I took home an iPad from the office to take a training course. It is the Michael Hammer process management course. While "studying" for the course, I visited by NetFlix account to see how it worked on the iPad. Very good by the way. While looking for instant movies, a memory came to me - maybe because of the course work - from my MBA class on senior management leadership.
12 O'Clock High was used in my USC MBA class to illustrate the management style needed for our employeers who were paying for our two year effort. Many in our class were active military. I was an employee of a major defense contract in Southern California.
We were sent to MBA school for one simple reason. Our firms, the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Air Force (all major stations in SoCal in the late 70's) and the defense industry had discovered all those bright, clever technical graduates and post graduates (I was one of those) didn't make very good managers.
When both sides of the fence - industry and the military - needed most were managers. I had some leadership skills gained through a stint in the Army during Vietnam. But leadership in combat is not the same as management.
The professor of the class used this movie as a example of both leadership and management. Leading teams of qualified staff toward the goal of the mission. Managing the resources of personnel, machines, infrastructure, politics, and emotions along the way.
When our 2011 "managers" and "leader" speak about management and leadership, this movie is one possible learning opportunity. Of course these "learnings" are domain and context dependent. But I'd suggest there is learning here for all domains.
I'm breath taken some times how simple principles are ignored or even rejected in some domains - IT for example. "What does done look like?" "Can we measure done in units meaningful to the participants?" "Do we have measures that show we are actually making progress?" "What resources (men, machines, processes) are needed to accomplish the mission (deliver the project)?" "What can go wrong, and how can we prepare for the result?"
These simple questions must be answered if we are to have a successful outcome. NetFlix has this movie. Watch it and see if anything resonants.
Theh iPad is cool, but I'm waitng for the Samsung Galaxy 10.1
