>Well, let me try to explain. When managers are asked to describe
>an excellent employee, i.e., has job fit, they usually describe
>behaviors, not knowledge and skills. --- snip ---
I understand that the majority of managers do this. On the other hand,
"they lead lives of quiet desperation." Let's talk about the winners --
the 10% who will be still be around in ten years. In my experience they
evaluate behavioral characteristics but they also evaluate rate of learning
-- of explicit learning (of both domain and process knowledge) and of tacit
learning -- and quality and quantity of results. Andy Grove's book on the
role of the manager is an excellent treatise on this.
>
---snip---
>I agree, that is why I maintain that MBAs have the same behavioral
>traits after their degree as they had before the degree. --- snip ---
While I do not disagree, my point is that MBA schools could expose them to
new experiences and encourage new traits. I went through General Manager
Boot Camp at GE, Crotonville, several years ago and still vividly recall
the several epiphanies, a few apercu's and one Whack on the Side of the
Head in only eight weeks. This was partly due to my (ahem) brilliance but
99% of it was due to the learning environment they created. Why can't B
schools do the same? Or I will repeat an earlier rhetorical question --
should management development be the province only of B Schools?
>>>... It seems to me that these capabilities
>require a lot of "laboratory" work, reflection,
>and a good coach...<<
>
>Yes, but coaching only goes so far. All managers should coach
>their staff, but that does not mean that all employees can be
>coached to become successful employees in any job. Yes, coaching
>will help them do better, but the goal of an organization should
>be to put the right people into the right jobs to avoid
>the Peter Principle.
We have a fundamental difference in view, here. I believe that a person's
vistas are practically unlimited and, then, only self limited.
View Peter's Principle another way: suppose that the reason business seems
to be populated by employees who exhibit signs of incompetence is that we
all rise to a level of where, eventually, no one is capable of (or cares to
help) increase our competence. That is, if we depend on others to feed us
"learning" then we will eventually hit a limit. Also, consider an
alternative Corollary: In time, every post tends to be occupied by an
employee who did not have and did not construct an adequate learning
environment.
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>>... I was wonder what schools, if any, do for
>managers what Julliard does for musicians, the
>Bauhaus for architects or Mayo does for doctors...<<
>
>If there were a school that is equivalent to the ones you
>mentioned how many graduates could they produce per year?
>There are 70,000+/- MBA graduates per year in the US so
>the problem would still be with us.
I think not. If we had a few good men (and women), we would need only
about 7,000. The 70,000 MBA graduates remind me of the beauty contest in
Philadelphia (or was it Syracuse, NY?) where there were 100,000 contestants
-- and nobody won!
>
>>>... By the way, there is no "school"
>of this sort for advanced engineering
>thinkers (systems engineers) or managers
>thereof so you may want to consider starting one...<<
>
>Ugh, I make a better student than an administrator.
Egad, all my exhortations were for naught. I did not want you to be the
administrator (there are 70,000 new candidates per annum for that role), I
wqs hoping you would be the Learning Leader.
Jack Ring
Innovation Management
32712 N. 70th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143 USA
602-488-4615
Fax) 602-488-4616