Thank you, Fred. This was a helpful exchange. No hair shirts need to be
ordered for our side, nor should practitioners be lining up for same. Yet,
there is the gap.
We can't schedule ourselves to be handy for interaction at their random
reflective moments, yet, I think our distillations, as you call my head of
the pin rant, mix best when the have back off the managing the unmanageable
(now there's a picture) so that sense can be made. I guess what irks me
still is how much I know I have to put in those distillates, with over 40
years of studying organizational behavior (when you throw in my Sociology
undergraduate major) that
I would dearly love to put to use for their purposes. Then, when the moment
could be golden for all concerned, they say, it seems, that they have just
enough time and money for something quick and dirty.
Folks, is the unmanageable which Fred sees swamping them our concern?
Should it be our shared responsibility as management educators to convert at
least some of that into manageability? If
not, who? Private consultancies? Publishers? Government think tanks?
I am at the generative stage of my career, by that old stages-man-of-life
clock on
the wall. I don't know how many more years I have left of trying and
yearning and doing
whatever I can in the swamp of unmanageability. I feel like the Lorax,
"here to speak for the trees.". The good thing about this List is that
someone will tell me I am full of
it (or myself) and to lighten up.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Nickols [mailto:
nickols@att.net]
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 8:41 AM
To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Re: [MG-ED-DV] Quick and Dirty
David Fearon writes:
>There [it] is in a nutshell, folks. Travis Bradberry says, "The world of
>academic research provides important innovation and fuels my thinking as I
>consult, but I find that I often have to switch hats before I bring ideas
to
>the client because they only tend to respond to information when it is
>"quick and dirty.""
As I've elaborated upon in a separate post, "quick and dirty" ain't all
that bad.
>We teach about management. We teach "to" managers or
>managers-to-be. We talk to each other about "hard" and "soft" side elements
>of leadership and management here, and write lines of text to each othe rin
>the trillions about management. And they want it "quick and dirty" once
>they are out there doing it! Does anyone wonder what's their rush that
>makes us have to put what we know on the head of a pin?
Their rush, I suspect, stems from being under incredible pressure to
produce in very short time frames. I also don't know that they want what
you know put on the head of a pin. I do believe they want the essentials
in as distilled a manner as they can get them. After all, if time is of
the essence, why should education be exempt? More important, why shouldn't
it model and simulate what they're going to encounter?
>I suspect, from
>having spent a lot of time out there with our "product" that they want it
>fast and simple, because they are drowning in the effluents of badly
managed
>situations.
Although what you say is clearly true of some situations, I'd be more
inclined to say that most of the time they're drowning in the effluents of
unmanageable situations. Like rodeo riders, they're simply trying to hang
on until the buzzer sounds. Next rider up, please; we've got a rodeo to
run and a crowd to please!
>There's simply no time for slow and clean reflection.
Clearly, there's no time in situ, but there is time for reflection, even if
you are not afforded a leisurely pace or large chunks of dedicated
time. Reflection, like everything else, occurs in bits and pieces at
opportune moments. Over time, this can add up to extended reflection, even
if it doesn't occur in one large, dedicated chunk of time.
>Today,
>after another week of being as effective a management educator as I can
>figure out to be, I have to think that we are either miserable failures or
>they are. Or are we both? Or, should I just meander back over to the sunny
>side of the street and let "quick and dirty" be good enough for piece work?
I don't think anyone is failing; most are coping. The occasional, colossal
failure crops up from time to time but when hasn't that been the case?
Regards,
Fred Nickols
740.397.2363
nickols@att.net
"Assistance at A Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/articles.htm