Do the Job Your Way

Watching my first roommate, I realized she obviously had not learned the one way to crack an egg. Whack! She hit an egg against the lip of the bowl. A perfect break. She emptied the contents into chocolate-chip cookie batter. No stray shells. In my experience there are two ways to crack an egg. I learned the second from my roommate. And then...

“What are you doing?” I asked my 10-year-old, just as she brought an egg down against our granite countertop. “I’m breaking the egg,” she said. “That’s not how you break an egg.” “Daddy said to do it that way!” In my experience, there are three ways to crack an egg. Does it matter how you choose to do it, if you get the job done without any shell casualties? Buckingham and Coffman would say no. They caution managers who believe there is “one best way” to do things. Such managers try to perfect people by making them study the one best way and execute their tasks according to The Way.

So what? Well, they note three issues: 1. Inefficiency – Maximum productivity is gained when we allow our employees to do things their way. Inefficiency results when we fight against their natural “path of least resistance.” 2. Demeaning – Mandating adherence to The Way prevents individuals from developing and being responsible for their own styles 3. Kills Learning – Rules remove choices, so if a manager mandates “this is how you have to do it,” he eclipses the learning process… since choices fuel learning

Buckingham and Coffman aren’t suggesting that each employee be allowed to make all his own decisions, which could result in lower productivity. They’re simply suggesting freedom within a framework. That framework is the standardization of ends, or defining outcomes. If a manager successfully defines outcomes, then the means for reaching them are up for discussion.

I will always remember the day my mother decided, for fun, to crack an egg and empty its contents from a great height above the bowl. Splat! It made a nice landing… on our dark wood table. That said, in my experience, there are still only three ways to crack an egg, but I am open to a fourth if it can efficiently accomplish the desired outcome.

Robin's Egg photo by Elizabeth O. Weller. Used with permission. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of God in the Yard: Spiritual Practice for the Rest of Us, as part of a continuing series on the book First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

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