Fend of the Middle Management Fiefdoms
Three circumstances occurred this week which screamed out a loud and clear
message to senior management.
Here are the three scenes; can you spot the message?
Scene 1 :
The full page glossy colour ad for the latest range of PCs leaps off the page of the business mag and punches my red light receptor as I continue flipping lazily on through the mag. Warning! Warning! pulsates my subconscious siren - This Is It!
I go back to the ad. Sure enough - there it is : beside each state of the art PC is a bright red starburst announcing in bold yellow type "comes installed with Windows95".
Scene 2 :
The pleasantly fed and watered audience listens attentively to my after dinner speech on key future trends in government and business. (Or have they have mastered the enviable technique of dozing with their eyes open??)
Question time: "Our national society of (ethics prevent me from disclosing which professional group, but hint-hint - they focus on teeth but are not dentists, dental surgeons or medicos) is currently having discussions with the (national professional association who are probably dentists) regarding the national professional association's decision to continue to withhold permission for us to provide an additional service option for our clients. What should we do to change their narrow view?"
Scene 3 :
A workshop participant from the executive of the state public service tells us of his department's vision statement, explaining it took 18 months of hard yakka and many tortuous meetings to nail down the words of where they want to be in 5-10 years time. The top management are very pleased with what it says. The people way down the ranks find it helpfully clarifies lots of issues they face daily - they can even tell other PSers and civvies just what their team is on about. BUT, the middle managers appear to be totally ignoring what it says. They act as if it does not exist. Nothing changes. To the senior and junior staff, this is a big problem. How to budge the middle managers?
Have you recognised the common disaster in these 3 situations? Yes - FIEFDOMSHIP.
Well, maybe you did not use this exact word, but you got the drift, right?. Protection of territory. Demarcation defensiveness. Mine (not yours) power. Which inevitably leads to Compulsive Competitiveness, a win-lose mindset, and a huge waste of positive synergistic energies.
Let's look at those 3 living demos again, starting with the PS department's immovable middle managers (MM).
Why are these career achievers clinging to the past? Basically, because it is all they know, all they can trust, and all they care about. They paid their dues (some quite heavily in terms of sacrificing personal growth and professional satisfaction) to get up there to middle management and dammit, they aren't going to roll over for no one.
Some MMs recognise they have reached their peak and will probably go no higher. They must shore up the battlements to defend against all potential encroachers from below and above - a siege mindset.
Some MMs. still on the move up, are aware of the keen young juniors snapping at their heels wanting the MM's job. The whippersnappers are waiting for an opportunity to advance, just as the MM is hovering vulture-like for a senior management vacancy.
These MMs have to protect their backside while remaining ever on the alert to quickly lunge forward and up the ladder. Very stressful, taxing of energy, and diverting from the MM's job to hand. Executive whiplash from a constantly jerking head is common to this group.
Both these types of Middle Managers must view all change as automatically a threat to their fiefdom , their power base, and their secure operating platform. They cannot afford to relax their protective processes to check out the likely outcome of any proposed change. To weaken may be fatal.
So these MMs not only have a closed mind but they are active agents against change. If you want change, you are an enemy to their fiefdom.
The second scene presents another kind of fiefdom, that based on the professional territorial imperative. Definitions of where their patch begins and ends have evolved in Oz for 150+ years - how dare you try to make sudden shifts now!
They believe that just because huge changes are occurring very rapidly these days, that does not mean the boundaries should be moved. Especially if it is a conservative profession operating on gawd-given status and values.
What is typically occurring across most of the professional institutions of society (law, medicine, accounting, engineering, architecture, education, and government) is that, egad, the underlings at the technical level are usurping the hierarchical status because their knowledge seems more useful and relevant to the marketplace and client needs. But good heavens, it is just not cricket, Old Boy.
Technologists and technicians are what Peter Drucker calls the productivity knowledge workers - the key source of commercial success now and into the future.
The Jurassic conservatives in the professions are reacting in fear based on ignorance, in the only way they know how, which is to deny that significant changes are taking place and to pretend the old systems and fiefdoms reign supreme. If you do not walk and talk fiefdom, they will pretend you do not exist. Simple.
The very first circumstance mentioned above is perhaps the most subtle and therefore the most worrisome of the three demonstrations of fiefdomship. Windows95 is the newest baby from Bill Gates' Microsoft high tech nursery. Bill Gates, as both a recent Fortune mag and his hot off the press autobiography have pointed out, is rapidly becoming the most powerful person in the world.
Bill Gates increasingly controls the world flow of information. Information is a building block of knowledge. Bill Gates is increasingly controlling access to world knowledge.
Now according to the latest unsolicited opinion poll (so who asked you, anyway?), my associates insist on telling me that I am a (often ridiculously) positive person. I have to tell you that I find Bill Gates' strategies for even greater control over the flow of info (knowledge), very very scary.
What has this got to do with the ad? Well, one brilliant strategy Gates/Microsoft is using to gain further control over the flow of info is by insisting that the world use Microsoft software to access info. The best way to make this happen is to virtually (ahem, cyberpun) GIVE his software to people. In fact, make them accept the gift.
So when you are buying your new hotsie-totsie computer hardware, you will most likely find Windows95 is the "free" operating system already installed on your new machine. Simple. There it is and there you are - a Microsoft Windows95 user. And a captive user of future Windows upgrades, advanced features, add-ons, etc.
What if you do not want to be a Windows95 robot? Aha ! You have to pay more for your new hotsie-totsie computer because Gates/Microsoft have an agreement with most hardware distributors that they will exclusively install Windows95 as the operating system on all new computers they sell. If the customer wants a different system, say DOS, then the customer must pay extra.
Most customers prefer to save dollars rather than principles of freedom of choice, so guess what is happening? Yup, just what Gates planned - a massive increase in the power of his fiefdom. (Although I believe the early sales of Windows95 have not met worldwide expectations - perhaps because of an intuitive reaction against this attempt at consumer coercion ? I would like to think so.)
So what can we do when confronted by either Jurassic conservative fiefdoms or power-play cyberspace fiefdoms ?
First, recognise that fiefdoms still exist in management.
Second, recognise that fiefdoms will continue to exist as long as there are serfs (that's you & I) to support the fief-chiefs.
Third, recognise that if we do not want the fiefdoms to exist, we must actively discourage them. We need to function as if they do not exert power over us. Ignore them. Find ways to get on with your goals, your vision, your initiatives that pay as little attention as possible to the fiefdoms.
For the Windows95 fiefdom, be prepared to shop around and pay a bit more for a wider choice of operating system - perhaps consider having more than one system installed on your computer.
For the on-the-move trades and professions surpassing the old knowledge of the conservative professions, recognise that the real power base lies with the customer.
Inform your clients that you are being impeded, by the old guard of your profession, from offering better knowledge and products in a better way. Have faith that Aussie consumers are waking up and demanding to make up their own mind and own choices.
The Jurassic professionals in our global village will have to bow to customer pressure eventually, so operate as if this will happen sooner rather than later. By operating as if it is occurring, you help make it happen. Go for the win-win - the customer wins, you win. The Jurassic die off.
Similarly, if you are being held back by stuck-in-the-middle management resisting change, get on with your own agenda to the greatest extent you can.
- Form alliances with souls who share your understanding of the world. Take those healthy risks that thrive on healthy chaos.
- Live life to the max and move around the frightened little people who cannot cope with change. Do not waste time or energy attempting to shift them - you probably won't get a good enough return on your energy/time investment and besides, you have great things to make happen for yourself.
- Also, they have as much right to be frightened, insecure, paranoid, protectionist, and negative as you have to be the opposite.
- Let them get on with self-destruction while you get on with fulfilling your passion to grow and excel.
A wise man said a few years ago:
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light. Plato
Business Directions 4 Dec 1995
printer friendly version | Tell a Friend