transition into management

July 5, 2007

Transition Into Management

B. Michael Aucoin

IEEE Engineering Management Society Twin Cities Chapter Meeting

Sponsored by: IEEE Engineering Management Society

Course Presenter’s Biography

Dr. B. Michael Aucoin provides consulting and corporate training in engineering management and project management, drawing upon his extensive experience in management of diverse technology projects and his excellence in training. Dr. Aucoin has a reputation as a knowledgeable and entertaining trainer, earning participant comments such as, “I’ve NEVER had so much fun in a workshop.” He has delivered short courses in engineering and project management that for several corporate, professional and institutional audiences with outstanding evaluations. He has served as an instructor for several courses at Texas A&M University, including a graduate course in Total Quality Management. Dr. Aucoin’s expertise and experience with leading edge technology projects enables him to provide a rich training environment. He has worked for large and small technology companies, including General Electric. Presently, he is President of Electrical Expert, Inc., and Keys to Management, a College Station, Texas based company that provides project management training and litigation support and expert witness consulting in electrical engineering. Dr. Aucoin has experience in electric power, energy management, energy strategy, project management, engineering management, and e-business. Projects that he has worked on have been recognized with the R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine and the Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers. He is also a recipient of a Third Millennium Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as an IEEE Working Group Award as Co-Editor of an electric power tutorial course. Dr. Aucoin holds five patents and has earned the Project Management Professional Certification provided by the Project Management Institute. He is also a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Engineering Management Society and served as their Vice President of Education.

IEEE Expert Now [DOUBLE CLICK then Type in Course Name] Transcript pg. 2 / 22

Course Presenter’s Biography

Dr. Aucoin has a reputation for outstanding written and oral communication skills. He authored the book, From Engineer to Manager, Mastering the Transition, (Artech House, 2002). He also authored the chapter on “Total Quality Management” in The Handbook of Technology Management, (CRC Press, 1998). He is presently writing the book, Right Brain Project Management, to be published by Management Concepts, Inc. in 2006. Dr. Aucoin received a Bachelor of Science, in Engineering Science from the University of New Orleans in 1976. He received a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M in 1978, and a Doctor of Engineering from Texas A&M in 1982.


Course Outline

The course content will be a summary of the material from my book, "From Engineer to Manager: Mastering the Transition" (Artech House, 2002). Most engineers become managers in their careers, and typically they are unprepared for the transition. This course presents to the learner, the knowledge and tools needed to quickly gain skill and confidence with the world of management. This transition calls for the engineer to exercise six core principles that are critical for success as a manager:

♦ Mastering Relationships ♦ Seeing the Big Picture ♦ Getting Things Done ♦ Communicating Effectively ♦ Using Assets Wisely, and ♦ Taking It to the Next Level

After completing this course you should be able to develop an understanding of:

♦ Skills needed for success in management ♦ The five success principles needed for effectiveness in management


Course Summary / Key Points

Course Summary / Key Points To do well in management, one must:

♦ Lead… to bring about positive change ♦ Motivate… to engage passion in team members ♦ Organize… to create and follow the right framework to meet team goals ♦ Communicate… to make sure that we are clear with one another, and, ♦ Satisfy… to take care of the needs of our customers and associates and bring pride

in our accomplishments. The unifying theme for these five principles is an emphasis on people and their needs. Remember that this is a significant change in emphasis for the technical professional. But making this change brings rewards and satisfaction. Management can be a very rewarding and very satisfying career path for the technical professional.

Related IEEE Expert Now Titles Include: ♦ What it Takes to be an Innovator by Gerard (Gus) Gaynor ♦ Stuff You Don’t Learn in Engineering School by Carl Selinger


Course Transcript

Transition into Management Welcome to Mastering Management. My name is Michael Aucoin and I will be your host for this course that will introduce you to the skills and knowledge needed to make the transition from a technical role to a management role in an organization.

Audience This course is intended for individuals who are entering management or plan to become a manager at some time in the future, so it is also intended for college students. It will also benefit those individuals who are presently in management but who would like to improve their effectiveness in management.

Objectives After completing this course you'll be able to demonstrate an understanding of the skills needed to be successful as a manager and identify the five principals that are critical for effectiveness in management. Putting these simple skills and principals into practice will help you make the transition to management easier and more rewarding for you and your organization.

Challenges in Transition Surveys have shown that most individuals who come from a technical background, such as engineers, will eventually enter management. Generally a technical curriculum in college leaves little room for management subjects, and many organizations fail to provide proper training in management. It is no wonder that most of these individuals who transition to management feel frustrated and ineffective as managers. Success and effectiveness in management requires different skills, and a different mindset, than those that bring success in technical fields. But don’t get discouraged; management skills are not difficult to learn and practice. In fact you really already know them, but before we talk specifically about these skills let's look at an all too common situation.

Common Situation Jen was recently promoted to project manager after working as an engineer for three years out of college. She has inherited a software project that is behind schedule. She has just learned that a software engineer on her team has been coding a function that was not specified in their contract with the customer. It is tempting for her to let him finish coding the


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new module because it would make for a technically superior product. But doing so would make the project fall further behind schedule and break the budget, not to mention the complexity added with more testing, integration and documentation. Furthermore, it is not clear that the customer even wants the improvement. What should she do? This is a common situation; technical personnel often value technical function, even technical elegance, over other important considerations. If you find yourself in a situation such as Jen did, there is hope. By understanding and applying some fundamental principles, you can achieve success as a manager.

Management Effectiveness One of the greatest challenges for the technical professional entering management is to let go of a dominant focus on technical elegance in design. In college and often in formative jobs, engineers and technical professionals are guided by and judged on technical prowess. But this dominant focus can get a manager in trouble. Certainly, managers must still deliver technically functional and superior products, and do so in a way that maintains healthy attitudes and relationships. But they also must do so within constraints of budget and schedule. In brief, managers must be able to lead teams to accomplish goals within a framework of requirements and constraints. To be a good manager, what is needed is good “people skills,” or “soft skills.”

Guiding Theme There is one fundamental theme that guides the successful transition to management. Effectiveness in management requires an emphasis on people, and their needs. Remember to focus on relationships and you will go a long way to becoming a better manager. Now let’s take this fundamental theme and look a little deeper. What are the components of an emphasis on people and relationships?

Five Success Skills Management involves five essential skills. To do well in management, one must:

♦ Lead… to bring about positive change ♦ Motivate… to engage passion in team members ♦ Organize… to create and follow the right framework to meet team goals ♦ Communicate… to make sure that we are clear with one another, and, ♦ Satisfy… to meet the needs of our customers and bring pride among our team

members.


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As you might expect, there is some overlap in these skill areas; for example, communicating well is an important component of leadership. However, highlighting each of these five areas will help you understand and develop all of the fundamental areas you need in management. We will now explain each of these skills and their importance in managing effectively.

Leading The first success skill for management is leading, being a leader. In your position as a manager, you will need to be a leader. Ultimately, nothing significant and worthwhile in an organization gets done without leadership, and leadership is always needed in every organization throughout the organization. Unfortunately, we’ve become rather inconsistent, if not downright confusing, in how we apply the terms leadership and management, or the roles of leader and manager. Management is the organization and supervision of people and tasks. Leadership, as a concept, is bringing about worthwhile change. Improvement implies change, and change requires leadership. Unfortunately, many people avoid leadership, and their jobs and organizations suffer for it. Next, let’s look at some of the reasons for, and the myths behind, avoidance of leadership roles.

Leadership Myths The first myth is, “I am not a leader.” This may be a substitute for saying, “I don’t want to be a leader.” In fact, every one of us has been a leader at many times in our lives. Just because we don’t have the title of “Leader” or some equivalent doesn’t mean that we can’t lead. And forget the term “born leader.” The truth is we are all born leaders. As a corporate trainer in short courses, I facilitate an exercise where people in small groups assume roles in a typical organization. The exercise is structured so that the participants encountered typical workplace challenges. Overcoming the challenges requires leadership. It is uncanny but the groups that are successful almost always have someone at the bottom of the organization, a “grunt worker”, who steps up and assumes a leadership role. Waiting on the boss to exercise leadership hinders improvement at many, many organizations. The second myth builds on the first – the belief that there is one leader who directs the actions of followers. This is the military model of organizations: the sergeant shouts an order, and the privates salute and execute the order.


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If our organization is healthy we all move back and forth rather seamlessly between leading and following depending on the situation. Those in charge of teams need to encourage their troops to step forward and assume leadership roles. Many people believe that leaders have to be charismatic and the leadership style must bring about dramatic change or effects. While charisma and drama help in some situations in the vast majority of cases the leadership needed is mundane and unassuming the type of leadership that is usually needed is just for someone to do something. This may seem like a trivial concept but it is a major stumbling block for managers and organizations.

What Does Leading Involve? So what does it mean that someone do something? Think about the traditional Dutch story of the boy who stuck his finger in the leaking dike and kept it there all night to prevent a flood. He didn’t say to himself, “Well, this is not my job,” or, “We need to form a committee to study the various flood management options available.” The boy saw the problem and took action to solve the problem. He practiced leadership. Here is another situation that calls for leadership; the unpleasant truth that everyone wants to ignore. Think about the children’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and you will get the idea. A classic example occurs in an organization when everyone knows that the project is woefully late, but we maintain the ruse to delay the day of reckoning with the customer. It drains a lot of energy from an organization to keep a big lie going. A leader has the courage to face reality and help others do so – to get the team unstuck. It is important to be judicious in stating what is obvious but hard to admit. Focus on solutions, not finding a scapegoat to blame. Leaders don’t spend their time only working on problems. They look for opportunities with the attitude, “hey, there is a great place out on the horizon – let’s go!”

How Do We Lead? Healthy organizations depend on distributed leadership, where a broad group of people feel comfortable stepping into leadership roles as appropriate. This is best accomplished by facilitating ownership. When people see a personal stake in an issue they naturally get more involved in creating a successful outcome. Drive through a neighborhood where individuals own their homes, then drive through a neighborhood of rental properties and you can clearly see that ownership encourages more active care. What is the need that drives us? Is there a pressing problem to solve? What about the once in a lifetime opportunity? We identify the issue, what needs to be accomplished. In most organizations this task falls naturally to management but those at the grass roots levels can do so too.


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The next step in leadership is a vision. What does the solution or the opportunity look like? A shared vision of the outcome is very important so that we will all be working toward the same end. A vision can be as simple as a prototype or an artists rendering of a final product. Develop the vision with appropriate input from key individuals. Suppose our family is planning a vacation in Italy. I may be excited about the trip for the opportunity to see classic works of art. Another family member can't wait to eat great pasta. Still a third may only be interested in hiking in the Italian Alps. If I arbitrarily impose my own vision of the vacation I can alienate the others. If we all formed a vision we are much more likely to engage the enthusiasm of everyone. The final element of leading is organizing the effort and following through to execute the necessary tasks. When we have developed a good foundation through facilitating ownership, being clear about the need, and collectively seeing the vision, the organization in follow through become much easier.

Leadership at Work Here is an example to illustrate leadership at work. Consider a production facility with several departments as in the flow chart. Department A assembles a subsystem that goes to Department B for further assembly. There is also assembly at Departments C and D. These subassemblies from these two paths then proceed to Department E for integration and final assembly. Note the assembly times. Suppose we want to increase the number of products delivered per hour. A manager may be tempted to tinker with getting all the stations to work faster, but the leader goes after meaningful and worthwhile change. Can you see that the assembly in Department B limits the entire operation? It has a long assembly time. The other departments could cut their assembly times in half but that would have little affect on the overall production right at the plant. If we want meaningful change we must focus our attention, energy, and resources at B, because it is the bottleneck. It seems simple, why would leadership be needed here? Well in many organizations the other departments may not see any benefit for themselves for helping B. Perhaps relieving the bottleneck at B would require that Department C be willing to give up much of its budget or staff. They may not be too crazy about that. A leader will help all of the departments work through the vision to see that they all benefit if they help B. You’ve just learned a great approach to organizational improvement. It’s called constraint management, or critical chain management: identifying the bottleneck, and rallying resources to lead to meaningful change. We have now covered an important part of being a manager, and that is being a leader. And we noted that nurturing motivation is an important part of leadership. Now let’s talk about motivation.


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Motivating Motivation is the second success skill for a manager. It is a simple fact of human nature - we naturally and eagerly do the things we want to do and avoid the things we don’t want to do. In one case we’re motivated; in the other case we are not motivated. Many, if not most, organizations struggle with how to motivate their workers. And this is the big pitfall of motivation: we really can't motivate anyone else, we can only motivate ourselves. Or more accurately, we are either motivated or we are not. What organizations and managers can do is fashion an environment that makes it easier for people to feel motivated. This is an important topic for a manager. When your team members are motivated, there is practically nothing they can’t accomplish. But how do you create the right environment for motivation? The key is to engage passion, and passion comes from finding meaning in work.

What Motivates? To lay the foundation for motivation let's revisit three major concepts in the development of management science. The first of these was a research project at Western Electric’s Hawthorne manufacturing plant in the 1920s. The studies started as an attempt to show a link between illumination levels and worker productivity. Initial results proved that this obvious link was indeed true – workers were more productive when they could clearly see what they were doing. It seems simple. But something astonishing occurred when control studies were done. Productivity also improved when lighting levels were held constant, and even when illumination was diminished! It seemed that productivity improved no matter what was done to lighting within reason. The researchers had stumbled on an amazing discovery. Productivity improved because someone took an interest in what the workers were doing! It made them feel important. Now, come back to the present for some bad news. Most managers do a poor job of showing interest in the work done by the people they supervise. One survey found that over 60 percent of people in organizations feel their bosses place little importance in them or in their work. There are two lessons from the Hawthorne studies. First, take a genuine interest in the work of your team members. And second, understand that human beings are complex. Employees are not animals or robots that will respond dependably to simple motivators. It is often a tremendous temptation for a manager to manipulate employee motivation. Attempts at manipulation usually fail when employees outsmart their managers.


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Carrot and Stick Let’s look at two classic and simple motivators: the carrot and the stick. Few people overtly use the stick for punishment but many managers unknowingly create de-motivators in the workplace. Frederick Herzberg observed that many factors surrounding a job did little to improve motivation, but they could readily diminish motivation if they were missing. This is known as his Hygiene Theory. Many managers believe that a great salary or commission will motivate a worker. In reality a good salary is not a dependable motivator, but if someone perceives their salary to be too low it becomes a demotivator. To really confuse the matter some people with huge salaries absolutely hate their jobs. And many people who volunteer their time are just thrilled with their work. Many administrative policies and job perks fall into the category of Hygiene factors. Herzberg provided a sequel to the Hygiene Theory. He also observed that factors intrinsic to the work were the factors that led to satisfaction and motivation. These motivating factors included achievement, recognition, the opportunity for growth and advancement and a person’s interest in the work. Think of hygiene factors as physiological – workers need income, and they need a relatively comfortable environment. Motivating factors are psychological – the need for recognition and the opportunity to do something worthwhile and grow. Humans need to have both the physiological and psychological needs satisfied; it’s just that they mean different things to us. If you want to turn on the motivation, you must address the psychological needs.

Keys to Motivation To get to the crux of motivation, let’s look at the third development from management science. Abraham Maslow observed that human needs could be considered in a succession of five hierarchical levels. As we meet needs at lower levels, we develop needs in higher levels. At the lowest level is what we need for physiological function: we need air, water, food, shelter and warmth to simply live. When these needs are met, we develop and recognize needs for security and safety. At the third level, we have a need for companionship and love. Most people in our industrialized society have pretty much satisfied their needs in these lower three levels. But see how this ties in to the Hygiene theory. If something in our work environment feels inadequate, we feel dissatisfied. If our environment meets our lower level needs, we develop and recognize the higher level psychological needs, and we look significantly to our work to help meet those needs.


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The fourth level in the hierarchy is esteem, self-esteem and the esteem of others. This category includes the recognition that both the researchers found was critical to motivation. The top needs level is self-actualization, to realize one’s potential. It is safe to say that we can never fully realize our potential, but it is crucial that people have the opportunity for growth and development to help satisfy their need for self-actualization. The keys to motivation are in the fourth and fifth levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In the workplace it is receiving the esteem of peers and supervisors, getting to work on something meaningful, and having the opportunity to grow.

Motivation in Practice Most people come to the workplace with a strong but dormant need to do something worthwhile, and to be seen doing something worthwhile. I say dormant because so many people have struck a bargain with their employers. Give me a decent job at decent pay and I won’t expect to find any particular meaning there – if I want meaning I’ll look for it elsewhere. This is a tremendous waste of human energy and ingenuity. Motivation is driven by passion, and passion is driven by meaning. When people are doing things that are worthwhile to them and when they are recognized for their efforts, it frees up incredible creative energy. There are any number of powerful and meaningful motivators for teams. Let’s look briefly at one example. Think about the evolution of a Linux operating system. It started as the work of a single graduate student and grew to involve thousands of programmers. It became not only an operating system but a movement, even a revolution. Many who worked on Linux did so without compensation for a product that was given away for free. The Linux experience speaks volumes about motivation. Why would anyone put in hours of work on Linux with no pay? Some did to improve the performance of their own computers. But the driving forces behind Linux were much more psychological. These professionals were driven by the quest for the Holy Grail of perfect code. They were jazzed by the opportunity for rich interaction with their professional peers throughout the world blasting through arbitrary and constricting organizational boundaries. Above all, these Davids relished the fight with Goliath: they were consumed with the prospect of driving a stake through the heart of Microsoft. Motivation is often a spontaneous, serendipitous, grassroots force. Managers can’t generate motivation, but they can influence it. And that brings us to our next principle.

Organizing Our third success principle for managers is organizing to structure and frame the process.


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We’ve already talked about the military model of one leader who barks orders to the troops. I’m the leader, I tell you exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. This model is attractive because it seems to bring certainty. We know that humans are not robots and in fact they also did not like the boot camp treatment. How do I as a manager, get my team members to do what they need to do? Remember people only do what they want to do so the key for a manager is helping team members see the light. Not only to be motivated, but when motivated, to do the right work to be effective. Organizing work is about creating the structure that ensures the right work gets done. We are looking for both motivation and certainty in the outcome. Think of this principle as channeling or focusing activity. And remember two words; collaboration and communication. As a manager, you need to take the lead in these two areas to organize work. Managers have a lot of influence on setting the framework for the work to be done, but when it is done in collaboration with subordinates and peers, they all develop a sense of ownership. In this section we will also briefly touch upon project management, because so many managers are called upon to lead projects and so many managers encounter problems with their projects.

Theory X, Theory Y Look closer at the direct control style of management and you can see some disturbing assumptions. This style is based on the belief that workers are not motivated and must be coerced to work. Workers can't figure out what needs to be done; only the leader is intelligent or insightful. This is a condescending attitude. Management observer Douglas McGregor named this attitude Theory X. While Theory X in its hard form is scarcely found in the workplace, it still flourishes in soft and subtle forms. My family occasionally has lunch at a local outlet of an international franchise restaurant. One of my kids always wants a ham sandwich. Unfortunately the management of the chain has determined that this sandwich shall be a ham and cheese sandwich. Their computer and their entire process insist on this sandwich having cheese. But my child doesn’t like their cheese, so we have learned to order a ham and cheese sandwich without the cheese. The puzzled clerk has to call the manager every time and after considerable head scratching the manager enters the order as a ham and cheese sandwich and then runs back to the kitchen to tell them to hold the cheese. They get it right about half the time. This is an example of soft Theory X at work. Management has concluded that its staff is not intelligent enough to build a custom sandwich. And this assumption becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Every day in the work place there are all sorts of policies, assumptions, and decisions made with the soft Theory X mindset. Often management is afraid of what might happen if the staff is allowed too much latitude in decision making. While the Theory X style is needed in some


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situations it is largely counterproductive. McGregor’s alternate theory, Theory Y, takes a completely different view of human nature. People seek work as an expression of themselves and their creativity. Work is something that can bring pride. People are intelligent and can contribute to the definition of their jobs. Under the right conditions people seek increasing levels of responsibility and use their ingenuity to solve problems. In a Theory Y world there is a lot of intelligence and creativity available to get to work, but there are two challenging parts about being a Theory Y manager.

Collaborate and Communicate Being a Theory Y manager means giving up a lot of control, and this can be unsettling. It means trusting team members to come up with good approaches. I’m not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and blindly trust everyone. A manager can judiciously turn over chunks of an issue to a subordinate and allow the subordinate to contribute in a meaningful way. This is collaboration. Collaboration means that team members actively participate in setting the agenda. Individuals are much more likely to take ownership if they take part in designing the work. They are more invested; the work has their fingerprint. Here the key is to channel the effort to make sure that the work is done in harmony with whoever is paying for this. Don’t tell team members how to do everything, let them work out the details. You may not always like their choices, but often the workers come up with better solutions than the managers. The second challenge for the Theory Y manager is the potential for unwanted deviations. Sometimes these are based upon unstated assumptions. For Theory Y to work, a lot of communication is needed. It is important at the start, and on an ongoing basis to ensure that we have not deviated away from what is important. Make sure that everyone understands and appreciates the overall vision, or the big picture. For example, workers at Disney World are practically indoctrinated with the culture that their job is to make visitors happy. When faced with an unusual or new situation, their workers can rely on this “big picture” core value and usually work out the details without needing to consult a supervisor.

Project Management Project management is a special case of organizing, and projects are so prevalent that most managers will need to learn and practice project management. Projects are very important to organizations, and it is important that managers become skilled in managing projects well. Unfortunately, many projects fail and cause great frustration. We won’t attempt to teach you


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all about project management here. We will talk briefly about projects and some of the common difficulties encountered with projects. Think of this as a crash course in how to avoid a project disaster. A project is a unique activity that delivers a product with some value on a schedule. This activity consumes resources in the form of labor, money and time. The intent of planning for a project is to state ahead of time what will be delivered, how long it will take to deliver the product, and how much it will cost. In other words, we define a project by scope, schedule and resources. It is important to determine these pretty accurately in the planning phase because organizations and people may make serious commitments based upon the results of planning. There are four significant problems that plague projects, but these problems manifest in many ways.

Projects Have Pitfalls The first problem is incomplete planning. Planning takes time and there is usually pressure to get to work. Planning is also hampered by what is unknown. We may not know how long it will take to prove a new technology. It is often better to stage a project in multiple phases rather than committing to a schedule you have no confidence in. Think of Phase 1 as the research phase to answer the unknowns before committing to subsequent phases, and you will get the idea. The second big issue is unrealistic expectations or too many projects. Often the high level people – the sponsor and executive management – want your project to perform feats of magic on a shoestring budget and delivered next week. There is pressure to make it happen. This leads to our third problem, projects seem to inhabit their own worlds where concepts of time, money and realism don’t apply. Many teams succumb to the pressure and agree to the incredibly aggressive project. Project reviews give glowing reports of superhuman feats. Completion is always just around the corner. Secretly, just about everyone knows there is no way to pull off the miracle, but no one will stick out their neck in public to say so. Invariably a messy train wreck occurs. The only way out of this alternative universe is to tell the truth. Finally, after a project starts there are temptations to change aspects of the work, often the scope. These changes may or may not be appropriate. The project manager needs to enforce a formal change request process – only when the key parties approve the change and all its ramifications will the change go through.


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Knowing about these problems will help you, but please understand we are only scratching the surface of project management here. Individuals who manage projects in organizations need a high degree of skill, and would best take opportunities for training to improve this skill. As you can see, an important component of project management, and of organizing, is good communication, our next topic.

Communicating Our fourth success principle is effective interpersonal communication. Observations of what managers do have shown that the overwhelming majority of their time is spent in communication. This communication can come in many forms, including meetings, phone calls, e-mails and report reading or writing. Do you know the major underlying reason why projects fail? It is poor communication. When a manager is effective in communication his or her position is more successful and rewarding and the organization benefits. In a recent survey college recruiters indicated that the top skill they look for in recruits is the ability to communicate well. Unfortunately this particular skill or the lack of this skill gets a lot of technical people in trouble when they become managers. You know the stereotype of the nerd who has limited social interactive skills, it's often painfully true. In our brief time together, we won’t try to turn you into the life of the party. But we will introduce four simple steps to better communication on the job. These steps apply not only to the new manager, but to everyone in business.

Ingredients of Communication The foundation of good communication is to be proactive, to take the initiative in communication. This is especially important for managers. Your success depends to an overwhelming degree on common understanding of key issues with associates. You can’t leave this to chance and hope, or assume, that the relevant parties all share your understanding. Misunderstandings and unstated expectations can cause you a world of trouble, especially when miscommunication is prolonged. You have to assume that no one else will understand the importance of proactive communication. Take it upon yourself to do so. Being proactive includes the second ingredient: listen well. A big part of your job as a manager is to know what’s going on – what’s really going on with your team and organization. It is important to listen, read between the lines, and check your hunches for the truth. Seek to be clear about what is in the minds of your associates.


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When you are talking or writing, practice the third and fourth ingredients: be concise, and be clear. Make it your practice to get your point across in two or three paragraphs or within two minutes; most people have a very short attention span. Being brief also helps you to be clear. Again what you are after in communication is common understanding. When you have said what you want to say, go back to ingredient two and listen or get feedback to find out if your message was understood as you intended.

Communication in Practice Let’s look at a couple of examples of communication in practice. In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter reached the planet after a nine month voyage. The mission had gone smoothly until the spacecraft fired it's main engine to enter orbit around Mars. The craft entered the atmosphere at too low of an altitude. Communication was lost and never recovered. The loss of the mission was traced to a very simple human communication breakdown. One team working on the orbiter had assumed English units for spacecraft operations, another team used metric units. Proactive communications and perhaps better listening could have uncovered this mismatch of units during development. This communication breakdown was subsequently attributed to overly aggressive project goals. The mission failure shows clearly that sometimes the cost of poor communication is very dear indeed. Remember that our final two ingredients of good communication are to be clear and concise. A favorite comment on this subject was made by David McIntosh. He served in the government in the United States. McIntosh noted that the Lord’s Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26 thousand plus words. Interestingly, it is not clear that his statistic about cabbage was actually true. But regardless, McIntosh had hit the nail on the head. To say something worthwhile, say it directly: be brief and be clear.

Satisfy the Customer Our fifth, and final principle for success in management, is satisfy the customer. Just about everything we do in business will be done for a customer. In many cases, the customer will be someone outside the organization who pays for a product or service. It's easy to see that a business that does not please its customers will eventually fail. But also realize that there


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are a number of opportunities for us to serve customers within the organization. What about that report you are preparing for the boss? The boss is your customer for the report. Thinking this way can help you develop a different mindset that will improve your work. And this is the fundamental lesson to learn about satisfying customers. If I develop the mindset of thinking about customers and their needs, I can dramatically improve my effectiveness as a manager. There is a sense of pride in this accomplishment, knowing that my customers are pleased with our work.

Customer Mindset So many of us go through our daily work thinking about ourselves; what we need to do or not do. We look at our work from our perspective and that’s not a bad thing, but the breakthrough that will really help us with customers is to look at the world from where they sit. If you can put yourself in their world you can be in a much better position to understand their needs and then provide them with the products and services that meet those needs. This really is breakthrough thinking for most managers and their organizations. This really is breakthrough thinking for most managers and their organizations. It is a shift in mindset from “here is what we have to sell” to “let us figure out what you need” This is a job for everyone, not just the Customer Service Department – we are all in customer service. Once you really understand the customer, it becomes straightforward to organize your efforts to meet their needs and solve their problems. And this is another way of describing the customer orientation. Every customer has problems; think about how to solve their problems. Don’t sell a product, provide a solution.

Serving the Customer Let’s briefly hit on three areas of the customer orientation. The first will apply particularly if you are in a technology business. It is oh so tempting for technical professionals to develop leading edge technology in their products. But think: how many people purchase a software application and use all of its functionality? The vast majority of users install the software, they read the three-page “Quickstart” section of the manual and then they use a small fraction of the software capabilities. The majority of customers for technology don’t care to be at the state-of-the-art, they want technology that functions well and is easy to use – a technology that meets their needs. When thinking about improvements to your technology product, think incremental improvement that is user-friendly for the sake of the customer. No doubt you have had many bad experiences as a customer: those times when you were sold a product that didn’t work, when you were treated with indifference, or when your complaints were greeted with a huffy, “It’s not my problem”. Any business, your business, can outshine competitors by being attentive to customer service, to go the extra mile.


Course Transcript

One secret weapon for being attentive to customers is to provide a human touch. This can be particularly powerful in a technology business. Try sending a handwritten thank you (on quality stationery) to a customer. When was the last time you received a handwritten note? Or how about surprising the group by bringing a bowl of hot popcorn to the next team meeting – you’ll become a star!

Success Principles In this course you have learned five principles for success in management. To do well in management, one must:

♦ Lead… to bring about positive change ♦ Motivate… to engage passion in team members ♦ Organize… to create and follow the right framework to meet team goals ♦ Communicate… to make sure that we are clear with one another, and, ♦ Satisfy… to care for our customers and bring pride in our accomplishments.

The unifying theme for these five principles is an emphasis on people and their needs. Remember that this is a significant change in emphasis for the technical professional. But making this change brings rewards and satisfaction. Management can be a very rewarding and very satisfying career path for the technical professional. In our brief time together, you have learned valuable skills that will serve you well in your coming career. Thank you for joining us.


Glossary

Constraint Management An approach to management using a systematic analysis of a production system to identify the constraint or limiting resource so that available resources can be applied where they will have the greatest benefit. (Also known as critical chain management)

Hawthorne Studies A set of research studies begun in the 1920s at the Western Electric Hawthorne plant that formed a fundamental role in the understanding of worker motivation.

Hygiene Theory Frederick Herzberg’s model that states that certain environmental factors of a job do not lead to higher motivation, but their absence can create dissatisfaction.

Needs Hierarchy Abraham Maslow’s model for describing human motivation according to a hierarchy of five different types of needs.

Project A unique activity that consumes time and resources and will deliver something of value.

Theory X The model of command and control management as described by Douglas McGregor, based upon the belief that workers lack motivation and must be coerced to work.

Theory Y Douglas McGregor’s model of collaborative management, based upon the belief that workers naturally want to work, are motivated to work, and seek responsibility in work.


References

Business Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2003

B. Michael Aucoin, From Engineer To Manager: Mastering The Transition, Artech House Publishers, 2002.

Patricia Ward Biederman and Warren G. Bennis, Organizing Genius: The Secrets Of Creative Collaboration, Perseus, 1998

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Jerry L. Fletcher, Patterns of High Performance: Discovering the Ways People Work Best, Berrett-Koehler, 1993

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Third Edition, North River Press, 2004

Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, Second Edition, Dorset House, 1999.

Mary Munter, Guide to Managerial Communication: Effective Business Writing and Speaking, Sixth Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2002.

Peter R. Scholtes, Brian L. Joiner and Barbara J. Streibel, The Team Handbook, Third Edition, Joiner/Oriel, 2003.

Eric Verzuh, The Fast Forward MBA In Project Management, Wiley, 1999.


transition into management

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