Perry Mason, the TV detective, used to narrow his list of suspects by looking for those with the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime. Perry Mason’s means and motive is parallel to our ability and motivation. Opportunity gives special standing to our Source Six: Structural Ability. Given its incredible power, opportunity deserves all the special standing we can give it.

For a nice illustration see "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room," by Bharat Mediratta as told to Julie Bick in the October 21 issue of The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/jobs/21pre.html?ref=technology.

The article describes a structural intervention that Google calls “twenty percent time.” Engineers are encouraged to spend twenty percent of their time—that’s one whole day a week—working on something company related that interests them personally. It gives them the opportunity to get involved in something they are passionate about. Has it paid off? Google says Gmail, Google News, and many other cool and successful technologies got their starts as twenty-percent time projects.

Grouplets are a second innovation described in the article. These are teams of volunteers—collections of people who have no budget or decision-making authority—who are encouraged to collaborate to bring about a change they care about. Again, Google is creating a structure that provides opportunities. And, of course, they are building on Source 4: Social Ability.

The Grouplet structure brings out the best of many influence sources. It’s a structure that is fully sanctioned by the organization and therefore is legitimate. At the same time it’s outside the bureaucracy, so it’s incredibly flexible. It uses social support—building on many ideas from the community of practice movement (visit: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/). It’s low cost, so the stakes of failure are low. But perhaps the most powerful benefit is that it encourages engineers to invest their personal and social motivation in their jobs. It gives them a way to collaborate with like-minded people on projects they are excited about.

Too often, I encounter organizations where people are able and motivated—they have the means and the motives—but feel they lack the opportunities they need to resolve problems or pursue goals. Examine your own team. Is there a structured time and place to apply your talents and passions to important business problems? If not, can you adopt any the practices Google is pioneering? Can you create the opportunity?

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Posted by David Maxfield on October 24, 2007 11:10:00 PM MDT #