From:
DidacticRa@aol.com [mailto:
DidacticRa@aol.com]
This is in response to a posting by William Weech on Executive Decision
Making Training
I also have to provide some background: For most of the first half of
my
career (almost 20 years) I was a manufacturing executive. During the
later
years, and since leaving that profession, I have designed, and often
delivered management development experiences, to groups in the public
and
private sectors, At first these were primarily programs built around
simulations for specific skills and then increasingly more comprehensive
ones. From that came a comprehensive concept for development of
leadership
and management decisions that was published in 1978 by the Bureau of
National
Affairs. That book became the foundation for a program that was adopted
by,
and adapted for, the entire managerial staff of the Federal Prison
System.
The book itself was not adequately reader/learner friendly and when time
permitted it was updated with extensive scenario analyses and published
by
the American Society for Quality.
Since then, in an effort to make the thorough but complicated concept
(unfortunately leadership and management decision making is a huge topic
that
does not really lend itself to the one-minute approach) still more
learner
friendly, I have worked on a third generation. The latest title is High
Quality Managerial Leadership Decisions: The Key to Superior
Performance. I
have been piloting it in my evening class for graduate students (most of
whom
are practicing managers).
Now, to responses to specific statements and questions in the William
Weech's
posting. My words are in caps, not to shout but to make them easily
distinguishable from the original posting :
We have not yet asked any real live executives in our organization what
they
might find useful in this area. If this project moves forward, however,
we
will certainly will do some organization-specific needs assessment
before we
design any program. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT THIS ASSESSMENT BE BASED ON
(THOUGH NOT BIASED BY) PRIOR IDENTIFICATION OF WHAT COULD BE OFFERED
SINCE
OTHERWISE THE RESPONSES MAY RESEMBLE THOSE OF PREVIOUS BROAD BASED
STUDIES
WITH MANY HUNDREDS OF MANAGERS WHICH DID NOT REALLY BRING REALLY
ACTIONABLE
INFORMATION (SEE BLANCHARD' AND PETERS' BOOKS, AS WELL AS THE EXTENSIVE
STUDIES BY WHETTEN AND CAMERON)
My questions for those of you who been involved in similar projects
include
the following:
* What were the objectives of your executive decision making training
program? ENHANCING LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING
COMPETENIES BY
DEVELOPING THE HABITS TO APPLY DECISION QUALITY CRITERIA THAT ARE MORE
OR
LESS UNIVERSAL BUT REQUIRE ADAPTATION TO THE SPECIFIC SITUATION
* How long was your executive decision making training program?
VARYING -
THE FEDERAL PRISON SYSTEM PROGRAM WAS TWO DAYS BUT THAT COVERED ONLY THE
MAJOR DECISION CONSIDERATIONS THAT STEM FROM THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF
MANAGERS
* What models, tools, content, or activities did you cover in the
training
program? SEE ABOVE
* Some organizations appear to offer decision making for executives
and
problem solving for everybody else. What's the difference? PROBLEM
SOLVING IS
ONLY A SPECIFIC FORM OF DECISIONS. SOUND DECISION MAKING IN THE OTHER
TWO
AREAS - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES ARE SIMILAR - THEY USE THE SAME
STEPS
AND CONSIDERATIONS. ALL, I BELIEVE SHOULD BE IN PROGRAMS FOR ALL
MANAGERIAL
LEVELS. Does it make sense to limit a decision making course to
executives
only? NOT IN MY OPINION, EXCEPT IF THE OUTPUT WILL BE A COMMITMENT TO
GRADUALLY HELP THEIR RESPECTIVE STAFF MEMBERS ACQUIRE THE SAME
COMPETENCIES,
EITHER THROUGH MORE GRADUAL PROGRAMS OR IN STAFF MEETINGS Why or why
not?
* What else do you think I should know before I pursue a project to
design
and deliver a course in decision making for actual executives? I WOULD
RECOMMEND THAT YOU CONSIDER A PROGRAM THAT FIRST PRESENTS THE BASIC
CONCEPTS
AND THEN EXPANDS THEM IN FOLLOW-UP SESSION AFTER THE EXECUTIVES HAVE HAD
A
CHANCE TO APPLY THE BASIC DECISION CONSIDERATIONS. THE FIRST PRIORITY
SHOULD BE ON WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO OBTAIN COMMITMENT TO DEVELOP THE
HABIT
THAT WILL BRING APPLICATION OF THE DECISION CONSIDERATIONS TO EVERY
SIGNIFICANT DECISION.
Just to be clear - if we do design and deliver this course, it will be
for
federal executives - NOT for graduate students in organizational
behavior or
management science! THE FEDERAL PRISON SYSTEM PROGRAM PROVED THE
APPLICABILITY TO FEDERAL EXECUTIVES AND MANAGERS.
I hope this is useful. Feedback from subscribers will be most welcome.
Erwin Rausch,
didacticra@aol.com