told him to ask Mark and Jeysree (two senior interns) questions. Both of them were extremely helpful in getting him started. Besides saving me work, this had two unexpected benefits: I got to see how other interns did tasks (which allowed me to make corrections), and it built morale between the interns.
Our first completely intern-planned ownership initiative was completed, as well! Jeysree and Mark carried out the first of the Community Office Hours successfully. Now that Mark and Jeysree will both be gone from the office, I'll have my first practice transitioning a project to a new set of interns.
Last month I also started Jeysree on our first official Learning Project. The idea of the Learning Projects is that we will offer interns specific skills to learn, and assign them a project (e.g., an ownership initiative) that will force them to practice this skill. The ultimate goal is for them to become proficient at a new skill.
Jeysree was working with the Prezi presentation platform (prezi.com). I haven't quite figured out a way to integrate learning projects, though - they sit a bit uncomfortably alongside the ownership initiative structure. Ideally they would mesh, but I'm having trouble finding ways to work them together. Perhaps I need to spend more time matchmaking between interns, skills they'd like to learn, and projects that could benefit from those skills.
The success of the learning projects idea may depend on whether interns are more attracted to a project because of the skills it will offer them, because of the project itself, or because of the people already working on the project. If the latter two are strong attractors, I may need to focus on assigning learning projects to interns already on projects, rather than trying to match interns based on skills they want to learn.
I'm entering a strange new world - teaching and delegating management. Okay, if you aren't as weirded out about that as I am, I can understand. Here's what's strange for me: I'm still learning management myself, and though I've been delegating other responsibilities to interns, delegating management is an entirely different animal.
One of my Davis Dollars interns in particular seems really promising - not only does Julia have confidence and good ideas, but she has the inclination to organize and coordinate, the ability to see the larger picture, and the action-oriented mindset required to get people moving in the right direction.
As a fairly new intern, she organized our first intern co-working session. The co-working sessions bring the interns together on campus, during the week while I'm away at work. They allow the interns to get together and get more done than has been possible in the past, but since I'm not around, they need someone to make sure the meetings have purpose and direction.
Ok, ok, so I've done something like this before - we've actually had intern meet-ups on campus. What's different this time is Julia's intuition when it comes to management, and our need for management now that our team is so much larger. Before, the intern team was all working on the same project, and didn't need much management. Now we have two, and soon three, different teams of interns - campus outreach, community outreach, and business development. All of them need to be coordinated.
On her first try, Julia did a really good job observing the sorts of things a manager needs to be aware of - the team had good morale, but spent too much time socializing. She thinks this is in part because there were several new interns who hadn't joined the team yet. She noticed that the teams formed up well, but that some of the teams weren't quite sure what they needed to be working on, so she and I need to make sure each team has a list of current and future projects so they won't have empty hands.
It's exciting to teach management. I'm learning a lot. Julia is a quick student, so I still have a way to go before I can prepare others for the same responsibilities, but this is a milestone in creating a self-sustaining growth organization.
Share any experiences you've had with teaching or delegating management!
One of my Davis Dollars interns in particular seems really promising - not only does Julia have confidence and good ideas, but she has the inclination to organize and coordinate, the ability to see the larger picture, and the action-oriented mindset required to get people moving in the right direction.
As a fairly new intern, she organized our first intern co-working session. The co-working sessions bring the interns together on campus, during the week while I'm away at work. They allow the interns to get together and get more done than has been possible in the past, but since I'm not around, they need someone to make sure the meetings have purpose and direction.
Ok, ok, so I've done something like this before - we've actually had intern meet-ups on campus. What's different this time is Julia's intuition when it comes to management, and our need for management now that our team is so much larger. Before, the intern team was all working on the same project, and didn't need much management. Now we have two, and soon three, different teams of interns - campus outreach, community outreach, and business development. All of them need to be coordinated.
On her first try, Julia did a really good job observing the sorts of things a manager needs to be aware of - the team had good morale, but spent too much time socializing. She thinks this is in part because there were several new interns who hadn't joined the team yet. She noticed that the teams formed up well, but that some of the teams weren't quite sure what they needed to be working on, so she and I need to make sure each team has a list of current and future projects so they won't have empty hands.
It's exciting to teach management. I'm learning a lot. Julia is a quick student, so I still have a way to go before I can prepare others for the same responsibilities, but this is a milestone in creating a self-sustaining growth organization.
Share any experiences you've had with teaching or delegating management!
A thicket of management problems 07/08/2010
I promised myself I wouldn't do any work this week on vacation, either on Davis Dollars or for Senator Steinberg's office. Co-op Camp is a beautiful camp in the Sierras, and I only see most of my friends from camp once a year.
Well, I didn't quite end up doing work...but I also did end up getting involved in two different flavors of management while at camp (as the Teen Director, and in general camp management). I'm now involved in managing Davis Dollars, the internship program in Senator Steinberg's office, the Davis Cooperative Community Network, and Co-op Camp.
I've been the Teen Director at camp for about five years now, but this year I've really taken the program to a new level. While my role in previous years was really not much more than chaperon, this year I've been leading the teens in running projects and workshops for each other.
I met with them at the beginning of the week to talk about what activities they'd like to do, and particularly what skills they'd like to learn, and to share with each other. Emily led a workshop on handstands and cartwheels, for example. Keith led a handful of teens in getting video testimonials about camp from every camper, so we can share what makes this camp so special. I treated my job as director much more like my role at Davis Dollars and in Senator Steinberg's office - I'm focusing on empowering the teens to create programs they're interested in, instead of relying on me to entertain them.
I'm also making my first forays into general camp management, at the invitation of the three current camp managers. Because many of the campers come from co-ops of one sort or another, lots are interested in helping make camp a better place, but many I've spoken to have found it difficult to get involved. I know Heather, Chip and Victor (the three current managers) feel overwhelmed by everything they have to accomplish every year. (They're not paid.) I think everyone would agree that the three of them have become a bottleneck purely by virtue of the huge amount of work that has to go through them, and I think we would all like to share the work around a bit more.
So when Heather invited me to take on a management role, I took the opportunity to talk to her, Chip and Victor, and several others interested in getting more involved about how we could make it easier to campers to contribute to preparation for camp.
I started by creating a Google Group to replace our old email list so that we could have a small group of administrators authorized to email to our entire list. (Previously every email had to go through Heather, Chip or Victor, and it wasn't feasible for them to handle this all on their own.) This will make it easier for other campers to let everyone know about camper meet-ups during the year, fundraisers, and other important news.
I also created a set of Google Documents to help us coordinate on our various activities during the year. This way campers can log in and find out, for example, that we still need $1,500 in prizes for our auction, and can begin to solicit donations from businesses. (Before, this would have required prior authorization from Heather, Chip or Victor, and things get slowed down when 20 people who want to contribute in different ways all have to filter through three people.) In a lot of ways this isn't any different from all my other management experience - I'm trying to empower people to make a contribution. People want to get involved, and it's just a matter of making it easy for them to do so in a coordinated manner.
Nonprofits and community organizations are often chronically understaffed, and I'm wary of getting involved in Co-op Camp management because I don't want to be drawn into a huge tangle of tasks to get camp coordinated for next year. As I get involved, I'll insist on being given specific responsibilities, and the freedom to accomplish those responsibilities with minimal interference. As I've found from managing my hordes of interns, people are a lot more interested in doing grunt work if it's in the service of a responsibility they've been given than they are in doing grunt work that has been assigned to them.
As with my interns, my ideal contribution would be to enable campers to share their talents to improve camp. There are lots of folks who want to help put on the carnival, or bring new campers, or offer a great workshop. Right now the centralized management structure has made it difficult for some people to contribute. Heather, Chip and Victor recognize this, and were happy to hear that the Google Documents might encourage people to put their heads together outside of camp to prepare for next year.
So now I just have to figure out how to share information and responsibility in a meaningful way, while helping coordinate everyone’s contributions so collaboration doesn’t turn into chaos. Wish me luck!
Well, I didn't quite end up doing work...but I also did end up getting involved in two different flavors of management while at camp (as the Teen Director, and in general camp management). I'm now involved in managing Davis Dollars, the internship program in Senator Steinberg's office, the Davis Cooperative Community Network, and Co-op Camp.
I've been the Teen Director at camp for about five years now, but this year I've really taken the program to a new level. While my role in previous years was really not much more than chaperon, this year I've been leading the teens in running projects and workshops for each other.
I met with them at the beginning of the week to talk about what activities they'd like to do, and particularly what skills they'd like to learn, and to share with each other. Emily led a workshop on handstands and cartwheels, for example. Keith led a handful of teens in getting video testimonials about camp from every camper, so we can share what makes this camp so special. I treated my job as director much more like my role at Davis Dollars and in Senator Steinberg's office - I'm focusing on empowering the teens to create programs they're interested in, instead of relying on me to entertain them.
I'm also making my first forays into general camp management, at the invitation of the three current camp managers. Because many of the campers come from co-ops of one sort or another, lots are interested in helping make camp a better place, but many I've spoken to have found it difficult to get involved. I know Heather, Chip and Victor (the three current managers) feel overwhelmed by everything they have to accomplish every year. (They're not paid.) I think everyone would agree that the three of them have become a bottleneck purely by virtue of the huge amount of work that has to go through them, and I think we would all like to share the work around a bit more.
So when Heather invited me to take on a management role, I took the opportunity to talk to her, Chip and Victor, and several others interested in getting more involved about how we could make it easier to campers to contribute to preparation for camp.
I started by creating a Google Group to replace our old email list so that we could have a small group of administrators authorized to email to our entire list. (Previously every email had to go through Heather, Chip or Victor, and it wasn't feasible for them to handle this all on their own.) This will make it easier for other campers to let everyone know about camper meet-ups during the year, fundraisers, and other important news.
I also created a set of Google Documents to help us coordinate on our various activities during the year. This way campers can log in and find out, for example, that we still need $1,500 in prizes for our auction, and can begin to solicit donations from businesses. (Before, this would have required prior authorization from Heather, Chip or Victor, and things get slowed down when 20 people who want to contribute in different ways all have to filter through three people.) In a lot of ways this isn't any different from all my other management experience - I'm trying to empower people to make a contribution. People want to get involved, and it's just a matter of making it easy for them to do so in a coordinated manner.
Nonprofits and community organizations are often chronically understaffed, and I'm wary of getting involved in Co-op Camp management because I don't want to be drawn into a huge tangle of tasks to get camp coordinated for next year. As I get involved, I'll insist on being given specific responsibilities, and the freedom to accomplish those responsibilities with minimal interference. As I've found from managing my hordes of interns, people are a lot more interested in doing grunt work if it's in the service of a responsibility they've been given than they are in doing grunt work that has been assigned to them.
As with my interns, my ideal contribution would be to enable campers to share their talents to improve camp. There are lots of folks who want to help put on the carnival, or bring new campers, or offer a great workshop. Right now the centralized management structure has made it difficult for some people to contribute. Heather, Chip and Victor recognize this, and were happy to hear that the Google Documents might encourage people to put their heads together outside of camp to prepare for next year.
So now I just have to figure out how to share information and responsibility in a meaningful way, while helping coordinate everyone’s contributions so collaboration doesn’t turn into chaos. Wish me luck!
I'm managing five full-time interns! 06/17/2010
I just calculated interns' hours as full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. If you're not familiar with this, it means adding up all their hours per week and dividing by 40 (for a 40-hour work week), which can give you the equivalent number of full-time employees. So we have 16 interns right now, but only two are genuinely full time. All their hours together come to 4.78 FTE interns! I think it will be closer to 6 during July.
Here's a graph of my FTE intern management experience over time:
Here's a graph of my FTE intern management experience over time:
Interns want initiative, but also structure 06/15/2010
My interns, apparently, aren't as wild about initiative as I thought they'd be. It turns out they want a bit more structure.
We recently had an Intern Retreat - we got all the interns together to talk about how things were going, and to ask them to suggest improvements. A few quick findings:
When I dreamed up the idea of ownership initiatives, I thought the biggest appeal would be that interns could think up their own projects. One of the aspects of my job that I've always valued the most has been the freedom to initiate a project I thought would benefit the office, and I imagined interns would clamor at the opportunity to do the same. So I developed the ownership initiatives around the idea that interns would propose an idea, then investigate how to turn that idea into a feasible project.
Well, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that things don't always go as smoothly as I imagined. There are at least three things that stand in the way of my idealized vision:
The ownership initiatives now have a slightly different focus. Instead of trumpeting the benefits of being able to work on projects that interns can design on their own, we emphasize the appeal of having ownership (responsibility and commitment) over a project. We help new interns find places on existing projects. I spend time making sure projects aren't getting stuck. What I still need to implement is a list of fully-vetted projects with notes on how to get started.
Beyond that, I talk to interns about ideas they may want to pursue on their own. I know that there are interns who want to design projects of their own, and I want to make that possible. But I also realize that not everyone wants to invent a completely new program; they just want the opportunity to contribute something of value for which they will be recognized.
We recently had an Intern Retreat - we got all the interns together to talk about how things were going, and to ask them to suggest improvements. A few quick findings:
- Everyone seems to really like the program - they had plenty of improvements to suggest, but hardly any complaints. I'm always open to complaints, so I don't think they were just biting their tongues out of fear.
- Interns like the freedom they're given to dream up their own projects, but also really want some preapproved projects to choose from if they just want to get started on something.
- Experienced interns really wanted more opportunities to act as leaders and help mentor newer interns. I've been wanting to start a mentoring program for a while, but feared that the older interns would view it as a hassle. Au contraire!
When I dreamed up the idea of ownership initiatives, I thought the biggest appeal would be that interns could think up their own projects. One of the aspects of my job that I've always valued the most has been the freedom to initiate a project I thought would benefit the office, and I imagined interns would clamor at the opportunity to do the same. So I developed the ownership initiatives around the idea that interns would propose an idea, then investigate how to turn that idea into a feasible project.
Well, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that things don't always go as smoothly as I imagined. There are at least three things that stand in the way of my idealized vision:
- Many interns - even motivated, creative interns - don't come in with a good understanding of what sorts of projects our office will want to take on.
- Roadblocks, often completely unexpected, can derail good ideas, which is frustrating for interns.
- Most of our interns are energetic and don't want to spend weeks investigating a potential project before getting started - they want to get started now.
The ownership initiatives now have a slightly different focus. Instead of trumpeting the benefits of being able to work on projects that interns can design on their own, we emphasize the appeal of having ownership (responsibility and commitment) over a project. We help new interns find places on existing projects. I spend time making sure projects aren't getting stuck. What I still need to implement is a list of fully-vetted projects with notes on how to get started.
Beyond that, I talk to interns about ideas they may want to pursue on their own. I know that there are interns who want to design projects of their own, and I want to make that possible. But I also realize that not everyone wants to invent a completely new program; they just want the opportunity to contribute something of value for which they will be recognized.
