Back to Basics

Over the past several years I have witnessed both new "gimmicky" management fads and sophisticated systems which are well meaning but fall short in moving organizations forward for desired results. More than that, they sometimes have an adverse effect by confusing the masses on what we are trying to accomplish as an organization. People get mesmerized with their intellectual concepts rather than simplistic practice of sensible, workable and understandable methods.

Lost is the Art and Skill of ....

* Forget your MBA!
What happened to your MBWA? Sam Walton built an empire with his ability to "Manage By Walking Around." He was not stuck in his office pouring over the latest Six Sigma results (which has the potential of protecting the status quo) or the fancy metric indicators. He was out talking to customers, associates and managers. He was finding out first hand what was working and where the gaps were that hindered success.

* Eyeball Skill!
Give me a manager who possesses 1/10th of eyeball skill and he/she will "see" things. Managers who have eye ball skill are managers who find, opportunity for improvement, production and quality issues, laziness, drugs in the work place, sexual harassment, leadership potential of others and a host of other important activities in his/her area. Store managers will SEE what goes on with the customer and associate relationships.

* Curiosity!
People are not curious anymore. Especially managers. They are not asking questions in a sincere way because they have forgotten how to be "curious." They should be constantly asking "why" and "how can we make things better." And of course we should be asking the people who have an intimate relationship with the processes every day i.e. those who actually do the work. Many have lost (if they ever had it) the art/skill of asking questions. They would rather give answers to questions that haven't even been asked.

* Imagination!
Albert Einstein said "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Seth Godin goes on to suggest that leaders create things that didn't exist before. They do this by giving a group a vision of something that could happen, but hasn't (yet). You can't manage without knowledge and you can't lead without imagination.

* Common courtesy!
Simple communication. With the advent of email, facebook and twitter, we have lost the art/skill and common courtesy of talking to people. We have become cowards in facing conflict and have lost the blessing of talking and hearing from close friends and colleagues. We have lost the opportunities to just dialogue . You know...stopping by someone's office and saying..."Hey, let me run something by you." We have the lost the common/professional courtesy of acknowledging that someone has sent us a message, both verbally or by means of technology.

* Simple visuals.
In management we have lost the art/skill of simple measurement charts (hand drawn) and financial information has been replaced with computer generated graphics which are brilliant in apperance, but have become wall paper on most company bulletin boards. Seldom noticed, even less often talked about i.e. communicated.

We don't have to revert to the old ways, and we don't need to throw out the old for the new. Using the new systems and techniques would be good, IF we could regain the ART and SKILL to communicate the meaning and purpose and then use them to connect with people.
Just a thought...