In this era of Participative Management, People Involvement, Employee Satisfaction Programs, Problem Solving Teams, etc. "Management Bashing" seems to have come into vogue. After all, the party line goes, "management got us here and now they want us to get them out of the mess but they don't want to let us do it. They're afraid they'll not get the credit."
Let's get real. I'm in management. I'll agree, for the most part, management made their contribution toward getting us into the mess, but let's face it, they didn't do it single handed. They had some help, including some from today's team player purists. A short time ago, some of them were just as anti-team as anyone. Now that they are "born again" and see the light, they cannot tolerate anyone who's not as holy.
TODAY'S TEAM has become an outlet for this and although I don't wish the bad to overshadow the good that comes from teams, let's examine some of the management bashing we see.
"Management never let's us do anything." This is one of the best ways to rationalize trying to sell half baked, self seeking ideas. When they don't sell, blame it on the management inertia. It's time to look into the mirror. If you didn't do your homework on the idea and it gets shot down, go back and do it right. Of course it's like everything else, you're going to have to work twice as hard to sell now that everyone has a bad taste in their mouth for it.
"They want us to bail them out." Maybe this is true. Of course, if we're looking at our company's future, maybe we had better forget the "them and us" syndrome. You're not safe in either end of a life boat if one end is sinking. Likewise, do you dislike management enough to be uncoperative and jeopardize your job just to see them loose theirs? It's better to bail and save the management than to sink with them.
"They made the problem." This may be true. Try this question, "Could you really have done better?" Did you really see things early enough to avoid mistakes? Would you have made some the managers avoided? In most cases if you are honest, the company would have been no better off under your leadership if you consider all aspects. What makes you so sure you are one hundred percent right now?
Maybe if we saw the real issues, our high waste, high costs, stiff competition, etc. we would start bailing rather than bashing. We could do more good if we quit fighting each other and zeroed in on a common enemy.
PS. That goes too for management who think bashing workers is productive.
Copyright 1991 Ralph E. Brandt, York PA
In most manufacturing environments, blue collar scrap is measured by sophisticated systems that attempt to account for every cent of loss in materials and labor. The followers of Crosby and Demming also include the cost of inspection efforts which wouldn't be necessary if the production worker could always be counted upon to make a good product.
Few organizations have even attempted to measure the cost of scrap which is the result of errors by developers, managers and clerical staff, the white collar scrap. I certainly don't advocate the creation of another monstrosity like the ones we use for blue collar scrap, but the white collar scrap needs to be subjected to some scrutiny. I don't advocate counting scrap sheets of paper from a laser printer but let's take a quick look through these cost components.
How do we cost an error? Let's say a study is being prepared as input to a decision making process. If the error is found before the report leaves the originator's desk, correcting it takes only a few sheets of paper, a little computer time and a small amount of staff time. In many researches and development efforts, these iterations repeat and, the costs of an error escalate rapidly. Some of the most expensive errors are in handling people. Here the legal aspects of a mistake can drive the costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in nothing flat.
If the error is found by the next person in the chain and before it is used to influence a decision, the cost of fixing it is small but the cost of fixing the error and the cost of the error are no longer the same. Not only does the system act upon the error, but the error also changes the organization because once an error is found, the system is modified to look for more of them, this only creates an informal White Collar QA system. The more levels of management in the organization, the bigger the QA system becomes.
If the undetected error survives the review process it moves on to be used to make decisions. The error can now wreak its havock. At the best, a mistake here can cost money to correct the error. Unfortunately, these costs are usually only the beginning of the costs. Damage to reputation, and lawsuits are just among the lists of costs.
Copyright 1990 Ralph E. Brandt, York PA
MANAGEMENT INDEX
Over the years I've seen at least a dozen documents describing how to use communications equipment more effectively. Pagers, phones and answering machines can either be your slave master or they can free you from bondage. I've never seen a document cover things I'll share from my experience.
1) How to terminate a call. All of us have had a caller we needed to "dump" but for some reason it was unacceptable to just hang up. Generally this is because the person can generate some form of retribution. To avoid this, get your finger firmly on the hookswitch and wait until you start to talk. After four words, hang up. The person will never suspect anyone would hang up while talking. This person will call back. To continue the aura of cutoff, let the phone off the hook so the caller gets a busy signal. If the caller catchs you later you can say, "I thought you put me on hold and I waited 20 minutes for you to come back on the line."
2) How to exit a meeting. Everyone has been in an eternal meeting. People keep talking and talking. To make a graceful exit, turn your pager off and back on. When it cycles and beeps look at the number on it, get an angry look on your face and mutter something like, "Not him again" or "I better take that one." You can safely leave because everyone has at least one favorite person they would like to avoid.
3) If you pick up a call and answer with your name it gives you an edge. When the caller gives his name and you realize you don't want this call, begin talking like your recording. "I'm on vacation for two weeks but if you leave your name and number at the tone, I'll get back to you when I return." To provide the tone, press the "1" on the dial pad. Hopefully the person will leave a message and hang up.
4) How to contact service people. Generally it's easy to contact sales people from an organization but difficult to contact the service group. I've found the sales people can be valuable. When you can't get the service group on the phone, call sales. When you get their voice mail, leave a message as if you have called service, then put your phone on speaker and pretend to be unaware that you haven't hung up. Go through a dialog with someone in your office, "Screw them, I'll buy from XYZ Company from now on. At least their service department answers the phone," and hang up. Unless the sales representative is on vacation, you'll get a prompt call.
Copyright 1992 Ralph E. Brandt, York PA
I've been a Techie for nearly 30 years and spent most of my working life surrounded by other techies. We're considered by management a necessary evil and unfortunately, we probably deserve most of our reputation. The best of us tend to exhibit solar syndrome, we expect the organization to revolve around us. That would be bad enough but we also waste a lot of our energy and creativity on managers and accountants, who we consider more the enemy than we so our business competitors. What it really boils down to is we act like spoiled children.
We come up with these fantastic, creative ideas, spend a couple of minutes thinking about them, verbally tell the boss it is a good idea and sulk when he turns it down. Occasionally, we give the idea a little more nurturing before transferring it to the outside world which gives the accountants the opportunity to kill it for insufficient ROI. It takes work to develop an idea into a marketable improvement or product and we frequently don't cut it.
In either case, our handling of an idea is akin to a woman conceiving a child and asking the doctor to deliver it after a five month pregnancy because she don't want to put any more effort into it's development. Many good ideas die this way.
We Techies forget an important fact, Managers are payed to manage and Accountants are payed to account, or whatever they call it.
The manager's job is to get a favorable bottom line while getting the job done at a minimum or hopefully better level. The accountant is another slave who tells him how he is doing and helps determine what projects have future potential. Once we know what makes the accountant tick, it should be easy to get them to work with us. Even something as simple as being honest with him, offering a coffee, or even a promise to quit calling him a bean counter will often get you some help.
The accountant is the guy everyone dumps on. It's his fault if an ROI is too small. It's his fault if he misses some numbers, even if someone hid the information from him. The best way to get his help is to be honest with him. And be honest, if you miss on some of the numbers take the blame, or if you know where some of the problems are tell him -- the next time you take the pressure of looking for negatives off him. He may even cut you a break.
When he gives you the figures, don't harass him if the results aren't good. Thank him. He may have prevented you from making a mistake. If the figures are good, make him a partner in the idea. Present the project with him, you take the technical side, him the financial. He's bought in, he has to help you make it work.
Copyright 1991 Ralph E. Brandt, York PA
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