LET’S ALL GET TOGETHER
The Practice Group As A Dynamic Business Tool
FIRST AMONG EQUALS, How To Manage A Group Of Professionals, by Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister. Free Press, NY 2002. To order, click here.
There is one page in this book, among many others, that fascinates me because it’s so typical of the wisdom and thrust of the rest of the book.
It’s entitled “Handling the 800-lb Gorilla”, which is one of the major problems firms face in using the practice group system. The gorilla – we all know him or her – has substantive expertise to contribute, but won’t attend meetings or have anything to do with the group. “Group leaders faced with this dilemma have two, and only two, options. They either polish their knees and beg the gorilla to play, or they ignore the gorilla. Gorillas hate to be ignored.”
There’s much more, of course, but be tantalized by that tidbit, and know that McKenna and Maister know more – and tell more – about the subject of group dynamics in a business context than anybody else.
There have been many books on group dynamics and teamwork in managing, but the authors deal with a relatively new phenomenon. While practice or business groups as a structure for managing a business are not of themselves new, they have become the management structure of choice in an increasing number of firms. In professional firms, they’re a natural, because groups tend to be formed around specific practice areas in a firm. In the late 1970s, just after Bates, we were forming a marketing structure in a then Big Eight accounting firm. We put one partner in charge of organizing what we then called industry competence groups. That partner had to be educated in the meaning and value of the very groups he was chosen to organize. Those groups were the precursor of the practice groups of today.
For any firm with more than a few lawyers or professionals, the practice group structure is proving to be the most effective way to manage a practice. It recognizes that each practice area has a different target audience, and requires different skills and techniques. The practice group allows the professionals in that group to address the specific practice and marketing problems of the practice, and to manage them effectively. The trouble, though, is the emphasis on the word manage. Professionals in a group tend to be highly individualistic, and must be caused to function as a team. The practice group, then, must be managed, in the fullest sense of the word. And what law or accounting school teaches courses in management? More good practice group structures, then, fail to accomplish the vast potential of the structure, simply because they don’t know how to manage. That’s what this book is about – how to manage the professional group.
The authors, in addressing the problems and techniques of managing the group, use an extraordinary technique. While they cover every base, and leave no nook or cranny of knowledge of the subject unfilled, they neither lecture nor pontificate. Instead, they call upon dozens of professionals to express their experience in dealing with specific problems, and then bring their own knowledge and experience to it. These contributors are not only lawyers and accountants, but corporate leaders, journalists, and academics. Then the authors bring each chapter together to summarize the problems and the solutions, derived not alone from their experience, but from others as well. They even recognize that different individuals internalize information differently, and frequently surround a problem with differing perspectives.
The result is to attack a complex and difficult set of management problems with the several approaches of others with experience and wisdom. There is virtually no problem in this otherwise complex structure of practice group management that isn’t covered.
The authors break down the subject into four categories – Getting Ready; Coaching the Individual, Coaching The Team; and Building For The Future. It’s progression is logical, starting with clarifying your role as a group leader, confirming your mandate, building relationships, and being inspiring.
The second section, dealing with the individual, addresses the problem of getting people to accept the process, building rapport, getting people to accept change, helping underachievers, dealing with difficult people, and building support for change.
The third section deals with the team, including rules for participation, group goals, team trust, resolving interpersonal conflicts, and dealing with crises.
And the fourth section discusses the problems of integrating new people and measuring group results.
The nature of the book raises an interesting question. It is certainly comprehensive, thoughtful, and in no way obscure. If any individual reading it could possibly learn and internalize its information and lessons, that person would emerge as a true leader. The question then is how much a person can learn from a book, particularly if the book’s message requires some measure of behavioral change. The answer, at least with this book, is a great deal.
The great Russian acting director, Constantine Stanislavsky, dealt with this problem. How, he asked, could an actor with minimal talent learn to perform like an actor with consummate talent? The answer he found was to break the characterization down to its intellectual parts. Putting that knowledge all together, he found, would bring the actor remarkably close to the naturally talented actor’s performance.
So it is with this book. Absorb its parts, learn to think and act from the foundation of the book’s instructions and observations, and the results will be equal to those of the most talented manager.
