THE PRIMARY ROLE OF MANAGEMENT

..... is to provide employees with the leadership necessary to meet the goals of the organization.

This leadership must reflect the principles of total quality management. These principles were presented in the Introduction: leadership commitment, customer focus, training, empowerment and involvement, measurement, recognition and rewards, and communication.

LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT

Management must first examine how they manage. Is their style tailored to encourage input from other managers and departments? Or is their style that of not allowing other departments or disciplines to influence their decisions? In other words, do they operate as team leaders or as silos?

When I refer to managers operating as silos, I mean that they stand alone within the organizational structure by excluding input from other managers or departments. This concept is explained further below.

Silos

Management in the past relied on experts in given disciplines to develop systems and procedures to guide the organization.

These experts headed up their own departments (silos) and had specialists working for them who created the culture and systems for the silo master.

The silo master made it clear to all other silo masters in the organization how his department functioned and that there would be no interference from other groups or departments.

This allowed the silo master to keep control of his territory. This also assured that the other department managers did not fully understand the requirements for positive interaction between groups or departments within the organizational structure.

Here's a classic example of how silos can thwart satisfying customer requirements. The marketing group receives an order from a customer and tells the design group what the customer wants. The design group gives their interpretation of the customer's needs to the manufacturing engineering group. Manufacturing engineering tells manufacturing what process to use to create the product that will satisfy the needs of the customer. Manufacturing does their very best to manufacture the part according to criteria supplied by manufacturing engineering. The quality department inspects the final product and decides it is manufactured incorrectly.

Rework is performed and the part is shipped to the cus-tomer. The customer rejects the part because it does not meet his requirements!

Management needs to break down silos in their organizations because they create waste, redundancy, and poor quality. We are getting better today at breaking down silos and allowing interaction through cross-functional team management. Management should evaluate themselves to determine if their management style is autocratic or team oriented.

Autocratic Management

I remember when I first started working. I was told that in order to succeed and to keep my job, I had to remember two rules.

Rule l: The boss is always right.

Rule 2: When the boss is wrong, remember

Rule 1. Those were the days when systems were more important than people. Employee involvement consisted of doing only what the boss told you to do, whether it made sense or not. Management felt that empowering the worker took control away from management. Switching to a management style that encourages employee involvement and empowerment is a tough transition for many. Unless special training is provided for middle and first-line management, the transition may never take place.

And, unless upper management invests and participates in this training, the organization is bound to fail. It will be overtaken by other organizations who have invested in their most valuable resource, their employees, and are cashing in on that investment. Employees of an enlightened organization contribute every day to improved operations and systems.

Once management has committed itself to breaking down silos, it must embrace the concept of Team Management.

Team Management

Gone are the days when managers are expected to be proficient in only one discipline. Today managers must be part of a management team, and they must have a working knowledge of their peers' responsibilities. For example, the quality manager needs to understand how design engineering, manufacturing engineering, purchasing, sales, production control, customer service, and every other department functions. And every other manager should know the roles of the others.

This is not to say that they need to be as well trained in the other disciplines as their peers, but they must understand how the entire organization functions. We want to break down silos so we can move freely throughout the organization. This creates another dilemma because now we need to allow managers who are outside our responsibility to be permitted, even welcomed, to handle situations that structurally may belong to us.

It's time for the goose story. We as managers should take a lesson from the goose. I'm sure you have observed geese in flight. They fly in a pattern that forms a horizontal V.

There is a good reason why geese fly in a V pattern. The lead goose breaks the air current and creates an uplift behind him that the other geese can take advantage of. The second tier of geese likewise does the same for the third tier and so on and so forth for the entire flock.

The lead goose eventually tires of butting his head against the wind, so he drops back in the formation. Here's when something interesting takes place. Another goose from the flock moves to the front to assume the lead. This goose does so until he tires. Then he drops back and another goose moves in to lead. Geese in a flock are willing to follow the lead of whoever is leading at the time because they all have a common goal.

We can learn a lot from the goose! Geese have learned how to work as a team. All in the flock are willing and able to lead when necessary. The leader who drops back is not intimidated by another taking his place. He understands that for now it is best that someone else assumes leadership.