Koot’s Fallacy
Help managers to stop cluttering up the arteries of work
This is written as empowerment of the professionals that love to do the actual work, and feel pressured by the system that should support them. And this is written for those that design organizational build up and wonder about the role of management. And for all those managers that are willing to look in the mirror.
Managers are there to make things go smoothly, aren’t they? They should help the professionals to do their stuff as best as they can, shouldn’t they? Yet, way too often, it doesn’t seem to work that way, does it now?
Ever wondered why results go down? Wonder why there’s rising costs for less quality? Education, safety, community work seem to reap lesser results even with an increasing amounts of people trying to turn the tide. Here’s why.
Koot’s Fallacy*:
Managers (and many civil servants) have the inclination to keep under control that which they should leave to others.
This is not about delegating, this is about keeping tight reigns on others, through lack of faith in skills of employees, because of anxieties over results the manager is held responsible for. This is acted out through rules, scripts, protocols, evaluation demands, etc. This is about the expertise that managers fear certain professionals don’t have, can be provided by regulations.
An example: Care.
Since there is less and less money for care, things will have to go wrong somewhere at times. And they do. People in care have too little time, too much to do, than can be expected to work out well all the time.
What do the managers do? They can’t (read: won’t do) the work themselves. So how can they influence what happens on the floor? They follow Koot’s Fallacy. They set up schedules, task lists, rapport lists with measurable indicators that will help them control the action and oversee what happens. And the benefit is for them, they can prove all went according to regulation within the targets. Actual Result: people on the floor feel less trusted, have less time, and feel less freedom to deal with eventualities outside the box. Many care takers (teachers, police forces too) complain about the amount of administration they are forced to do, that can not be spend with actual work. Their professionalism is being taken over by protocols that promise better results, but, at the least, kill the human element. And whenever new things go wrong, what do the managers do? They add items to the checklists, protocols, etc. In short they clutter the arteries of the humanity that is essential in this work.
Watch the brilliant Barry Schwartz explaining at TED the need for practical wisdom on the work floor.
Of course in due course, due to the increased stress new disasters and troubles happen. What does the government do? One ‘brilliant’ civil servant has the ‘Koot’s Fallacy’ answer. He sets up a new control agency that will check the state of care (this actually happened in the Netherlands) and control everywhere how things are going. Sounds good, no?
The costs for this agency have to come out of the budget for care off course, including high salaries at the top, training and fees for the controllers, etc. So it drains money from the real care. And what does it do to the people who do the actual work? Motivation gets pressured even more. Now civil servants will look over your shoulder and punish, perhaps even fine, mistakes. Less freedom, less humanity, every act becomes calculated, and the managers above them have one worry more to deal with, the potential displeasure of the government. What does that do to the managers? They will handle that worry as pressure downward. “Get your targets up, or else!”
The Law has a second part. Koot’s Fallacy 2.0
Control and planning are ranked higher than the actual work.
There’s another way to put this: Avoidance of dirty hands is rewarded.
An Example: Education
Lets take a simple teacher. He’s young and put in front of the class in a difficult neighbourhood. What happens? Stress and some nasty experiences with violence make him work under more duress. So when the opportunity arises to move up, he does. Now in a more managing position he starts to help others deal with the stress he knows from experience. So this guy now has less stress, and gets better paid to help others dealing with the real work. What do these others see? Moving up, out of the ‘danger zone’ is rewarded. The same happens with many young policemen, caretakers in hospitals or elderly homes, etc. Frustration of poor pay in the face of the most difficult situations makes them all long for rising up the ranks. Thus the most experienced teachers, policemen, nurses are not at your side when they are most needed. This is a toll on society as a whole.
Millions of professionals thus long to become managers, coaches, leaders guiding those that do the real work, competing for positions with those that immediately start in higher positions. Many of whom are career managers of professions that they haven’t the slightest clue about, but think they know, because they read the fitting books. I meet frustrated academics because they can’t get implementation through. “But I’ve all the theories and these workers not,” they complain, not even understanding how far they are removed from the practical realities. They lack the necessary basic social skills, because universities often still confuse understanding for capability.
As a result the most experienced nurses, policemen, teachers, doctors, community workers are controlling younger and younger starters doing the actual work. Very young policemen, who hardly have experienced a personal break up themselves, must intervene in a violent break up of people twice their age. And then we wonder why the general public loses respect for these professions or burn out rates in these professions go up.
There’s a whole industry of consultants, coaches, trainers of former workers all out to help those dealing with the same pain they once endured. All these people want salaries too. These experts have become the stars of their former profession. On a personal level they help. They make important difference, and as often as not, fight the Koot’s Fallacy managers that got the job because of their Academic degree, that only bring in more regulations to abide by. Yet, is this the real answer? And guess who pays for that in the end?
My Conclusion
The pyramid of work is topsy turvy. The people doing the real work that needs to be really done, get lower and lower wages, to pay the increasing numbers of managers and experts above them, who wonder why the results at the floor get less and less, or pressured so much, despite their hard work to set up all these streaming protocols, great models, brilliant methods, etc.
I think it is the people at the bottom who should get the highest rewards! Perhaps we better fire all the managers or ask them to just serve as secretaries to help their ‘Bosses at the Floor’ to do what they do best. Then we’ll see brilliant experienced people doing what they once did best: the actual work that we all long to be done very well. The world could do with older cops de-escalating conflicts, because their seniority and tone of voice makes us trust more we are in good, at the least better, hands.
And the young new people entering the jobs, perhaps they should start as the managers, under the mentorship of the experts at the beds, in the streets or in front of the classrooms. Start with looking over shoulders as secretaries to those positions that are the real work. What difference would that make? In stead of seeing a nurse as the low paid job of wiping asses, senior nurses would wipe asses in the most humane, in contact way. Protocols would only be followed where they make sense. You bet there seniors would demand more quality time with patients, students, small time street hustlers before they become career criminals. And quality of attention is proven to help patients heal faster, students learn better and create more safety on the streets.
And the salaries? Surely we can’t pay every cop on the street the same as a manager. No, but cutting deeply into the salaries of all that overhead, can make the salaries of those doing the actual work much and much fairer. And while most managers will revolt against these ideas, it’s going to cost them, many unions, and professionals with a love for the job might love this idea. It may increase the amount of people of quality that will do the work where it matters most, right next to those that work concerns. An example of this is those countries that pay their teachers the best and it’s still a very respected profession. Those countries, like Finland, score also very high on the ladder of countries with the best education. And I think that is not a coincidence.
But hey, teachers, nurses, street cleaners, because you feel the importance of your jobs, managers discovered you’ll work for less and can get away with it. The more meaningful your work, the more your salary might be too little. You want to get paid well: take a bullshit job! Anyone noticing how screwed up that is?
Afterword, some nuance and hope..
I am very aware that masses of workers (still) work with high ideals, humanity and motivation to make a difference. Many love what they do. They chose a profession where they can feel the difference they are making. I hope they feel supported by me. And I know, many managers also love what they do, and try to do what they’ve learned, think is best for others. They too want to make a positive difference. But they might take a stronger look in the mirror to make the bigger difference by actually toning control down.
I wish we, and they, would consider the dangers of Koot’s law as a huge system flaw. I am just pointing out that managers with their contributions and best intentions, with all their methods and approaches can be much less help, sadly enough, than their very expensive management course thought them it would.
We should not always question the boss or even the method or protocols. I know essential protocols in hospitals save lives. But also do ask nurses, coppers, teachers about which protocols actually may cost lives, let alone hinder their work. I bet, you’ll find there’s enough of those too. Perhaps we should much more dare to question the assumptions, convictions and psychology behind the whole system. Because I’d love to see experienced faces that have more reasons to love their job, on the streets, next to my hospital bed and in front of our class rooms. Hey when this works, even I might join the ranks of teachers in class.
*) I owe a huge debt to Parkinsons Law, the wisdom of which has not yet succeeded in changing management enough. It just alerted people to a big problem, which as we see in the management world, is not in the interest of managers or civil service to solve. Sadly the same goes for Koot’s Fallacy.
‘Bosses on the floor’, and framing ‘managers as the secretaries of the professionals’ are terms that might help a bit.
