The new manager!

Management is not a profession, it is not an academic discipline. It is at root a craft.

Many people drift into management with little or no guidance or real support. Firms do themselves a disservice by this. A new manager may one day be a great manager; give them the best start so real talent is not discarded by poor early experiences.

What is needed is not academic study, although that can help with the technicalities of the role, but as a craft, or a practice, it is best served by a combination of mentoring by senior staff and coaching in a group of people in a similar position.

This coaching setting thrives on the classic approach to adult education:discussion, reflection and guiding input. Where it touches on technical matters, it serves to introduce them conceptually and identify their applicability.

 Here's how the program goes.

1. The firm and its world

• The function of the firm, a model of the firm's activity,
• Why firms do projects, a model of the project
• The life-blood of business and its language: accounting and analysis
  
• Budgeting

2. Framing management

• The range of the manager's work, relationships and functions
• Based on work by Prof. Henry Mintzberg of McGill University

3. Modelling the manager!

• Introduction to a model for thinking about, doing and evaluating management
• Application of the model to the role

4. Getting action

• Structured approaches to identifying, planning and taking action
• Introduction to several planning and inquiry methodologies

5. Communicating

• Communication context
• Patterns of communication
• Communication effectiveness

6. Your own productivity

• Your own workflow
• Managing your activity
• Keeping track of obligations
• Meetings
  

7. Conducting the team

• Team dynamics
• Model of team action
• Working with teams

8. Operations

• The scope of operations management
• Production formats
• Manager's operations
• Statistical Process Control
• Lean and Critical Chain approaches.
  

9. Projects

• The nature of successful projects
• Projects in the business
• Project approaches
• Risk in projects: structured, probabilistic and qualitative
  

10. Decisions and change

• Making decisions effectively
• Decisions and the model of the firm
• Probabilistic and natural decision making
  
• Challenges in change

What could have been #2

Running back through my list of projects that never were, is Eveleigh North Rail Yard in Sydney, Australia (see also Kangaroo Point Resort and Marina).

This image is as in 2024. In the last years of the Carr government of NSW, I was project director for the rail yard redevelopment. The site is in the yellow perimeter below.

Eveleigh North Rail Yard Development Precinct

The site is about 12 hectares. The left hand end is a few small buildings and waste land. The middle is disused (or now underused) train stabling sheds. Maybe historical curiosities, but not worth keeping to obstruct major beneficial development: after all, life is not a spectator sport. We need to build for the future, not enshrine the aged technologies of the past as though society was stationary.

The far right hand 1/3 is some heritage buildings, which were to be rightfully retained and reused, some old 'non-heritage' buildings and a bunch of waste land and junk.

The development concept is below. Total estimated cost at the time was between $300m and $500m.It could have gone higher but we had some aviation restrictions along with the plan for a city heliport. The development would have been a fabulous counterpart to the Eveleigh South rail yard development which you can see in the photo below the development site.

Eveleigh North Rail Yard Re-development Concept

Grading scheme

I've recently run into a discussion with an accommodation provider on the gradings used in the review form provided by an Internet booking service.

A guest is invited to complete a few questions about aspects of the property: its condition, comfort, kitchen facilities, cleanliness, heating/cooling equipment, bathroom facilities and 'value for money'.

Such lists need to be calibrated so all parties are clear.

I use this set of criteria:

5 - exceeds expectations OR exceptional

4 - meets expectations OR completely satisfactory

3 - does not quite meet expectations OR largely satisfactory

2 - largely fails to meet expectations OR unsatisfactory

1 - does not meet expectations at all OR unacceptable

So, an operator would seek to have mostly 4s, with some 5s from guests who found the property to be superlative in that aspect. If there are too many 5s, over time this might indicate you can increase prices if you are operating at or near capacity.

A few 3s from time to time would be acceptable as people's tastes vary. If critical criteria get a 3 follow up and offer an inducement for a future booking as a gesture to make up for the disappointment. Perhaps a night at a 75% rate.

Once would expect almost no 2s. The operator should follow up guests who made 2 scores to obtain the detail, and perhaps offer an inducement to re-book, depending on the reason and if it gives helpful  information.

Any 1s should also be followed up, with no inducement offered as they are probably very unhappy.

In any follow up avoid recriminations or justifications. The customer is giving you valuable feedback which properly used can produce business benefits for the operator.