Internal Team Pre-Wires

hey, I learned a handy

hey, I learned a handy idiom... ! (another meaning of dropping dimes is "making assists on the basketball court", I found.)

jokes aside, thanks: it's useful stuff. the dime dropping thing is all too frequent... 

best - Vincenzo

Dropping a dime

It also means "losing $1000 in poker" (or probably other less skill-based gambling games). E.g.:

I dropped 3 dimes to those donks last night at no limit.

Dropping a Dime

An associate and I used to say

Did you see him/her get "poked in the eye"

or  "don't poke me in the eye"

JHB  "00"

Internal pre-wires vs. honor code

Are internal pre-wires necessary with larger transgressions? 

Listened to this week's show, and was stymied while trying to synthesize the pre-wire guidance with something mentioned in... another show a while back (I have no idea which one) about West Point and the honor code. It was in reference to "We've never been a big fan of having a Policy about things... we just prefer something like the Honor Code we had at West Point." I didn't attend West Point, but grew up around it (my father worked there as a civilian for years), and have always admired the Honor Code for its deceptive simplicity. BUT, in a case like this... 

In the restaurant business, the transgressions from directs can be as minor as "Bob didn't get me his data, so we missed the deadline," or its restaurant equivalent, "Bob didn't do his sidework." But they can just as often be "Bob is drinking on shift / hit a coworker / stole money."

So, at what level of seriousness is an internal pre-wire no longer necessary? In your eyes, would be inappropriate if Greg, one of Bob's coworkers, knew that another direct was stealing, and didn't report it? But, in light of the Pre-wire show... would you expect (and expect me to coach/teach) that Greg should go to Bob first and say "I know you're stealing. I'm going to bring it up to the boss. Just wanted to give you a heads-up." 

Do pre-wires extend to such actionable behaviors as theft or workplace violence? 

Cheers, 

Jay

Honor Code

Jay,

I'm in the integrity business and I believe that egregious behavior that compromises integrity crosses the pre-wire line. That employee who steals or assaults another person is engaging in behavior that not only tears apart a team and injures a company's core values,  but dances along lines that are criminal.

As a sport playing person, I always liked to deal with internal conflict among the players before going to the coach. That was reserved as a last resort if the player(s) wouldn't fall in line for the good of all. In business, it's not much different. Communication between peers ought to preceed a trip to the manager's office who can't help but wonder when he hears the issue "Couldn't these guys figure this out themselves?".

I have my own question for everyone:

Does dropping a dime apply to the manager? Is it fair for me to throw a slide up during a staff meeting that shows a direct has gone red without issueing a pre-wire warning. e.g. "Sue, at Wednesday's staff meeting I'm going to update the team on project x and you are currently red on your deliverable. Are we going to be red come Wednesday?" Or do I drop the bomb on Sue during the meeting and let her squirm. The team may see this as the boss taking a public shot at a direct.  

Thanks!

Rob