The Management Trinity - Part 3

O3 Infatuation & Cookies for you?

1) Granted O3 is so fundamental to the management practices, but didn't we beat this horse to death long time ago?

I even remember a couple of special podcasts on origins of O3!  If 3000 podcasts are in the pipeline, let's move on and hear some of your other excellent ideas and contributions. Thank you.

2) To enter these comments I had to log on but the website would not accept my password  and would not give me any message as to why. Eventually it offered me to enter my email, so it would send me a link and an opportunity to change to a new password. In the meantime, I thought I had become too old and totally forgotten my password. I despaired that the "mind had gone!," but not so. I figured out that the privacy setting on my IE was high and my browser would not accept a cookie from manager-tools website.

I think if you have your webmaster issue a message in such situations that cookies need be accepted, then your members know what to do and will not opt for a change of password instead, which would not do them any good anyway until they fix the cookie acceptance problem.

--malekz

malekz, Did you listen to

malekz,

Did you listen to the podcast? I don't think we barely mentioned One on Ones in this show.

Good point on the cookies ... I'll ask our programmer to take a look at it.

Mike

Mike, I really meant "TRINITY!"

After posting my message I realized I should have used "Trinity" instead of "O3."  I suspect that "3" next to "O" must have thrown me off!  Well, when you use five items and call it a Trinity, what do you expect of me? <grin>

To answer your question specifically, I must say “No.”  I saved the three recent podcasts but for the time being, I've had enough of O3 and Trinity.

Malekz

Perfect timing for this cast ...

As a long time listener I confess I had the same thoughts as Malekz before listening. I was mistaken. There could not have been better timing for this cast for me. It wasn't the reinforcement of the O3, feedback, coaching or delegation ideas. It was the larger construct of why we as managers and executives must drive an organization to be better.

I am implementing the trinity in an organization that has no shortage of dysfunctions. Over the past five years this is the fourth time I am using the tools and concepts learned from MT. I have seen it work each time in spite of my shortcomings. I have used it with existing organizations I have inherited as well as with new groups I have formed. I have used it as a first line manager and now as part of the executive management team. The long term results are absolutely positive even if I have not followed every process exactly as outlined.

This set of casts helped to clarify the fact that this isn't about making managers great. It's about what we *must* do as managers to make our organizations great.

Mike and Mark ... thanks for taking the time to put these together. Every now and then it helps to tie everything together and reinforce why you're in this endeavor.

- Dave

On Knowing-Doing Gap

This post is going to be a bit longer than I usually would like it to be but I have no choice. I think the material is important enough not to waste it in a sound bite. But I will have a short and a long answer for you.

Recently I had a chance to listen to this 3-part podcast on Trinity and I must agree with xcelerator's (Dave's) comments that in fact these podcasts are essential and much worthy of listening to. M&M bring up the important question of teaching management and leadership through using teachable behavioral equivalents. In fact this seems to me the core of how they have differentiated their business from many others and they have been successful doing it. Congratulations on this pedagogical approach! So I’m revising my comments of 10/19 -"O3 Infatuation."
 
This is my short input for people like Osama (10/14) and others who were critical with M&M talking 2/3 of the first podcast explaining their philosophy and the Knowing-Doing Gap. If you are among this group and do not want to know the finer points of knowing-doing gap discussed below the dotted line, you can stop here.
 ----
It looks like you're still reading ...excellent!!!
 
In the first podcast, mark extensively spoke of actionable recommendations and while praising the authors Pfeffer and Sutton, he was critical of their book "The Knowing-Doing Gap" to a large degree on grounds that they did not offer much actionable recommendations to close the gap despite the promise.
 
This brings me to the central issue that psychologists have long recognized and addressed. That is, people pursue one of the two major life scripts:
 
1) What should I do?
 
Or,
 
2) What do I need to know?
 
These central scripts are also reflected in Carl Jung's (the famous Swiss psychologist) “Typology,” which was brought into light by Myers-Briggs who devised their now world-famous test called MBTI (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Over the years, this test has gained increased recognition and recently become a major center of attention with Psychologists, Counselors, HR personnel, etc.
 
While DiSC is a behaviorally based test, MBTI goes deeper into the personality of a person and looks at how, and why someone behaves one way or the other. For example, it was Carl Jung who first brought up the concept of Introversion/Extraversion.
 
I am not going into the details of MBTI here;  it suffices to say that the test recognizes 16 types each indicated by four letters like ESTJ, INTP, ENFJ, etc. What is important here, however, is to recognize that some of these types will be following “What should I do?” and others, heavily involved with ideas and concepts, following the “What do I need to know?” scripts. A healthy gap and balance between knowing and doing must be maintained especially at executive C-level. Shakespeare, the unrivaled master, shows us in Hamlet that a person who thinks without acting is a dangerous as the one who acts without thinking.  
 
Many times questions arise as to what the distribution of each type in a nation is. This question is often asked for both DiSC and MBTI. For example, are there as many Ds in the United States as are Cs? 
 
For Jung’s typology MBTI, we have extensive statistical information allowing us to speak of different national types, although we do not have extensive information on distribution of various types, say, in Indian or Chinese villages. However, we can speak, for example, of Carl Jung’s homeland and say that Swiss are, on the whole, introverted sensation types, although there are many Swiss that are of a different type. We can see the general effect of this statistically-dominant national type in high standards of Swiss crafts. An introverted attitude with differentiated sensation is crucial for success in Swiss watch-making industry.
 
What about the United States? The extroverted thinking, reasoning type is dominant and in positions of power. They feel secure and in control by organizing and exerting rules over their outer environment; they are dismayed to find out other types not seeing their rules as necessary or helpful. Pretty much an administrative nation.
 
Speaking of rules and the reform of education system our President wants to undertake after the healthcare reform, I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ "Hard Times" and his appalling, colorless, stark and sterile character of Thomas Gradgrind - the schoolmaster- proclaiming:
 
"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to the Facts, Sir!"
 
It is as though Dickens is still sarcastically whispering into our ears:
 
“Have you been able to enlighten and enliven your students with a love of learning and knowing, or you’re still stuck in your ‘facts and rules’ myopia?”
 
--Malekz