Reality into management does not go

Published by Tony Quinlan on

Dave Snowden’s on form here, looking at how

autocratic managers and the dark side of management consultancy have discovered how to keep their penny and still eat the bun.

The way it works is this. You spend a lot of money putting in control systems based on idealised process flows and ways of working. This applies in customer relationship management and health & safety alike along with many other fields. It looks really good on the flow charts. However the day to day reality of dealing with customers, or doing the job (say on an oil rig) means that people have to break the rules. Your business depends on their doing so and as long as it has a good outcome you ignore it. However if something goes wrong, you bring out that rule book and the idealised model and now you have someone to blame: the poor smuck who has been making your business work for you.

It tallies with something that got edited from the recent article on leadership:

Managers work to make reality fit into the hierarchy and processes.  Leaders work to make necessary hierarchy or processes fit reality.

 

Categories: Leadership