Translated from 日本語 • View original Organizational information disclosure (openness) promotes individual growth and increases team strength. Why is openness necessary? How can we be open? I will tell you about a super open management method for those who really want to change their organization and grow their members.
How to Reduce Internal Work
In the previous "Super Open Management to Mobilize Managers"
- Ask each job, "Is the job an activity outside the company?"
- Don't value internal work
I wrote that thoroughly implementing these two points will change the way managers work. This allows you to turn your attention from within the company to the outside of the company.
Still, the work in the company remains. Let's keep this to a minimum.
This time I would like to write about the method.
Changing a single process drastically reduces internal work
At ISAO, we drastically reduced the amount of work for the company by changing our internal processes. It is the "two-seal rule". At ISAO, all workflows (approvals) are rotated with two stamps.
You may hear people say, "ISAO is a buri flat, so you can do it, right?", but in fact, we have been doing this since before it was made a buri flat.
*Click here for more information about Bali Flat ↓↓ "How to Create a Bali Flat Organization"
Who will press the two seals?
The first is the drafter. It's natural. The second is the approver. This is also natural. Laughter
In short, there is no intermediate approver. That's what it means.
By the way, the most stamped approval letters I have seen in my working life were 24. It's A4 paper too!
At this point, you are worried about whether the paper contains the contents, but even if it is not up to this point, in ordinary companies, it is common for approval letters stamped with the person in charge→ team leader→ section manager→ deputy manager→ general manager→ director.
Do you have a better idea if you press a lot of stamps?
What do you think? Let's consider the example above.
When the person in charge takes it to the team leader, he says, "Hmm, the section manager won't agree with this," and I rewrite it a little. If the team leader is convinced, it's time for the section manager.
The manager will say, "I see, but the manager doesn't know much about this, so I should have added more explanations."
When I rework it and take it to the general manager, he says, "Directors don't like it when I write it like that, so it's better to write it more neatly and simply." If you finally bring it to the director of the approver, the director will have to wait for a week on an overseas business trip.
After doing that, the approval document that was finally approved is almost the same as the first one I wrote! It's extreme, but it's possible.
Also, even if it is originally a challenging idea, if it is approved by many people, it will be out of place. This is not a challenge, and everyone approves it, so no one feels responsible.
There is nothing good about it.
How two seals change
So what happens if you have two hankos? In the example above, the person in charge directly takes the approval directly to the director, who is the approver.
Let's take a look at the benefits.
- Approval process is overwhelmingly faster
- Ideas cannot be taken at a corner, and the thoughts of the person in charge and the knowledge of the approver can be directly collided
- The work of middle managers involved in this matter will be reduced to zero.
The person in charge is nervous, and for the director, there is no schedule harmony and he has to provide direct guidance. But I think you can see that the benefits are overwhelmingly greater.
Just changing the approval process to "two stamps" will overwhelmingly reduce the wasteful work of middle managers. A simple reform that can be made from tomorrow without changing internal regulations. I highly recommend it.