Feedback Loops

One of the main challenges to the Theory of Evolution is Spontaneous Generation. Not the largely discredited folk theory that life pops up out of nothing, but the nearly undefinable moment when un-living matter becomes Life. It is that instant when some process becomes self-sustaining, self replicating and separate from its environment. Right now for chemical based life, the best guess hypothesis involves the idea of auto-catalytic loops. Auto-catalytic loops are the bio-chemical equivalents of placing a microphone too close to a speaker. If they don't have some sort of regulation, the process soon spins out of control consuming all the available resources, and dies from starvation. So at some point a collection of interconnected loops might have been separated out of the primordial goo, and could have started self replicating and had enough regulators to respond to external conditions. In essence you want feedback loops that create enough, not too much, or too little of something.

Only recently bio-chemists have been understanding the importance of regulators. Some cancers can be thought of as poorly regulated loops. People have long observed patches of DNA that were considered "junk" that produced small RNA strings, or microRNA. It turns out microRNA can act as a regulator for some processes. And some cancers have a genetic origin in these bits of microRNA, either because the microRNA is not restricting the process enough or the microRNA is over restricting the process.

In some ways this is analogous to the ways we communicate in organizations. If leaders under regulate communications, you may compromise your clients' or employees' privacy, or your organizations security. If leaders over regulate communications, leaders may not get important information and may unintentionally foster a culture of blame. I have observed the following unintentional bad communication policies:

Don't tell me you have a problem unless you have a solution. I remember a quality initiative that wanted to include employees. There were two important caveats. First, employees need to solve the problems and second, any problems that involved the provided software tools were off limits. I'm sure the corporate leaders thought they were sending the following message - we care about your work and want to empower you to make it better and easier. The message many employees received was - we won't invest time or money in you, fix your own problems. The end result was employees lost interest in the quality initiative, and stopped telling their managers about problems.

The Performance Improvement Plan is a tool managers use to salvage an employee who is not performing adequately. It is a way to clearly communicate expectations and required actions. It is a way to reform a "bad" employee into a "good" employee. Typically, when an employee is under a performance improvement plan, they are not permitted to apply for any other jobs in the company. The manager is hoping to communicate - we care about your contribution to our organization and would like to help you continue to make a contribution in your current role, and I'm going to be committed to working with you until that happens. The message the employee may receive is - it's my way or the highway. Generally, employees either leave the organization, or stop communicating honestly with their managers and become compliant yes men.

I've also observed some really good practices that regulated communications.

Periodically attend team meetings. Several years ago, I had a vice-president who would attend product review meetings. He didn't attend every one - there were over 20 departments with 3 teams each, but he attended often enough that everyone in the lab knew who he was. This sent two strong messages - I care about what you are doing and regardless of your positions you can talk to me.

Eating in the common Cafeteria can be another effective way to regulate communications. It makes a leader visible. The same vice-president ate at least two days a week in the lab cafeteria. At least two days a week, the vice-president was sending the message, I'm just like you and you can talk to me.

Get rid of the executive bathroom. My Father has a friend who is a plumber. He's a very down to earth guy who speaks in a very direct manner. This is the advice he gave to mutual acquaintance who was starting a machine shop with two partners. If you want to know what your people are doing, don't have an executive bathroom. The message sent when you don't have an executive bathroom, is I'm no better than you, you can talk to me.

What good practices have you seen? Leave a comment.

More information about microRNA:

High Hopes for a New Kind of Gene, Sylvia Pagán Westphal, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2009