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Submitted by cwatine on
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Hi Mark and Mike,

I listened to your posdcasts about Skip levels this morning (I am trying to catch back !).
Again, I really liked it : too often, we think we should avoid contact with our directs' directs because "it is their job to deal with them" and "we don't want to interfere" and "it'll eat all my time" and "If I do that, it means I don't need mid-level managers" !
A real "eyes-opener" !

I have a simple question :

Lets say you have 4 departments under your responsibility (finance, logistics, customer service and purchasing department), each one with a manager.
Will you organize one skip level meeting or one for each department ?

Thanks.

Cédric.

asteriskrntt1's picture

Hi Cedric

I am relatively new to managing so I may be off on this. My understanding of one of the reasons we do skip levels is to clear up communication lines. If you have multiple departments, people will hear more directly about the flaws and shortcomings of managers who have nothing to do with their job functions.

I think having multiple constituents there will create confusion and have the opposite effect of clarification. One skip level will save you time upfront. You will lose that and more trying to clean things up.

*RNTT

Mark's picture
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Depends on the size of the departments, but I generally recommend less meetings, so combining them is our recommendation. This is a chance to promote inter-communication, after all.

Mark

asteriskrntt1's picture

Or you can ignore what I say until I have Mark's experience :D

*RNTT

cwatine's picture
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I'll try to organize a skip level in 2-3 months.

One of my site manager has just begun implementing O3 and feedback this month and is very enthousiastic about it.
So I don't want to interfere now.

One tool at a time ...

Thanks for your advices anyway.