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Why Having an Open Door Policy Doesn’t Work

๐—•๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ‘๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป-๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ฟ’ ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜†!
When we ask leaders how much time they dedicate to the management of their team, we regularly hear “๐˜ฎ๐˜บ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜บ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ง ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜บ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜บ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ”.
The “open-door policy” is great in theory, however, in practice this management approach should never be an end in itself. Often doing more harm than good. There will be many issues that you’ll never see unless you look. It’s your job to predict problems before they escalate. These problems are expensive to fix and won’t come to your doorstep.

So why doesn’t an open door policy approach work?

๐—˜๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ธ ๐—จ๐—ฝ
Research of 200 individuals from all levels and functions, found that employees often choose to hold back from sharing information that could be beneficial for the company (Edmondson). It takes an extremely brave employee to willingly take the risk to go to their boss or their bosses’ boss to tell them about problems. That even assumes that the employee knows what the problem is well enough to explain them. Even on teams where there is trust, many problems will never come to you

๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚’๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฆ๐—ผ ๐—•๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜† ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ง๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ ๐——๐—ผ๐—ป’๐˜ ๐—ช๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—•๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚
Some managers give out the energy of being so busy, that team members decide for themselves not to bother you. You might appear to them as being stressed, overwhelmed or consumed by another project. Even though you’ve been clear about your open-door policy, you send out a mixed message

๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ง๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ’๐˜€ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ณ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ
When your open-door policy does work and people come to you, it can also create a different type of problem. Many managers get promoted because they are experts at their job. But, in their new role, they miss the instant dopamine hit of solving a problem. So when their team comes to them with interesting problems to be solved, they can’t help themselves and use their expertise, position or authority to fix it. Over time, this creates an unwanted dependency, killing your #productivity & disempowering your team.

๐—ฆ๐—ผ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ?
Here are 4 to get you started:

1: Ensuring your ๐Ÿญ-๐Ÿฎ-๐Ÿญs go beyond a basic check-in. You can use these as a great way to understand what your people are working on and surface issues early (check out our latest video on 1-2-1s in the comments below)
2: ๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ of the team can also help you identify potential bottlenecks, capacity issues, project overruns or zombie projects
3: ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ธ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€, supported by regular progress check-ins are an excellent way to ensure your team is on track
๐Ÿฐ: ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ธ ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€. Ask your fellow managers if they can see any potential challenges facing your team.

What is your experience of open-door policies? We’d love to hear your experiences

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