Operation Improvement Inc.

I have had many skeptics in my classes. Some are convinced they know it all, or at least “enough”. There are those who have endured the uninspired “copy of a copy” process, project, program and task management training typical of large corporations. Others have suffered under leaders who would build a timeline by vote rather than analysis, and who would continually poll his team for a completion estimate that was more in line with his wishes. The variations of error are endless.

I always begin with the position that I am an advocate for a reasonable mix of planning and action, and “meetings” are a substitute for neither. It is common sense that initiatives comprised of 100% planning and zero action, or vice versa, are doomed to fail. With this approach, I can usually persuade my audience to give me at least a couple of hours to present something that might be new.

Will I tell them someone more than what their football coach, or parents, or conscience has told them a hundred times before? Is management science nothing more than motivation, common sense, discipline, and a collection of obvious “ought to’s…”?

If a subject is presented well and in a proper order, it does have a aura of familiarity. Students could certainly leave with an “I knew that” feeling. So, why do some come back? Why would some return to class to sit through the same material two or three times? Because, they know that the study of a subject develops their knowledge and abilities far beyond that of “exposure” to or “training” in a subject.

People who “know” about physical training often study with coaches. Many who “know” a musical scale when they see one will still spend  time practicing with another musician or teacher, if they want to excel. Fluency in a second language requries practice, and not just enough knowledge to pick the proper translation of “zapata” from four multiple choice alternatives.

What people often “know” when they come to a management class is the syllabus - the words on the agenda. Many wrongly assume that technical terms  like “efficiency”, “dependency” and “capability” refer to their common meanings - and therefore misunderstand technical and important management concepts.

Even if students recognize that there is a new usage for an old familiar word, without study they are often unable to apply the concepts. Outside the classroom, one cannot put these ideas into practice by simply consulting the dictionary definitions. (”What was a dependency? How does one go about planning? Was there a difference between a goal and an objective?)

Mature knowledge is rich with inter-connections. It is organized as a dense network of relationships. The study of management science brings maturity, it brings wisdom to your knowledge. That is why some take time to study a topic they already “know”.