I love management. There is nothing more satisfying than facing challenges and finding elegant solutions that use available resources in ways that promote efficiency, effectiveness and a high quality of service.
Here are some bits of wit and wisdom that have helped me as I worked at the art of management, first as a practitioner and then as a consultant to practitioners.
A consultant, Bill Sutherland, liked to start presentations on strategic planning with a quotation from Aristotle:
Here are three bits of wisdom from one of my bosses, Maurice Lafontaine:
Kim Abbott, another boss, saw I was having trouble deciding which of three well-qualified candidates to pick for a job. His advice made the choice simple:
Dr. R. O. McFarlane, head of the Carleton University School of Public Administration, didn't have much time for management theory fads:
In the same vein, there is an old joke about a salesman trying to interest a farmer in an encyclopaedia on farming. "This book will teach you how to be a really successful farmer."
The farmer shook his head, "I'm not farming now as well as I know how."
Here are some ideas from that well-known "Anon" person:
A speaker from the US State Department at a conference on international affairs at West Point in 1959 said he always gave this advice to Ambassadors being posted to the Middle East (but I think it can also be useful to someone joining a new organization):
One frantic Christmas Eve, I was about to assemble a complicated Japanese toy. The first step in the instructions helped me then and has helped me since in other stressful situations:
Dr. Corry, Professor of Political Science at Queen's University at Kingston, liked two sayings that although aimed at national and international politics can be applied to management:
A consultant from Toronto, whose name I have forgotten, was asked to speak to a group of financial experts who although highly paid felt unfulfilled. After listening to them talk about their work and unhappiness, he offered two bits of advice:
A writer suggested that a social science education would not be wasted if a student left with three bits of wisdom:
According to a Korean proverb, an emperor became concerned about tribes that were threatening his northern borders. He finally called on his most successful general and told him to take charge of the northern defences, with a promise that the general could have whatever men and supplies he felt he needed.
The general replied that he would have to go to the border first and then tell the emperor what resources he needed. The emperor said there wasn't time, that there were many officers who had been posted at the border who could brief him. The general replied:
Brian Kopke, minister at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, told two stories that I think of often.
A peasant in China on his weekly trip to town met a monk who asked him how things were going.
"Oh bad, our horse ran away and now we will have to do all our work by hand. We will probably starve."
The monk replied, "Who knows what's good, who knows what's bad?"
The following week, the peasant again met the monk who asked how things were going.
"Very good. You know our horse that ran away, well he has returned with a mare and now we have two horses. We will be able to grow lots of rice."
The monk replied, "Who knows what's good, who knows what's bad?"
The next week the monk again asked how things were going.
"Very bad. That new horse kicked my son and broke his arm. Now the son can't help us in the fields and my wife and I are getting old."
The monk replied, "Who knows what's good, who knows what's bad?"
The following week, the monk asked the same question.
"Very good. The king's soldiers came to our village last week and took away all the young men to join the army and probably be killed but they didn't take our son because of his broken arm."
The monk replied, "Who knows what's good, who knows what's bad?"
In the second story told by Brian Kopke, a man named Campbell was captain of a 19th century whaling vessel that sailed from Bristol, England to Hudson's Bay to catch whales for their highly-valued oil. He had a fine reputation both with his company (he brought back many barrels of oil) and the crew members because he was fair, paid them well and brought them back safely to port.
Although he was successful, he had never studied navigation. When people asked him how he found his way to Hudson's Bay and back he would say: "Each night, I go up on deck, look at the stars for a long time, listen to the wind in the sails, and try to get a feel of the sea under my feet. Then I give the wheelsman the course to take."
One year, the whaling firm's insurance company announced it that in future it would only insure vessels that had a captain with formal navigation training. The company directors debated about what to do. They decided that Captain Campbell would not be prepared to go back to school to study navigation and that he would, therefore, have to be released. A director was chosen to break the news to Captain Campbell. The Captain listened to the explanation and then asked if he could be given time to go to navigation school. He said he had always wanted to study navigation.
The surprised company director agreed and Campbell enrolled in a navigation school, the only mature person in classes full of teenagers. He passed the examinations with high marks.
Returning to his company he was given a ship and crew and they sailed for Hudson's Bay. Months later they returned safely, with a large cargo of oil. One of the company directors asked him whether the navigation training had made a difference.
Campbell replied, "Each night, I would take my navigation instruments up on the deck, get the readings, go to my cabin and do all the calculations. Then I would go back up on the deck, look at the stars for a long time, listen to the wind in the sails, and try to get a feel of the sea under my feet. And then, I would correct my calculations."
I have lost the source but I read a magazine article about the CEO of a large American bank who had been an officer in Vietnam. He told an interviewer that one of the problems with the American action in Vietnam was that too little attention was paid to the attitude of the villagers, even though it was recognized that a guerrilla war could not be won without the support of the villagers.
The problem was that measuring the attitude of villagers was hard so the generals decided to find a simpler measure of success. They decided to record the number of 'enemy' killed, and thus began the famous or infamous 'body counts'. It seems clear that choosing 'body counts', led to the killing of innocent villagers, which alienated the people on whom success depended.
To remind himself of this lesson, the CEO had a sign made for his desk that said "To ignore something that is real because it can't be counted is fatal."