How much do managers know about how their teams work? We recently ran a research study involving 14 teams comprising 283 employees in four Fortune 500 companies. When managers were asked about their teams’ work, on average they either did not know or could not remember 60% of the work their teams do. In one extreme instance, a manager in our study could describe only 4% of their team’s work.
Do You Know How Your Teams Get Work Done?
In a research study at four Fortune 500 companies, when managers were asked about their teams’ work, on average they either did not know or could not remember 60% of the work their teams do. This is a major problem because it can lead to unrealistic digital transformation targets and the poor allocation of resources. But in the same study, machine learning tools were able to bridge the gap between manager intuition and reality. The study showed that employing ML algorithms reduced the average work-recall gap from ~60% to 24%. Managers should roll out such ML tools but take steps to ensure employees don’t feel surveilled — they can anonymize and aggregate data, and communicate openly with employees about what they are measuring and what they hope to achieve.