By Dustin Burleson

Ever since the 1970’s, managerial theory and practice has embraced an “open-door policy” where employees can come to their bosses with any question or concern. Some poor fools even took the doors to their offices and nailed them to the walls, literally embracing the open-door philosophy. 
 

Though I have my concerns with that type of management and have even more serious concerns (i.e., I think it’s complete horse shit) with the current trend of no-office and no-cubicle workplaces where managers and even CEOs think, “We’ll just all work in one big open space to encourage camaraderie and teamwork,” I think it’s important to pay attention to the research and not any particular trend or personal feelings towards something as critical as how we get work done inside our businesses.

 

It’s even more important to pay attention to the desired outcome and then connect the dots to the research.

 

That’s exactly what a recent study aimed to investigate. Published in the Harvard Business Review, James Detert and colleagues from Cornell University found that the open-door policy espoused by nearly every manager on the planet fails is its objectives. When the desired outcome is to have employees that are comfortable coming to managers to discuss problems and goals in the workplace, open-door still doesn’t solve the psychological barrier between subordinate and supervisor. 

 

Based on the evidence from the Cornell study, your employees are unlikely to come to you for three main reasons, regardless of an open-door or strict scheduled meetings-only policy. First, employees believe there could be serious consequences if they speak up about concerns in the office. Second, they do not feel anything will change if they do. Finally, they do not feel it is important enough to them to invest any effort or energy in bringing about a solution. In other words, they don’t see a clear connection to “what’s in it for them.”

 

So, how do you get around these critical barriers to progress in your business? First, the research suggests you should interact with your employees regularly. It’s the number one reason I’m back in each office location at least once per week to physically meet with and encourage my team.

 

Instead of waiting for your employees to come to you, walk around and observe or ask what they find as puzzling, problematic or exciting and promising right now in their job. 

 

And, here’s the most profound piece of advice from the best managers in the study:

 

Tell your employees what YOU are currently struggling with and most in need of help with in the business.  

 

When you stop pretending like you know everything and have the solution to every problem, your employees will lower their “fear factor” around you and actively work to find solutions to problems that demonstrate a clear connection to improving their job performance and satisfaction. 

 

Recently my team leaders and administrative employees were struggling to achieve adequate phone coverage for one of our satellite locations due to technology constraints and staffing logistics. When we met and I personally shared with them the struggles I had faced when building the practice from scratch years ago, they saw in me all of the same limitations and roadblocks that they were now experiencing in growing one of our newest offices. 

 

I stopped being “omnipotent” in their eyes and let them see an imperfect boss who didn’t have all the answers but had the commitment to help them excel through this area of frustration.

 

From that moment on, the suggestions and game plan became extremely productive and crystal clear on how to tackle the problem. Without this kind of interaction, however, the room would have been relatively silent with only mild suggestions and no buy-in from the team as they would have historically followed all three of the setbacks reported in Professor Detert’s research.

 

If you want to light your team productivity on fire and see tremendous results (my practices are currently above $430,000 in revenue per employee while the national average is between $155,000 and $185,000 per employee) then walk around the office looking for areas of frustration and then lay out ways for your team to “trip over” the company goals.

 

Stop pretending like you have the solution to every problem and give each employee a clear path to improvement that makes their job better and more enjoyable so that they see exactly what’s in it for them.

 

In the example above, my team in our newest location found a way to achieve stellar phone coverage (99% of phone calls answered 6 days per week) and saw immediate results to their bottom line (i.e., paycheck) as it’s one of our key metrics and an area of importance for practice growth and they achieved it in less than a week with a new phone system and new coverage logistics, reducing stress for the entire team and boosting new patient exams for that location. 

 

No amount of open-door or open-cubicle “policy talk” would have produced similar results. This type of rapid problem solving is only achieved with “boots on ground” management with proactive searching and asking “what do you find puzzling or problematic” then taking the solution that they help design and linking it to higher job performance and satisfaction (i.e., clear benefit to them) 

 

I’ve been teaching my top students for years to take each team member to breakfast, individually, and ask them what they love about their job and what they hate about their job.

 

You’ll only uncover the roadblocks and bottlenecks to your practice growth if you go looking for them. 

 

The best solutions to your future success simply do not wander through open doors.