In the summer of 1952, my father had salvaged the material used to separate the pipe on rail cars during the building of the pipeline and had enough demensional lumber to build a garage. Uncle Wesley had come in from the farm to give Dad a hand on the project and the process of constructing the garage was about to begin. But the biggest thing to be accomplished was not the actual construction, but the decision making process. My father calls this process "humming and hawing" and when you see any project underway, you know that in order for things to take place, a lot of humming and hawing has to happen before a nail is driven, or a yard of concrete is poured.
For many people who work alone, there is no one else to turn to, the responsibility for decision making is with that person and so in order to spread the load, we self employed individuals, frequently enlist the help of the demension of time, to force things to a point that we have to make a decision. Decisions are the tough part of any venture, every action hinges on the planning and the most important of all decision, that of deciding, to launch a project, or not.
In more complex organisations with many people working in concert with one another, we tend to place the decision making in the hands of some individuals and pay them extra money for the importance to the organisation. Where the ownership of the company is in charge, then often the operations will revolve around the "boss" and his or her decision making process. The interesting and often brutal reality is that ownership does not always, or even often, bless the owner with the wisedom, training and experience to make decisions for the business' operation on a day to day basis.
In larger businesses and institutions specific roles are designated within the structure to be administrative or managerial. These roles are often wholly decision making positions and in some cases they are fraught with confusing structural incumberances. In public institutions the decision making is frequently in the hands of boards who make global decisions and the administration is to impliment these decrees, while in other situations, the administrator is actually involved in shaping the decisions of the board, then responsible for putting into action the rubber stamp from the board.
One of the destinctive developments of the past century was the movement in management from central control and decision making, to a more diffuse or deligated decision making process. The autocratic "boss" is still to be found in business, public insitutions and management roles, through out our society, but has been thoroughly researched and deamed to be the least effective means of directing the work of a group of people. To achieve effective management the humming and hawing process needs to be spread through the company or institution.
The most important discovery about management and decision making occured in the early seventies when a Professor Peters published his book The Peter Principle, in which he explained that in all organisations, everyone rises through the ranks to the level of their incompetence. Simple put, the Peter Principle insures that those people who have been promoted to their final level have reached a point where the work is more of a challenge then their ability to meet that challenge. In practical terms we now realise that most organisations are run by people who are outclassed by the problems with which they are faced. There is little that can be done to prevent this from happening so the real solution is to find and train leaders who can deligate.
The clever manager who has learned to select good people for his staff, then places his own trust and security in those people, can assure himself, or herself, of success, by placing the decision making in the hands of those who are not in over their heads, and can make effective judgements. Remarkable as this seems, there is a huge amount of research that reports that this system of management is not only the best, but it is the system used by the very best and most successful organisations. As a result, promotions in many businesses, are no longer based on ability, but instead on the ability to use the ability of others.
One staff meeting in the mid 80s we were in trouble, our school was under attack by various pressure groups and I, as the principal, was fumbling badly, unable to handle the various problems that were cropping up and staff morale was low. Staff meetings under such circumstances are usually just complaint sessions, but on this occassion the Vice Principal, a clever and creative young man, explained the decision he had made. He said that he was frustrated with the situation and wanted the principal (me) to do this and that, but realised that he was only one person, and the whole staff and school were in trouble, and it was not fair to put all the blame on the single leader. Therefore, he had decided to take matters into his own hands and accept some of the responsibility, and step forward with positive moves to make things better. With his encouragement, each member of the staff took up his challenge and my life was changed. That was the turning point in my career and for that school. I was more then willingly to turned over decisions about the various school departments to the people who were responsible for carring out the decisions, and as a result, they were more up to the task of making things work. We had become a team, using team tactics and team strategies, we were able to easily sort out the genuine concerns being voiced about the school, and within the most remarkably short time, we were a happy staff, running a happy school, serving a community pleased with the school's performance and response to their needs.
No matter how bright and capable a decision maker is, he or she will not have to put the decisions into practice and without agreement by those who do, he, or she, might as well go read comic books. Good effective decisions have to be made by those who are responsible for the actions to be taken. Deligation and trust is essential, if efficiency and progress are the goals of an organisation.
The picture at the top of this page was taken at 9:00 this morning.