A Simple Management Theory

I got this from Aziz Ahmad in one of my chat sessions with him in the PPP library those days when he was the President of IUSC.

I call it Aziz's Simple Management Theory.

Imagine this: a group of building contractors doing handy work on the ground floor of a skeletal building. Their supervisor perches on the first floor looking down on his working contractors. He sees how each and every one of them perform their work, some nailing, some sanding, some work in pairs taking in planks and boards for the contruction. He sees how the contractors interact with each other; he acknowledges those who have leadership abilities, and those who are better at following than at leading. He notices those who comments a tad too much on his peers' work yet not delivering his tasks any better. He takes notes on those needing guidance, and makes sure that they are assigned mentors to help enhance their skills. In short, he notices and recognizes the skills and personality of each and every one of them.

But when he is analyzing them, all are very occupied with their work. None looked up to see what the supervisor was doing while the rest of them were working. None took the time to glance if the supervisor was nodding off or if he was daydreaming.

After a while, the supervisor gets a little tired, and decides to take a break. He stretches and relaxes his back, and looks at a few birds flying afar. He thinks of dinner and what would be nice to relieve his hunger. It was at that moment, one of his subordinates looks up and sees the supervisor dreaming away. The contractor thinks "And that is what he has been doing all day when all of us down here work our arses off!". The contractor gets angry, and during break time, tells some of his peers what he saw and got some of them to be as angry as he is.

The story did not end there, but I'm sure most of us can relate much to it and come up with similar endings.

It means to relate that most staff are not able to see what the management does because they are too occupied with their tasks and assignments. Unfortunately, the time when they do see the management is when the management is fooling around and relaxing thus making the staff believe that the only thing that managements does is having fun.

It is so unfortunate that it is so true. Whether we are still a "kuh-li" given the task to lead our peers, or if we are outrightly part of the management team.

The only way is to give the staff a try at sitting in as a leader. Give him/her a hands-on experience at dealing with his/her kind.

That is, if you are willing to risk a failed project to add to the organization's name.

:D