Personally this is my favorite disability. Perhaps many of you will agree with me. Others know the frustration all too well and won’t want to agree but will acknowledge frustration with a quiet nod!

As we have described management disabilities over the past in this mini series, the faults or problems that can easily befall us all are put to the test in the management team. This group has to battle the demons that surround the organization and still come out smelling like roses!

In larger organizations, managers feel a need to look good and protect their own credibility. They hire people similar to themselves or people not as smart so they can ‘coach’ them. They look good and their subordinates keep it that way. Wittingly or otherwise. An appearance is created of a well oiled management team, the frog is being boiled. Decisions are compromises and as democratic as a third world government. Decisions are seldom thought through and dialogued, seldom is one voice heard above the others when something doesn’t seem quite right. Disagreement is about laying blame, learning’s are lost, differences hidden, opinions are diverse. Poor frog.

Management teams remind me of the prisoners’ dilemma – the Economics of game theory. When you hold two accomplices and give them the option – talk and walk, send your partner away or your partner shops you for the whole deal. If you both say nothing you are home free. Tough call. How well do you know your partners?

Management teams that are not learning teams will fall over themselves when issues get tough and they have to apply themselves. Teams split, make irrational decisions or support the wrong team mates. With Sarbanes Oxley in effect, this could mean a jail sentence. Pressure kills faster. mmm, is that poor frog in a pressure cooker?

Management’s approach to surviving the top floor has often been to talk fast and talk often, never listening to others that may throw you off your stride or interject with facts.

We reward those that solve the problems not those that pose the problems…

Posing solutions under the guise of being proactive or to be seen as a 'hero' manager makes business management even worse, but managers often use this approach to win favor and gain PR points.

Does this seem like a learning organization in the making?

Get out, learn, dialogue, evaluate, share understand the system

How’s your management team?

Graeme Nichol, Principal Arcturus Advisors (http://www.arcturusadvisors.com), has worked on 4 continents gaining experience through Big Six consulting companies and boutique firms. Working with management to learn and achieve the impossible. In areas including; Business strategy, project management, change management, systems thinking, developing learning organizations, team development, productivity and quality improvement, and large scale ERP implementations.

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