Virtues and Sins

In my management practice, I sometimes come across people stating emphatically: “I am not really a detail guy; I am a big-picture kind of person”. What that translates into my ears is: “I can’t be bothered with the responsibility of the end result, I prefer to remain in the clouds, by looking at things from above, with a pretense of seeing into the future, expressing my idealistic dreams and pretending they make up for a vision”. Does it sound familiar? Here is my take on such individuals:


We all despise truth distortion, or narrative spinning, mainly when it’s done for the perverse gain of the story teller. But I have to admit, I am mesmerized by the ability of some speakers to pretend that a sin could be construed as a virtue. Most of the time these are people that are, otherwise, failing miserably at either getting anything done, or articulating a plan of action, or managing the execution of any enterprise. And yet, they are trying to repackage these shortcomings by branding them as a superior quality.

When you are a true leader of an organization, this attitude needs to be discouraged and the promoters put in their place through a reality check. They need to understand that they are not living in a heavenly cloud, and that life is made out of details that are important. If the details are neglected – most of the time because we don’t know how, or just not comfortable dealing with them – those high-level ideas will amount to nothing more than a series of unfulfilled prophecies.

No High-Tech star has been more visionary – in the recent past – than Steve Jobs; imagining new devices and technological features, way before any consumer or user would have been able to formulate such need, was really genial. Other players in the filed may claim an equal or greater creativity, but what made the difference was also his ability to focus on details and be very specific and selective about the characteristics embedded into such devices. That’s how the novelty of his ideas materialized into concrete, successful applications, adored by the fans and valued by the masses.

If you ask any pilot, which part of the flight is the most challenging, and therefore more probing of true pilot qualities, they will all tell you that it is not the cruising at high altitude, and is not even the take-off, but it is the landing. There is where you are confronted with multiple variables at play, with most adverse circumstances and critical conditions. The ability to always put a plane on the ground smoothly and safely is what distinguishes amateurs from professionals. Dreaming is easy when there is no direct accountability test. Implementing a vision into a solution is what separates doers from talkers.

So in the enterprise management arena, next time you hear somebody communicating a 10,000 ft picture of things, ask them to provide a more concrete, down-to-earth, step-by-step vision of their idea. If it makes sense to you, ask them to take charge and carry it onto the implementation phase, and then measure and interpret the results. Upon analysis, some will be successful due to real qualities and comprehensive capabilities. But many will fail and disappoint, and such you’ll learn a lesson on how to recalibrate credibility, by recognizing the value of facts versus words, or of real virtues versus disguised sins.

Street-Smart versus Book-Smart

In my day to day activity I am increasingly confronted with a new burden: the need to work, communicate and maintain a balance of influence among groups of individuals that are framed as either street-smart or book-smart.  I admit, I struggle with the idea that one is more important than the other. In a society that is increasingly influenced by perceptions and is more connected at a superficial (virtual) level, empirical evidence suggests that street-smart people are doing better, are more prominent and more adapt to the current trends. However, I believe that both types have beneficial influences over the impacted audience.

The way I define this reality is by looking at it from different perspectives:

Book-Smart People                      Street-Smart People

Concerned with Substance            Concerned with Form
Create knowledge                           Able to relate information
Understand the principles              Figure out the application
Generate solutions                          Amplify ideas
Learn through formal education     Learn through observation
Know a lot about few things          Know little about a lot of things
Invent new things                            Innovate and improve
Higher IQ                                         Higher EQ

It is easy to get mesmerized by the ability with which Street-Smart people exploit opportunities in life, by impressing audiences with their extensive “know-what, know-how and know-who”. However, leaders and managers in authoritative positions are frequently confronted with the need to discern between information that is made available to them by Street-Smart versus Book-Smart subordinates. The mission of good management is to separate the real information in the message from the noise.
 
And there is considerable noise in the system;
   • created by unverified or exaggerated information,
   • embedded into the signal through misinterpretation or distortion
   • multiplied through repetition and extrapolation
   • strengthened by buzz-words and name-dropping
   • hidden under the umbrella of charisma and enthusiasm
   • reinforced by bullies and laud, energetic promoters

The unfortunate property of the signal amplifiers is that they magnify indiscriminately the whole wave sound, with all the useful as well as twisted components. There is no distinction between fact and hearsay, between reality and appearance, or between truth and distortion. That is why probing and testing of information accuracy is needed more than ever, in a world where verbal and written interaction has become so intense - due to the mobile, virtual and personal features of the communication tools – and the people are overwhelmingly interconnected.

So what I propose is an analogy with the electronics systems where the useful signal is generated by the Book-Smarts, is amplified and transmitted by the Street-Smarts and filtered and interpreted at the other end by the wise and experienced Manager. The filtering could be done either at the emitting point – although transmission could inject additional noise – or at the receiving end. The trick is to correctly identify the quality of the source, the character of the communicators in the channel, and the motivation of the interpreter.

The Role of Management

After spending a good portion of my professional life in management structures, I arrived to the conclusion that the fundamental role of management is to anticipate, assess and mitigate risk.


In absence of risk there is no need for management. I know, some will argue that any activity needs coordination and administration and therefore, it requires management. But isn’t that just another manifestation of risk?

Let’s assume an ideal operating environment that is self running. It has only a leader (owner) and an army of executants (employees).
• One day an employee does not show up for work and the owner realizes that there is a risk of that happening from time to time, among the employee population. Consequently he nominates an HR Manager to deal with the absenteeism.
• Another time the material needed for processing does not arrive, because of some supply problem; so he designates a Purchasing Manager to ensure that the material is ordered and received on time, and procured at the right prices.
• The products are ready for delivery now, but the truck hasn’t been called to pick it up; woops, there is a need for a Logistics Manager
• Opportunities for business present themselves in an irregular sequence, and the assignment of work among co-workers needs to be changed daily  a Production Manager is put in charge to coordinate the allocation of resources
• Customers are interested in the product but they want to talk to somebody where they could place their orders or learn about the product. Technically the orders could be recorded by phone or e-mail, and the reading of the brochure should provide enough information, but faced with the risk of loosing customers or orders because of lack of response the owner nominates a Sales Manager
• The PO suggests when the customer wants the product, but for some reason, the project activities are not happening according to plan  the risk of not finishing the project on time – unless properly coordinated - gives enough reason for the existence of a Project Manager
• Finally, the product is shipped and invoiced, but the payments are delayed, and the bank is raising questions about the overdraft level in the company’s account. That is when the Controller justifies its position.

The image is pretty clear: In the minute an enterprise is born, there are inherent risks that are threatening the ability of the firm to perform well and make profits. The capacity of the company to generate results is guarded against risks by this institution of Management, whose primary role is to anticipate probable scenarios, evaluate risk exposure, analyze possible consequences, develop solutions and implement plans, structures and processes, measure results and devise reward systems to ensure continuous success. In spite of these efforts, risk does not totally evaporate, but – when things are done well - is minimized.

Once accepted as an objective need, the management expands, gaining legitimacy and consolidating its new platform called “Overhead”. In time, the merits of its contribution are gradually diminished to a point where is perceived as non-value-added, or burden. And from there, in the name of “lean transformation” a process of constructive demolition begins, until the necessary managerial safeguards are no longer in place. Then something happens and the negative impact of such occurrence exceeds by far the cost of its prevention. Instantly we realize the value of risk management and are willing, again, to dedicate resources to it.

However, by now we went full circle, and the history repeats itself.

Does it sound familiar? It should, because is happening everywhere. And emerging from it, an entire army of management consultants make a living.