Light-Bulbs

As a teacher and student of MBM, I relish experiencing and helping others experience those "light-bulb moments" when something about MBM clicks. 

Please share!  What's your favorite light-bulb moment with MBM? 

Comments

[Chelsea]

Ann came and worked with the Undergrad team on applying the V&T matrix, and I started thinking about how I could use that framework to help me when I'm doing faculty research and can't make up my mind about how I want to categorize someone. Not a huge epiphany about something super-complex and econ-related, but figuring out how to apply MBM to my role always seems to help me go back and understand the theory better! Thank you to whoever suggested those meetings!

[Andy Gillette]

That's how it goes, though--my experience is that learning MBM isn't one epiphany, but many small light-bulb moments.

[Tammy Carroll]

One of the areas that MBM has helped me, as a manager, is in regards to the “The Flow" - how a person's perceived risk and their skills/confidence relates to their ability to work effectively. Based on this learning, I analyzed my organization. That was enlightening as a manager because I saw those people that could potentially "burn out" and which employees might possibly be bored with their current role. I made changes in my team; some with a larger magnitude than others. I swapped two of my employees entirely. He was ready for a change and had shown a skill set that would be a better fit. The other had learned that skill but was much more fulfilled in a another role. This change has been a huge success. Both employees learned something new so they had a challenge but they had the right amount of confidence and skill to attack the new role with enthusiasm. It has really helped the team dynamic. Another employee was very settled in her job and perceived no risk or challenge. I decided to put her in charge of a annual project that I had previously done myself. I empowered her to make all necessary decisions. I believe she is doing a great job and this "project" gave her a lot to contribute to the team. Our newest employee on the team revealed that the job was more complex than he had thought. I learned that he needs more training. I realized that I had missed the mark on where I placed him on the grid. This insight was very valuable in how I was evaluating his performance.
This exercise was just one of my "light bulb" moments!

[Andy Gillette]

I really like how you often bring it back to you--what YOU could have done differently. I'm probably not alone when I say that I could be better about accepting more accountability about the results of my failed/misapplied management techniques. Thanks for the comment!

[David McGinnis]

got one:

I went through POD training and learned more about how to use the 5 dimensions for problem solving. I had already learned how to use the 5 dimensions for planning out a value proposition.

I work for GP (OWNED by Koch, but I would argue that it is not yet a Koch company - the culture has not yet reached critical mass). For a while I had been frustrated with people doing whatever they wanted and then peppering their reports with buzz words registered phrases. I would joke with people that one of our final tasks on a project is to MBM-INIZE it.

Needless to say my frustration caused a cataract to certain parts of applying MBM. I felt like people were trying to cram what they did into the tools available (one of which is the 5 dimensions) instead of using them to think, design, create and so on. A few months after POD training, I realized this:

AHA! if you try to cram what you've done into the 5 dimensions, and you are honest with yourself about the characteristics... You may find a hole. I could cram in a project i've been working on all year and realize that I haven't really taken into account who is going to own this once i've created it. Who is going to change it, who is going to decide when.... DECISION RIGHTS, i forgot about the complex, weird, can't-fully-understand-but-I-get-it-enough-to-know-i'm-about-to-drop-the-ball decision rights!

Cramming things into the framework IS a good way to use the tool. Cool!

[Andy Gillette]

Nice!