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transformation talks
with donny shimamoto
center for accounting transformation
staff and employee annual reviews help assess where teams need additional help, guidance and development. if only they weren’t so painful…
more: dustin verity: keep an open mind and constantly learn | secret to success? a growth and abundance mindset | o.d. lanier: stepping into advisory | from tax to transformation | early adopters gain an edge in audit | why the future is in risk advisory | four strategies for a future ready firm
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enter menlo innovations, an it consulting firm and custom software development firm that appears to have found a better way to analyze team performance and deliver constructive feedback. in the latest episode of transformation talks, dan roman and andy burns discuss menlo innovation’s prosperity project, an innovative employee-driven performance review process.
burns said, “in a previous job i had, we did the classic annual review cycle where you get the list of objectives handed down by your manager or the whole department and you figure out, okay, how does that relate to me? what measurable metrics can we come in and figure out?”
he continued explaining, “and then a year would go around, you’d sit down with your manager, realize that none of these objectives were met. and you made up some funny numbers to try to argue for a raise. it was very much a managerial-driven process that didn’t really trickle down in the way that they really hoped for, for it to be effective.”
“i think the prosperity process is an interesting way of flipping that on its head,” roman added, “where not only do we say, you know, your growth in your role at menlo is dependent on how you participate in the team. the team is the one who actually gives that feedback and is part of that decision of, you know, where does this person fit within the menlo team?”
burns and roman discussed another novel concept: transparency of pay. they described a board in the office that shows each employee’s level and role at menlo, and a system whereby anyone could look up what that person is being paid.
“there’s definitely been some folks who come in and do a tour of menlo and they’re in hr or executive leadership,” roman explained. “and they see that board and i think the smoke starts to come out of their ears is like, it just kind of breaks their brain a little bit.” however, he added, if success is qualitatively measured by the project’s tenure, this should be considered very successful.
“that experiment has been running at least as long as i’ve been at menlo, which is four years,” roman said. “and i think it definitely predates me a little bit.”
more takeaways from dan roman and andy burns
- team transparency drives prosperity.
- ditch evaluation processes that don’t truly encourage and enable growth.
- organic conversations and employee-driven evaluations are more authentic than formal processes and are usually more accepted forms of feedback.
- pay transparency is not only better for team morale, but it could also soon be the law in your state.
- even if the parallels are unclear, always keep an open mind to how other professional practices could be implemented to improve your own (i.e., it : accounting).
about dan roman
dan roman has been a menlo innovations software developer for 4 years and in the software development industry since 2015. during his time at menlo he has continued to obsess over building his interpersonal skills alongside his technical skills and is eager to espouse the business values of joy. along with day-to-day life as a developer at menlo, dan has spent time teaching others about menlo’s software development practices, speaking at conferences, and helping to effect culture change for clients.
about andy burns
andy burns has been a software developer for six years and has been with menlo innovations for 2 years. at menlo, andy has focused on building a strong foundation of consultative ability while continuing to seek out new challenges and projects to improve his technical skills. at home, andy enjoys playing games, exercising, and painting miniatures.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
donny shimamoto 00:11
everyone, welcome. and thank you for joining us for transformation talks. i am your guest host, donny shimamoto, the inspiration architect for the center for accounting transformation. during these episodes, i’ll be visiting with a spectrum of firm practitioners who are successfully helping nav their firms navigate the transformation of the accounting profession. and actually, today, we’re talking not with an accounting firm, but with an it consulting firm. and, you know, part of what we’re really trying to do is to look at what are things that are occurring in other industries that we can bring into our accounting industry and really learn from because well, you know, especially in this case, they’ve kind of done all the, let’s say, dangerous work of figuring stuff out, and we can kind of look at their lessons learned and see how we can adapt that to what we do. so with me today is dan roman, and andy burns, and from menlo innovations, and can i just start by asking you guys to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what mammal does and? and yeah, what do you want? and what do you guys do at menlo?
dan roman 01:22
sure, absolutely. so hi, everyone. like danny said, my name is dan roman. i’m a primarily a software developer at menlo innovations. so you know, mostly doing the kind of techie stuff hands on the keyboard, writing code and unit tests and stuff like that. but over the last year or so i’ve also been kind of branching out into one of our other practices, the high tech anthropology practice, which is a little more high touch a little more consulting, you know, talking with clients, whether that be further tech projects, or any process or cultural change that’s going on, which has been really interesting, especially as it relates to the prosperity process. and i’ve been with menlo for just over four years. and i’m joined by my prayer partner, andy.
andy burns 02:05
hi, i’m andy burns, also a software developer at menlo. just coming up on two years this june, so little fresher than dan. be i am mostly focused on the software development side of things, pairing with other software developers at menlo and kind of doing the programming day to day.
dan roman 02:26
and that kind of leads into what menlo does to your question. donny, like menlo is primarily a custom software development shop. so we do kind of three different things. two of them are highly related. so we’ve got our high tech anthropology practice, these are the folks who will actually go out into the world and observe users in their native environment to figure out what does delight look like for them, you know, if we’re trying to make an app, or if a client’s trying to make an app to, you know, improve their business in some way, we always start with, let’s go find out what are the customers? or what are the one of the users need? so that’s what our folks do, we have that element of menlo. and then after that are in supplement to that we’ve got the software development. so that’s folks like andy, and i, you know, pair programming, doing the dev work to actually bring those, bring those designs into life, or in the case where someone’s bringing in inherited application, you know, doing triage or improvement for that. there’s a third element, that’s actually something we’ve been exploring a little bit more over the last two years, which is our process and culture change. so some of that will be you know, like, we’re having a conversation here. there’s some elements of menlo that people get really excited and jazzed about, and want to find ways to leverage in their business and you know, transform their culture. and so that’s something that we’ve been starting to do lately.
donny shimamoto 03:49
awesome. and that’s actually the part i really want to share with everyone, because i’m sure the listeners now are kind of going. okay, these guys are it consultants, and they’re building software. and we don’t do that in accounting. but why why are we listening to this? well, you’ve just kind of said it. it’s really looking at the other way, and it’s really the internal business practices. can you tell us a little more about this prosperity project and what you guys were trying to achieve with it?
dan roman 04:18
sure. do you want to start with me?
andy burns 04:20
sure, yeah. so then low works on more or less a flat hierarchy. we’re all our own bosses, more or less. we help each other out and to further kind of drive growth through our own individual roles. and as a company, we decided we needed a better kind of internal review process for each other. so prosperity was an experiment in a peer review, kind of it’s a formal process in which we review each other and solicit feedback from other people who have worked with us in order to kind of facilitate a package of feedback to hand back to the person being reviewed. it’s a what three-day process we’ve got it down to?
dan roman 05:07
yep. so there’s, it’s a same contrast, you know, other organizations where, you know, maybe you talk to your manager once a year who you work with maybe five hours out of the year, the three day process is split up such that it’s actually a your peers. so you know, you would have a subset of maybe six people who you have worked with, presumably for probably a week or more, over the course of the year. and that group of peers, we’ll get together for day one, which will be a process where people are kind of doing the just describing their feedback or describing the stories of, oh, when andy and i work together, i experienced this, and he did such a great job, or, oh, when i was working with dan, you know, i noticed that he was starting with this. so that’s the day one of just kind of articulating, here’s the things that we’re thinking about a second day, which is that synthesis step where it’s kind of alright, we’ve taken the raw data, let’s let’s start and put together some themes here. and then that third day, just like andy said, that’s actually where the delivery happens where, okay, the team has congregated, they have come together with this feedback. and then a pair of facilitators, menlo facilitators will actually sit down with the person who was the subject of the prosperity process, and then deliver the feedback, both areas of growth things team really is excited about, as well as the areas for growth. i say growth twice, yes. growth and strength.
donny shimamoto 06:39
i like that i like i like that focus on growth and strengths rather than on deficiencies and weaknesses, i think that’s so important. and that’s definitely something we’ve been talking about in accounting, a lot the strength, space leadership and those types of concepts. i’m going to back up a little bit just to kind of deconstruct or draw the parallels again, over to the accounting side. so andy had mentioned a lot of peer working in groups and getting feedback from your peers, and a lot of people working very independently. and that’s the way that we work in accounting as well, if you think about it, whether it’s a tax team, or an audit team, or even a client accounting team, each of these are individual professionals that are coming together as a team to in the end serve the client. and whatever we can do, in effect, actually, they help the client be more prosperous, in terms of managing their money and being more successful at what they’re trying to achieve. so i think there’s a lot of analogy and the way that you guys are working, that the output may not be the same thing. but the way that you guys are working as a team of professionals, everyone’s valued, is really what we’re doing in accounting as well. and there’s been this concept of a lot of people call it like a 360, or peer review, or peer feedback, there’s been a lot of talk about that, i that hasn’t seen as much adoption within the accounting firms area. but i think it really is critical, because that is a way that we in accounting, as you and it are different than your church, typical hierarchical organization, we’re both very flat. and because of that, feedback, and development needs to be handled differently. so i love this way that you guys have done that. one of the things that stood out for me in what you guys are doing is the way that you work. and this concept of having an anthropologist, i think as well is really interesting. can you tell us a little bit more about that?
dan roman 08:35
sure. so our high-tech anthropologists, they are a group of people that, like we said, they’re very much meant to keep the voice of the human beings at the end of the software case, the end user, the people who are actually using the software, keeping their voice alive throughout, you know, a development engagement such that, you know, once we actually get to the point of building something we’re keeping in mind, okay, we’re building this for these people, these are the needs that they have, these are the things that they want, or in contrast, these are the things that are really painful for them day to day, and we don’t want to make those pains go away. we want to make them better. and it’s, it’s a bit related to the prosperity process. in that it was you can actually kind of see the echoes and its creation and its execution in that there was a sort of brainstorming phase with the prosperity process where it’s let’s go and talk to the menloeans on the team and figure out what are the things that they do? like, what are the things that they don’t like about our current at the time very organic feedback process and figuring out okay, well, based on those those data points, let’s start to synthesize what is let’s design something and then iterate on it over time. so that that that role is very flexible in that way, and that you can kind of say, all right, well, we’ve got a problem whether that be for users of a software system, or in menlo case with the prosperity process. the recipients of feedback, let’s figure out, you know, what are the pains? and what are the things we need to improve? and then let’s figure out how to experiment and take it to the next level. is there anything you want to add any,
andy burns 10:15
i just want to add that organic feedback process that dan mentioned was more of when you pair with someone across sprint in which usually a week’s worth of work, you generally try to find opportunities to comment on things you think that they can work on, in growing or things that they’re doing incredibly well. so they’re kind of aware of their own kind of areas of growth and areas of strength. what we kind of found with that is short of a more structured approach of say, hey, every friday, you know, give some feedback to your partner. we wanted a more refined and controlled setting where we still want that organic feedback to happen. but we wanted a more formal way of addressing these things and recording them so that the person receiving the feedback can have something to refer back to more easily.
donny shimamoto 11:02
when you when you say that it’s more formal, is this a form that you’re filling out at the end of the week, or how does that work?
andy burns 11:08
we have a slide deck, it’s not really a form or anything, the end of the week, it’s more of just like an organic conversation, it doesn’t always have to happen either. it’s just something we try to do. so we can maintain that kind of constant stream of feedback so that we can all kind of help each other out.
dan roman 11:22
so for the prosperity process, there is that slide deck of, it’s more just about structuring the conversation with that group of about six people such that we’re making space for let’s talk about, you know, the areas of growth in the areas of strength. and that’s for the prosperity process itself. but yeah, just like me saying, you know, week to week, we work in pairs, that may be something that’s not, you know, super common or super obvious. but andy and i will never come and work a day at menlo and not be sitting immediately next to someone else who is our pair partner, sharing a keyboard and sharing a mouse over the course of the entire week. which means that those feedback skills that we’re practicing inside of the prosperity process, come to bear when you know, we’re working together side by side for entire weeks at a time. and just like anything that’s much more organic, it’s not, we’re sitting next to each other, we’re human beings, you know, we’re not necessarily writing out a form and handing it to each other. it’s just, hey, you know, at the end of the day, is there anything you want to give me feedback about it’s much more conversational?
donny shimamoto 12:25
like that, i like that. and most people probably think of actually, most people probably think of, especially programmers the same way they think of accountants as these little people that you stick in the basement and let them just do their thing on the keyboard. and, and that’s definitely not the case with the way you guys operate. it’s actually not the way most of us in accounting operate as well. but we do tend to work in these very small teams, especially in the small and mid size firms is there’s normally a more junior person and a more senior person. so we’re not totally pair, working in pairs that what you guys are, but we’ve gotten to people, maybe three or four sometimes working together, often at a client’s site at a in a conference room or something maybe now more remote, as we see that. but i love that you guys are bringing this immediacy of feedback. we’re hoping eventually to bring the concept of sprint’s into the end the whole use of agile into the accounting profession, because we think it’s really relevant. because we’ve got this deadline that we’re trying to hit the same way you would hit a product release, which is essentially the deadline for the audit report or the deadline for the tax return. and we’ve got all this stuff that has to happen all along the way. so we think that there’s a definite parallel there. so introducing this concept of sprints, which is, i think you said, andy said that it’s one week for you guys. right now we’re experimenting, experimenting with kind of two weeks sprints, get stuff done, because usually our smaller audits are tax returns, that’s where you’re going to see the longest piece that now at the end of that you get feedback immediately. rather than waiting six months or a year to get stuff in, you’re like, well, wait, when did that come up? i would have loved to know that earlier. because now i can start to improve as i go along.
dan roman 14:07
well, it’s a it’s a fascinating parallel, isn’t it? the different are the the symmetry between agile processes around short feedback loops around? here’s the work, what are the things that we need to do to adjust the work? what’s the thing? what’s the pop fly, you know, error that happened over this last week that we have to account for and get better at for the next week? how that can apply to the agile process. and that’s, that’s ultimately what you know, for menlo pairing in the prosperity processes, right? it’s, we want that tight and short feedback loop. it’s just that instead of it being about the work and the process, it’s about us as individuals and lunians.
donny shimamoto 14:41
cool. so you’ve got this constant feedback that is occurring over the course. and then when you actually hit this formal prosperity process that’s more like is it semiannual or annual or how often is that actually occurring?
andy burns 14:56
the goal behind it isn’t really to have it be in place. an annual review is shouldn’t be a more we try to cycle through so everyone’s getting a fair share of it. our lower-level team members at the associate levels should be getting it more often. so they can have a more recent pool of feedback to act on because we find that their growth is a lot quicker as they learn more technical skills and consultative skills. but yeah, generally, we try not to let it be an annual process, and it kind of comes up when it feels appropriate. you can recommend that fellow team member or even yourself, you can advocate for to go through the prosperity process in our project managers, the people in charge of the prosperity process will kind of figure out the schedule as needed.
donny shimamoto 15:42
oh, that’s even more interesting. so it’s not a regular cycle.
andy burns 15:47
there’s there’s like a list to loop through, but list changes based on recommendations and when we feel people are ready, or if someone needs a prosperity session sooner.
dan roman 15:57
a lot of the practices that we apply to managing our project work or client work we use for the prosperity panel or for the prosperity process itself, where, you know, for those who may or may not be familiar with menlo, we can articulate the tasks and story cards, and then there’s a planning session to figure out what the priority of work is, is the same type of thing with the prosperity process where you know, every menlonian has a story card, and there’s a semi-regular revisiting of okay, well, what’s the plan? you know, if we’re doing this once a week, which is what we’re currently on as a cadence, who’s up for the next four weeks? and revisiting that on a semi-regular basis?
donny shimamoto 16:36
wow, that sounds like when i listened to that, that sounds like a lot of, like, non-billable work as we would non-client work like this does take a lot of time. what are you guys seeing in terms of the?
dan roman 16:51
yeah, i think that that’s a great question. and that’s one of the questions that our business stakeholders and because this was, this prosperity process was driven by the team, i think is an important part, right? like our co founders, richard and james cole will then come down from on high and say, behold, this is the new feedback prosperity process that you will now implement, there is a recognition of, hey, you know, our feedback process isn’t quite suiting our needs anymore. and that recognition came from the team, which then meant that it was the team’s kind of ownership and responsibility to derive this new process, which then once you arrive that came to the business holders or business stakeholders, and the question was okay, well, you know, that’s, this is awesome. what is that going to mean, in terms of commitment for, like you said, you know, we’ve got bills to pay, there’s rent and payroll. and i think that we did the math, and then between two sessions of two sessions a week, for, you know, every week out of the year, it comes out to be roughly 100k in as an investment for the year. and that’s something that the business was like, you know, what, that’s a worthwhile investment, you know, like, we we don’t want to neglect the growth and prosperity for lack of a better word of our team. so it was definitely something that was talked about and considered as part of the process.
donny shimamoto 18:15
let’s put that 100k in perspective. so do you by chance know, your total annual revenue and number of employees?
dan roman 18:22
that is a great question for our controller or either of our co-founders.
donny shimamoto 18:27
how about number of employees? do you know that at least?
dan roman 18:30
think we’re floating around between 40 and 50 1450.
donny shimamoto 18:33
okay, wow. so actually, so that’s, that’s a pretty significant chunk of change for it for that size of organization, because you guys, you guys are about the size of a lot of what we would call our mid-sized firms in the accounting industry. so very, very interesting. and i think it admirable to hear that level of investment was perceived as valuable. i can’t eat. i’m just i’m thinking about all of these, this whole great resignation, and how employees don’t feel valued and all of that, and that it sounds like what you guys have done is really addressing that because you said this was an employee-driven or grassroots-driven type of thing. are you able to have you been doing it enough? were you? do you guys have any other measurements that kind of say this has been successful in, say, reducing turnover or increasing our ability to recruit or anything like that?
dan roman 19:29
certainly nothing quantitative. much like the prosperity feedback itself. a lot of our measurement is qualitative. so i can at least say, the prosperity prize, but we’ve… actually we just realized we hit a year of running that maybe a couple of weeks ago. and to me, that’s like one of the great examples of success, right? like if a process isn’t working, it’s not going to. well, hopefully, if a process isn’t working, it doesn’t stick around for a year. and i can at least say from finland that that’s the case. having on this, i think every team member has gotten it at least once several. like andy said, some of our associates get it more than once. we’ve found it to be, you know, measurably useful in the qualitative way that it hasn’t gone away.
donny shimamoto 20:17
that’s actually that’s really true. because if people started to feel like, if this is a waste of my time, they probably will stop participating, or you’d have to really pull teeth to try and get people to fill up the powerpoints and things. so there must be a high level of engagement. you’re right for this to continue this this long. have have either of you have been in other organizations that have done kind of more your traditional evaluations? and are you able to compare your experience at least your personal experience with that process, whether it’s as a staff or as a manager, per se?
andy burns 20:55
yeah, in a previous job i had, we did the classic annual review cycle where you get the list of objectives handed down by your manager or the whole department and you figure out, okay, how does that relate to me? what measurable metrics can we come in and figure out, and then a year would go around, you’d sit down with your manager, realize that none of these objectives were met. and you made up some funny numbers to try to argue for a raise. it was a very much a, a managerial driven process that didn’t really trickle down in a way that they really hoped for, for it to be effective.
dan roman 21:29
and i can speak for myself, i had a very similar experience, i actually had a job as a web developer in a in an actual, it was actually an accounting firm. and i did that for about two years after college. and it was very similar. you know, it’s the sort of thing where, all right here, here’s our from last year’s annual review, these are the goals that we set, here the definition of your role, you can do one of two things, you can either meet expectations or exceed expectations. and then when you get into the meeting, you know, potentially your manager might say, well, i can only give out exceeds expectations to 3.2% of the broader team. so there’s not really it’s not necessarily about your performance. it’s more about like what i’m, you know, authorized to distribute from a feedback perspective, which i think to compare it to the prosperity process a little bit, you know, we imagine, for a lot of organizations, we talked about teamwork, right? however many, let’s say, you know, 363 days a year, it’s about teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. and then when the annual performance review comes up, it’s what did you do this year? what did you do for the team? and i think the prosperity process is an interesting way of flipping that on its head, right? where not only do we say, you know, your growth in your role at menlo is dependent on how you participate in the team. the team is the one who actually gives that feedback and is part of that decision of, you know, where does this person fit within the menlo team?
donny shimamoto 23:00
interesting, interesting. and my firm we’ve, we have three levels of in our evals that we do. the first is more individual. the second is kind of the team and the third is the firm, what have you contributed to the firm as a whole? so we try and balance out those three aspects and the way that we look at people’s performance. that’s awesome. what our own speaking of the kind of annual reviews, i know you guys have started experimenting with a with a transparent per se annual review looking at compensation and other things. can you share anything with us about that?
dan roman 23:37
absolutely. do you want to talk about the levels board? andy?
andy burns 23:40
sure. yeah. right. in the middle of offices, we have a large wasn’t a cork board near it at all.
dan roman 23:47
i am i’m looking at it. but i’m nervous that if i take the webcams are
andy burns 23:52
fair enough. so there’s a large board on the wall, and the menloists middle office has that list? each of the levels, we have associative consultant, senior consultant, and then as a principal, are i missing one, okay, and principal engineer, and then there’s staff for non for other roles in the company. and each of those roles is split up into levels associate s3 and the rest of five each and on every single one of those levels is a little sticky note with your initials on it. so everyone’s aware of what level everybody is at any given time. and each levels, each level is also public pay. everyone knows what everyone’s making hourly, at any given time, if they just glanced at the level of support and cll. dan, you recently made? what which level did you get bumped up to in your one, senior one. so i could look at that board. look at the hourly rate sheet and know exactly how much dan’s making.
dan roman 24:46
and that’s the chairman by the way that’s been running,
donny shimamoto 24:48
going like oh my god. but i think it’s i think it’s part of this future in of work that we’re looking at, which is transparency of pay, because that helps then set expectations amongst each other right in the level of performance and also eliminates this? well, they’re not doing that good. what are they getting paid? they’re at that level, right?
dan roman 25:11
yeah, it’s, um, it’s there’s definitely been some folks who come in and do a tour of menlo and they’re in hr or executive leadership. and they see that board and i think the smoke starts to come out of their ears is like, it just kind of breaks their brain a little bit. but i just wanted to offer to that that experiment has been running at least as long as i’ve been at menlo, which is four years. and i think it definitely predates me a little bit. so that one has been in, in progress for a while.
donny shimamoto 25:38
wow, that is that is amazing. the, i think the so the just to kind of reiterate the visualization, there’s basically the different levels and sounds like there was five different levels, which is very similar accounting firms have like five or six kind of core levels. and then the there’s the rows that kind of have the different steps within the levels as well. and that makes sense as well, i just want to make sure people can kind of visualize what we’re actually talking about. i did get to see it in that in in the webinar attended that you guys did. and so how does someone move through the ranks through the steps or move from one basically move up the chain, which is essentially along with the columns, right?
dan roman 26:21
do you want to take that one, and
andy burns 26:24
that is, in fact, prosperity. at the end of your prosperity session, the team makes the decision on whether or not they think you’re ready to move up to the next level. and they take that to the project managers, and it’s more or less whatever the team’s decision is the project managers will stand by?
donny shimamoto 26:40
and is this team, the same team that you’re working with on a day to day basis? or absolutely,
andy burns 26:45
it’s generally made up of just people you’ve worked with in recent times, i guess it’s, the more relevant they can add more relevant information they’ll have is if they’ve worked with you more recently. so it’s ideal to make up your prosperity team out of people you’ve worked with closely over the last few months, or if not the last year.
dan roman 27:04
and i’ll offer as well that that team is roughly six people. and that’s a spectrum of roles. so our high tech anthropologists are quality advocates are developers, our goal is, is that you’ve got a cross section of roles within the team who participate in that because, you know, it’s not just relevant that when you know, andy gets his prosperity process, that it’s just the developers giving feedback, because they’re not the only ones who you know, work with him. and there’s going to be different perspectives there. and by the same token, it’s also a cross section of experience. so it’s kind of like we were mentioning earlier donnie, about how you can end up with these kinds of senior junior situations in an in an accounting situation. that’s something that we go out of our way to create in that peer group of you know, about six people such that you have someone more senior than you in the group, but very important, or just as important as having those who are more junior. so for example, my recent prosperity review when i was promoted to senior one, that included one of our brand new associates, i’ve been pairing with him for maybe two or three weeks. and he’s been with menlo for getting close to maybe two or three months. and he was an active and valued participant in the prosperity process on my behalf wasn’t just rich, and james wasn’t just the seniors or anything like that. because, again, it’s about the team, right? like, if the expectation is that we’re all helping each other, it’s just as important that i’m helping, you know, alex, the guy who’s newer to menlo, as, you know, augmenting the existing senior team.
donny shimamoto 28:38
well, i like that. so it’s really it’s you were using the word peer group. but really, it’s kind of like a whole 360 group coming and looking at the stats, that’s, that’s really, that’s even more interesting, i think, because like you said, the often the juniors don’t get to have any input. but here’s, as a junior person, they’re able to say this person is really good at effectively developing me. and we’ve been talking about that a lot in the accounting side to that employee development is one of the keys to really retaining, but also enabling someone to advance where they add more value to the firm. if they’re not getting developed, that’s not necessarily their fault. it’s the fault of the people above and next to them. so it sounds like you guys have that all incorporated into this process.
dan roman 29:24
absolutely. and i’ll offer as well that, that’s also part of how the design of the levels board works as well with those different tiers of associate consultant, senior consultant principle. like andy was mentioning, you can see everyone’s sticky notes within that that tier, and you can see what their pay rate that’s connected to the idea that the value you bring to menlo exists in a lot of ways outside of your role, especially as you get to a more senior position. you know, a principal at menlo or a scene your consultant at menlo is going to look very similar regardless of whether they’re a quality advocate or a high tech anthropologist, because their role is to be a facilitator, a mentor to the larger team, rather than just an all star individual contributor. they’re they’re meant to be just exactly like you said, bringing up, one of the expressions we have is that senior consultants are supposed to help consultants, the more junior tier become senior consultants, and principals are supposed to help senior consultants become principals and so forth. so it really is, again, kind of systematically designed in that it’s the team helping itself. with that we
donny shimamoto 30:37
definitely have that parallel on the accounting side, that expectation that you’re helping to pull everyone up. have you guys had any experience on this with kind of like a superstar? that is like, i should be going faster or anything? is that has any of that type of situation? come in?
dan roman 30:57
i mean, i can, i’ll speak for myself, and then i’ll let you go in andy. but when i first started at menlo, i was very motivated to come in at a more senior level than the team thought i was ready for and enrich at the time, i thought that was, you know, a mistake. but in retrospect, i think, you know, having been around a little bit longer and come to a better understanding of, of what it means to be experienced and to be senior and more. more of a leader at menlo have come to understand, okay, yeah, no, that was that was the right call. but it’s definitely something that can happen, where someone comes in, and they’re like, i want to move faster, i want to move faster. and i think also, the good news is, is that because we’re doing these prosperity processes once a week, not only are we practicing the delivery of here are the things that you’re doing really well to a teammate, are also practicing giving the you know, hard constructive feedback, which means that when the time comes that someone says, hey, i’m i think i’m way more than when i where i am. the team not only can deliver the constructive feedback that may be necessary, but also is practiced in that evaluation process of okay, well, that’s how they feel. let’s think about, is that actually true?
donny shimamoto 32:14
anything to add on to your?
andy burns 32:16
yeah, i was kind of in a similar boat coming into menlo, i came in at the top of the associative track, but was really pushing for that consultant level, not only because i felt like i was ready for it after my experience, but also for the higher pay. i mean, in so that was a bit of a process for me kind of identifying, okay, what is the difference between an associate and a consultant at menlo? and to me, it was just, oh, it’s just a higher level, it’s just a higher rank. it doesn’t, you know, it’s just, it’s just a number, right? but no, really, it’s, as i kind of got used to menlo and settled in and kind of asked a lot of questions to a lot of people to get a better picture of it. it was realizing, oh, the consultant level isn’t just you know, your technical skills as a developer, but it’s also your ability to speak to a client and kind of handle the, the peer-to-peer feedback and conversations. so it made sense to bring me as an associate i, i had good technical skills, but i was pretty bad at talking to people. and i think i’ve really built on those skills in the last few years here. and i’ve moved up the consultative track since but it was definitely a personal growth moment for myself to kind of take a step back and be like, okay, what what are they really asking me like, am i actually ready for that the way i think that i am? so it’s fun kind of redefining things.
dan roman 33:28
there’s a there’s an extra part of that story, too. andy, how did you end up at menlo?
andy burns 33:34
dan and i are friends. they were in a server together that we chat with other friends. and he had just posted, you know, hey, my works looking for developers. and i was at the previous previously mentioned job that had the the annual review process where it was all made up of the points no matter. and i was like, man, i am not really happy in my current role. so yeah, i’ll try out and just send them a message. he set up the the interview process, and that’s kind of like, yeah, i think i could see myself working here.
dan roman 34:07
i offer that just as like an indication of like, i, i was not the one responsible for saying one way or the other what andy’s level was or what his pay was, or anything like that. or if i was involved, i was one voice in a chorus of many. so even though i may have thought to myself, man, i really want andy to work at menlo and i want to make sure we make every accommodation to make that happen. i could not i could not and cannot nor can anyone else at menlo exert undue influence on the level that someone’s hired in or the level that someone is promoted to or not promoted to within menlo, which i think is a very powerful thing, right? like it could have very easily played out in another environment that, you know, i’m an existing member of a team and i’m like, oh, hey, i’ve got this friend over here. that’s kind of a really sweet deal as he comes in such that you know, he’s got a better compensation than someone who comes in through a more, you know, kind of unfamiliar path.
donny shimamoto 35:05
interesting, interesting. so you even have it built into the recruiting and hiring process that. so it’s the kind of like a team interview that is then assessing what level was this person at? present, although in the beginning.
dan roman 35:24
that’s, that’s built out of the fact that we don’t want there to be any surprises, right? like, when we go through the hiring and onboarding process, we want that to look as real and as close to the way the work is done when you become a full time employee. because it’s in our best, it’s in menlo, his best interest, as well as the candidates, right? like, the last thing we want is for there to be a surprise of great oh, this onboarding and his hiring has been awesome. and then two weeks into being a full time employee, or, oh, this isn’t anything that i expected. they hired me individually. but now they’re giving me this like team feedback. like i don’t want any of that it’s, it’s in everyone’s best interest that that pattern is reinforced in as many ways as possible.
donny shimamoto 36:07
like that, and and the years that you raised the another parallel that we definitely have in the accounting where someone comes in, they’re really good at accounting, but their people and communication skills are lacking. and so we have to help them learn that because we’re very consultative and a lot of what we do in accounting as well.
dan roman 36:26
and it goes to show too, that like, you know, we can get, and have gotten people who are rockstar developers, but at the end of the day, seniority on a team has very little to do with your individual skills within a particular, you know, technical role or field or something.
donny shimamoto 36:42
well, that actually, that’s what i was trying to tease out from you, because we’ve got those rock stars too, that feel like i should get paid a million dollars, because i do everything. and i can do everything by myself. and the whole counterpoint is, but this is not just about you. this is about the team. and this is about the firm. absolutely. love it. well, we’re i think we’re just batting up on time. any closing thoughts? what do you do you guys like this? would you endorse this, i actually i kind of hear you guys already have what maybe what is your biggest lesson learned about this process, whether it’s going through it or having helped construct it that you would want others to know?
andy burns 37:22
you gotta be willing to put in the effort, it’s a, it’s not something you can just kind of phone in. when you are kind of like tapped to take part in one of these sessions, you have to really, i find myself at least really going back and going through my notes and seeing anything i might have written down about how someone was working that day or any other feedback, i thought to have given them in the moment, but maybe didn’t, or feedback i found myself giving a few times. so if if you’re not really looking to like us, this is not a fix all solution, you have to be willing to kind of everyone has to put in the effort to discuss these things and come up with actual valuable feedback for the recipient of the prosperity process.
dan roman 38:04
and i think that’s maybe where my, my aha or my insight comes from, is that one of the things that i tell other menlonians about participating in the prosperity process is if you get to the prosperity review for someone and you’re telling a story, or you’re delivering feedback, and i often offer if you’re delivering something that’s critical or constructive, and you haven’t already delivered it to them when you were pairing with them. that’s a red flag. and i use that for myself as something where as i’m pairing with someone day to day, i’m thinking to myself, okay, well, when their prosperity process, what are going to be the things that i talked about, and whatever i talk about, i should be, i should be already having worked through that with my pair partners such that when they get the feedback from the broader team, there’s no surprises. because once again, if you have gotten to the end of the prosperity process, and your your facilitators are sitting down with you and telling you all of the things that the team thinks you’re great at and the things you can do grow at. and if anything comes as a surprise. that’s that’s a bit of a failure of the process. so it’s been a huge motivator for me to practice and be deliberate in really doing that feedback. as as often as is reasonable.
donny shimamoto 39:20
wow. so if i were to summarize what i heard you guys say a lot through this. it’s basically team transparency drives prosperity, transparency in so many different ways. i really like i really thank you guys for spending the time with me. i know we’re not your industry. but i think what you guys are doing is super cool. and i’m actually going to look at how we can start to inquire. i’ve already started talking with our management team about how can we actually incorporate what you guys are doing into what we’re doing. so thank you very much, and thank you to all the listeners out there for joining us for this edition of transformation talks. i encourage anyone that’s listening or are watching us today visit the center for accounting transformation at www improvetheworld.net. hopefully you’ve heard through this how this actually improves the employee experience. and through that we can drive better prosperity throughout the world. so again, find out more on our website www.improvetheworld.net. and if you’re interested in sharing your own transformation stories, please contact us via that website as well. thank you again and i hope to see you on our next transformation talks.