| re .0
> At a meeting, is the person who suggests "Let's not study this one to
> death, let's just do it."?
>
> (a) the most senior manager in the room
> (b) the most junior employee in the room
> (c) on his or her way out of the room
> (d) on his or her way out of the company
(e) the most junior manager in the room?
In any event, decision is not made, but after meeting one or more people
agree to ignore the system and do the right thing. Right thing gets done
on employees' own time. Popular acclaim by peers, no acknowledgment from
management, unless lucky. NODdies present at meeting take exception, and
then regroup to formulate "official" version of "unofficial" (yet completed)
said "thing."
On a less cynical note, committees (whether official or unofficial) form
when:
- no single person is responsible
- no single person wants to be responsible
- no single person gets the reward when "thing" is done
- no one in the room has decision-making authority
If you've seen the latest "Indiana Jones" movie, you'll recall where
Indy takes his leap of faith, as it turns out, onto a bridge which
cannot be seen. A successful manager learns to take the same leap in
delegating decisions and jobs to subordinates. (Note, I said _both_
decisions and jobs.) No faith? Manage by committee.
Committees and cross-functional teams have their place, but more often than
not, they just prove that no one's in charge. And the only successful
committees I've seen are where _individuals_ pick up the ball and get the
job done, at considerable risk and little reward -- they get to keep
failure all for themselves, but spread success over the entire committee.
I've seen it happen first-hand.
/Peters
|