Management lessons from the cat

January 10, 2010
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Yes, even pets have something to teach us about management and change.starsky at desk

Do you recognise this pattern? You need to make a change.  You make a plan and a schedule.  But when you start to move forward, you go…well, backward.

Welcome to the complex and unpredictable world of change – the inevitable consequence of managing in a world of choice.  It is happening around us all of the time, but the most recent lesson I learned in management came from trying to manage my cat.

In October, Starksy (pictured) was diagnosed with diabetes and prescribed special food and medicine.  He now requires an injection of insulin each day at 7:30 AM and 7:30 PM, immediately after food.  That should be easy enough, I thought.  And, I changed my schedule and his.

But, when I tried to implement the changes, Starsky objected.  He following me around the house from 6:00 PM and meowing relentlessly – unable to understand why I was withholding his food.  When 7:30 finally rolled around, I would finally put the food down.  But, instead of eating, he would just walk away.  Since food is required before injections, now I couldn’t give him his scheduled shot.    When I tried to force him to eat the food he had been insisting on just 10 minutes prior, he refused and wanted to go outside instead.

My plan and schedule had gone horribly wrong.  Managing a cat was proving just as complex as managing humans.

In my August blog on Leadership, I explained managing complexity like this: 

Traditional command and control models of leadership were better suited to managing in an industrial age – predictable, orderly structures, like machines and factories.  But it’s not the machines doing the work anymore, it is people.  And, it’s not a product we are producing, it is innovation and knowledge.  And once you rely on people to produce innovation, things get considerably more complex.  Management skills of planning, scheduling and delegating are second to those of visioning, boundary setting, empowerment and communication.

Management theory is all well and good, but does it actually work in practise?  Well, here is how I used it with Starsky:

What’s happening?

Starsky, like our employees, is applying choice. The more I try to control him, the more unpredictable he becomes.  We are interdependent – for every behaviour I try to change, he exhibits a response – often an unpredictable and undesired one.

The alternative

The secret to getting control of the situation was actually to stop trying to control it at all and focus instead on boundaries and empowerment.  Now, Starsky can have his food any time after 6:30.  I don’t stand over him with a needle waiting for him to finish eating.  If he wants to go outside, I let him because I know that he will be back within the hour to finish his dinner.

The result

As soon as I relaxed my standards of control and empowered Starsky with more choice, we both started getting what we wanted. 

My Advice

If your projects aren’t getting the results you intend, try changing your focus.  Spend less energy on the schedule and more on the enabling the desired outcomes through boundary setting, vision setting, communications and empowerment.

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