Managerial Solutions
During one of my many meetings, I pondered, "What exactly do I do?". How limited are my actions in this process? I decided to write down what actions I am able to actually implement and came up with this short list.
- Debate - bring people together to resolve conflicts.
- Delete - remove the task, it's not going to happen.
- Delegate - apply someone else to the task.
- Delay - push back the task to a later date.
- Defer - put the task on hold until it is required.
- Double down - add extra resourcing to ensure that it gets done.
- Diminish - reduce the scope of the task to something that will actually be completed.
Now, this list diminishes the role of experience and context awareness, as these play a vital role in taking the right actions, but nonetheless, the possible actions of the manager are very limited. I think this is why being a manager so often feels unfulfilling and can be frustrating. There isn't a lot of creativity possible within these constraints. Because of that limitation, it's not very attractive to those with the right experience or context awareness - and this is what breeds managerialism - where those with limited experience and context take on manager roles and proceed to make poor decisions.