Life changes fast – so fast we can’t keep pace. We haven’t any choice but to move with the times because we know if we don’t we’re sunk. And when we decide to make the most of it we often find it can be fun.
For some reason it all stops when people become a boss in business. It seems business is expected to change with the times in product development and sales but not in how it manages people. Recently I looked at the Taylor Principles of Management written in the 19th Century and its scary how little they differ from the way bosses manage people today.
The bigger the organization the worse it is. The corporate kings (not too many queens yet) still:
- love starched white shirts, grey suits and ties
- promote bosses for their product knowledge ahead of people knowledge
- only trust staff to be working when they can see the whites of their eyes
- believe the longer you’re at the office the smarter you are
- step over a workaholic's dead body, looking for somebody to meet the next deadline
- see minimum movement as maximum efficiency
- think they know better than the workers.
Is it any wonder business management is one big mess?
Staff are kept in some sort of straight jacket and told “this is the way I (not we) do things here. You can like it or lump it.” In the next breath he (not too often she) is asking "why is the organization having trouble attracting and keeping good staff?”
When are the big bosses going to run business like people (including themselves) run their personal lives? Set goals and let 'em loose to do it their way, in their chosen place, using their own ideas. Give them the right to laugh or even to cry. Give them help when they ask for it, give them respect, because they love it.
The system wouldn’t be perfect but, like we say about life, it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.
No comments:
Post a Comment