Why Dishwashers are a Great Management Lesson

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What the heck does a dishwasher have to do with management? Everything – stick with me.  Think about how many managers (including us!) struggle with micromanaging, criticizing (vs. critiquing), taking vs. giving credit and giving vs. taking blame.  It takes maturity, desire and compassion to unlearn these habits.

That’s why dishwashers are the perfect example.  How many of you have asked your kids to load and unload the dishwasher? Raise your hands.  How many of your kids took a thoughtful, systematic, geometric approach to loading the dishwasher? I don’t see many hands. Bet this drove you nuts! Your kid gets an A in geometry and can’t load the dishwasher???? You have a few options:

  1. Watch them as they load it and tell them where to put the bowl, the pan, the spatula – basically loading it yourself with their hands;

  2. Load it yourself so it’s done right, all the dishes are in; your dishwasher-compulsion is satisfied;

  3. Let them load it their way and when they go to bed, rearrange everything the way you like it;

  4. Let them load it their way (best to leave the room), put in the soap, run it, and unload it.

But what are you trying to accomplish by using the dishwasher in the first place? Have dishes washed, dried and put away without anything breaking. So, what management lessons can we learn from the above 4 options? 

  1. You’re micromanaging!!!! The loader has no say, no choice.  They learn how YOU like it done, but your way isn’t the only way. They don’t learn from doing it themselves, which is how most of us learn; they don’t find other (better?) ways to load; they don’t feel free to try and experiment, and I bet they don’t want to load the dishwasher again for fear of criticism (and, ok, it’s not a ton of fun to do);

  2. You’re not giving loaders the chance to load and learn! Very similar to #1 above, if you do it for them, they never learn, they don’t grow, they don’t become independent, and maybe they don’t discover new ways to redesign the dishwasher for more efficiency (and room!), or take risks and try in other ways;

  3. You’ve taken away their sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency.  The minute they open the dishwasher to unload it, they see you changed it.  They interpret this as not doing a good job, as failure (vs. they didn’t do it your way).  They won’t be too eager to do it (or other things) again;

  4. They did it! Mission Accomplished!! You wanted the dishes loaded, unloaded & put away, hopefully with nothing broken.  And let’s assume that you told them you wanted all that done by 10pm and its 9:59pm. What more can you ask? You asked them to load, run & unload by a specific time and it’s done!!! And you didn’t have to do it!  Sure, maybe it wasn’t as full as it could be, but that’s not your problem – the more they have to load/unload, the better they’ll get at putting more in because that means less loading/unloading!

Do any of these situations sound familiar? You tell your employees WHAT you want done by WHEN, but then harp on them about HOW?  Sure, there’s a lot to learn from your HOW, but is that more important than learning for themselves? How would you want to be managed? Like this?

Are you developing your people’s skills, independence, creativity, knowledge, expertise? Or are you undermining them? Next time you give an assignment, stop and think about the dishwasher.  What do you really want done, and by when … and what is best for your employees and the organization? Maybe clean dishes, put away with breaking.