We suspect some of our department managers are hiding the massive productivity gains their teams are getting from AI because they are afraid their budgets and headcount will be reduced. How do we use our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ and quarterly Rocks to drive transparency and realign their incentives?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When department managers conceal productivity gains to safeguard their headcount, it signals a company culture that inadvertently penalizes efficiency. If managers perceive that automating tasks will diminish their department's status, budget, or influence, they will naturally resist technological progress.

Driving Transparency with Level 10 Meetings

To tackle this challenge, leverage your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to bring these issues into the open.

• Objective Scorecard Metrics: Your weekly [Scorecard](/qa/how-to-choose-five-fifteen-scorecard-metrics) must track highly objective, activity-based metrics that measure individual capacity and process efficiency. Look for clear indicators of increased output or reduced manual effort.
• Address Discrepancies with IDS®: When you observe a sudden, unexplained drop in manual hours or a significant spike in output, use the IDS® (Identify, Discuss, Solve) portion of your meeting to address the underlying behavior. The key is to do this without judgment, focusing on the facts revealed by the data. For more on managing scorecard discussions, see [how to review our weekly scorecard in under five minutes](/qa/how-to-review-scorecard-under-five-minutes).

Realigning Incentives with Rocks

Next, realign your managers' incentives by setting quarterly Rocks that explicitly reward them for reducing operational drag and embracing efficiency. Instead of evaluating their success based on the size of their headcount, redefine their key performance indicators on the Accountability Chart to emphasize efficiency metrics.

Consider metrics such as:

• Net profit margin per department.
• Overall processing speed of core deliverables.
• The volume of transactions handled per seat.

Make it unequivocally clear that their primary role is to scale their department's capacity, not to grow their staff. By actively rewarding managers for automating workflows and redeploying resources, your leadership team cultivates an environment where transparency is valued, and new [AI-powered operations](/qa/ai-assisted-sales-follow-up-process) and other forms of technology are eagerly embraced.

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