<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title><![CDATA[Comments for entry "The Future of Middle Management" at Dilbert.com Blog]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/869]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Regular thoughts and updates from Dilbert.com]]></description>
<language><![CDATA[en-us]]></language>
<generator><![CDATA[VPI.Net MyBlogAbout]]></generator>
<managingEditor><![CDATA[]]></managingEditor>
<webMaster><![CDATA[]]></webMaster>
<ttl><![CDATA[5]]></ttl>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HelenOster]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1957958]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Professor59

Wait - is Scott saying that many middle managers are not already robots?!

@Stui

I take exception to your comments about the &quot;middle aged female workforce&quot;. Some of the most neurotic and undisciplined people I've worked with have been men!

delius1967

re: &quot;The most important thing I do is manage personalities and the inevitable conflicts that go with them&quot;. 
And that is why YOUR job is safe! But I venture to suggest you may be the exception, rather than the rule.....]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[MonPMCSTE_Rstst]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1957958]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from dugfromthearth]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1952592]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[If project management were dealing with facts and logic then computers could do it. If people would just behave reasonably and do the work assigned you might not need project managers at all.

The two main functions of project managers are dealing with ambiguity and keeping things going despite it, and dealing with people and keeping things going despite them.

]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1952592]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from workerant]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1944580]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Can you build in arrogance, stupidity and self serving idiocy with a total lack of any common sense whatsoever? I.E. take all the evidence, weigh it carefully and then do completely the opposite whilst !$%*!$%* the workforce as much as possible. Oh, and drive a BMW as badly as it can.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[SatPMCSTE_Rndnd]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1944580]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from sjanlaird]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1942089]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Even better if you could upload celebrity personalities into the Manage-o-bots, just like you can for Sat-Navs.
If you run a small failing music store you could go down the Jack Black route. Large corporates could download Anthony Hopkins in full Lecter mode - &quot;A cost-accountant once tried to test me..&quot;]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriAMCSTE_Rstst]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1942089]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Stui]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940939]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@ Arsonist,

 I know and have known several middle managers who could be completely replaced with an email auto forward rule. 

Problem is, none of them were smart enough to figure out how to set it up.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940939]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from andrew93]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940934]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[To be more efficient in the workplace I'm writing a macro to replicate myself.  All attempts to date have failed.......but I'm still working on it.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940934]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Dingbat]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940697]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I wonder what that scenario would do to the arrogance factor. 

One of the marketing project managers I work with is clearly on the ropes. She is nice, efficient, well organized and with adequate technical skills. She is competent in her role, except that one side of the development team has decided they don't like her. They think she's an idiot because she doesn't understand the technology very well. I do believe marketing needs to get out of the sushi bar and spend *a lot* more time with both sales and development - but at the same time, this person does at least employ other marketing people who do understand the technology. Her job is to make the trains run on time. She is in charge of executing the marketing plan - making sure the assets are created, categorized, launched and tracked appropriately. She does have to approve the assets themselves, but she relies on input from others to make her decisions. 

The development team is sabotaging her. They don't review assets or contribute to the process in anyway. They make a public show of being helpful and supportive in meetings and then do exactly zero when the cameras are turned off. 

I work with multiple teams - and, from my perspective, the &quot;smarter&quot; marketing managers don't  produce better work than she did before she lost support of the development team. (Now they do.)

You can find ways to sabotage even a robot manager, but I wonder if they would choose to do so. I think their enmity stems more from arrogance and disrespect than it does from any actual job performance issues. A robot that was merely efficient, organized, competent, etc. would probably do just fine.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940697]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from kdogbert]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940594]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[The entire premise is flawed by assuming that management decisions are made based on logic and facts. Middle managers that present factual based plans to the executive level are almost always drummed out as being not team players, or not utilizing their resources efficiently. 

Logic/Fact: Pulling a resource to work on an execute pet project for a week will remove that resource from working on his or her already scheduled project thus extending the delivery date. 

Real Life: There is no relief given to the original project schedule and the resources are asked to put in the extra time to get them both done. 

The middle manager that gets both done succeeds in real life in the short term. In the long run the resources will quit or transfer and overall costs will increase due to turnover costs. 

I see this play out every day! 

]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940594]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from whtllnew]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940576]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[1 on Stuis comment defending middle managers?   4 on delius1967s comment defending middle managers?  Surprising.  I would have thought more Dilbert fans had it in for middle management.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940576]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from callcopse]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940557]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Marshall Brain's story Manna runs with this ball. It's interesting and a good, quick, easy read, like one of Scott's thought experiments.

http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm


]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940557]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from RavenBlack]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940518]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@delius1967: &quot;Some people cannot. They are there to pick up a paycheck and simply don't care about anything else. These people need to be eliminated from the org, regardless of their ability.&quot;

I don't understand why you'd say that. If you have good ability, your motivation is to pick up a paycheck, and your expectation is that you have to do a good job in order to get that paycheck, then surely the result is a model employee who should be kept? The problem is not people who are there for the money, it's that people who are there for the money realize that their peers are working much less than them and still getting the money. Those people who are doing less work are the ones you need to get rid of (no matter how &quot;motivated&quot; they might be!)
]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940518]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from AlanB9]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940480]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Scott, if a Project Managers job is so easy why I have been looking to find good project managers for the last 20 years and I've only found a half a dozen that I felt did a very good job.  now let me include that a project manager to me is probably much more than your thinking, a good PM can take a project form the point is it sold and manage every aspect of the job to the closing paperwork (and run multiple projects in various stages at the same time).  A good PM is also a good salesman, and makes sure he/she gets all of their change orders approved.  I'm guessing that your belief of what a project manager does (and it really doesn't matter what field, a good PM could step into and industry) and what I require are like comparing black &amp; white...]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940480]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from harrykrak]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940231]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[[The robot won't fear being fired if he tells the boss the project won't be done before the CEO visits.] 

It may not fear it, but it will still be fired/melted down. That information will be in the cloud of Big Data. Whilst a rohbert may have no sense of self preservation, it will have a sense of efficiency. And it will be much more efficient if it is not pounding on the door of a furnace, from the inside.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1940231]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from arsonist]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939985]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Stui

Your sentance should have read like this:  &quot;As a manager, I take exception to your generalisations...now please sit back and anjoy as I make a generalisation of my own.&quot;

I do not think that robots will replace mid-level managers.  Their job isn't hard enough to warrent the hardware.  Most of the mid-level managers I know could be replaced with an auto-forward e-mail rule.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939985]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from PeterJ57]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939915]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[In the 1700s nearly everyone worked on the land. Now fewer than 1% of people make all the food for the rest of us.

In the 1800s everyone flocked to manufacturing. It sucked up lots of labour. Now manufacturing is a few people tending the machines. Not just outsourced, manufacturing jobs are falling fast.

The web taught us how many things can be automated. We buy holidays, cars and houses using a web form. We get our money from a hole in the wall. We get better customer service from automated systems at Amazon than we do from bricks and mortar retailers.

This means that companies make money without needing to employ people. Wealth generation is no longer linked to employment. Money used to be distributed in wages, and those wages then used to fund government and public services. That model is broken.

Governments will probably ignore the problem - in which case unemployment will soar and taxes will continue to rise as fewer earners pay for more unemployed, until there are too few earners to pay for the services. The system will break down under its own weight.

We need to think of a new model. What are your thoughts?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939915]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from PeterJ57]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939855]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[This future is already here - and it is called Business Process Management.

Every business is a collection of processes. In a typical business 70% of these is waste.

By defining these processes and automating them, major savings can be made, a better customer service is provided, compliance with regulations is built in and there is an audit trail of every step.

The system starts with a form such as a travel booking, a mortgage application or a purchase. As this progresses through the organisation, checks are made on the applicant, services are scheduled, product inventory is checked etc. all aiming to provide whatever separates the customer from their money.

In the past this was done by email, phone call or meeting. Now the form tells you when it is ready to be approved/rejected, with all the data you need to make the decision. If you don't handle it in a given time scale it gives it to someone else, or escalates it to your boss.

BPM not only eliminates the mundane tasks - shuffling paper, checking stuff and looking things up, but it makes sure that people have what they need when they need it - no more time spent looking for that communication you received last week.

This is a $10bn industry already used by all major banks, most utility companies and, here in the UK, by the Welfare Department. It will eliminate a whole tier of useless non-jobs - the Wallys of this world.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939855]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from delius1967]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939835]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Reading this, I almost get the feeling that Scott wrote it as a trick -- that at some point he's going to say, &quot;Wait, sorry, did I say robots?  I meant to say Eskimos.  But now, see how your reaction is different?  That says something about you!&quot;

Being middle management is anything but easy.  (If it is easy, why are so many people so bad at it?)  I've spent about 15 years now being a first- or second-level manager, and what I've realized is that the work that Scott describes, handing out assignments, project planning -- that part IS easy, but it isn't the most important part of the job.  The most important thing I do is manage personalities and the inevitable conflicts that go with them.

The difference between an effective employee and a slacker is usually not their levels of ability, it is their motivation.  You usually can't get a job without ability, because ability is what companies tend to focus on in interviews.  If you want to know if someone can write a piece of code, ask them to write a piece of code.  Motivation, on the other hand, is ephemeral and hard to get at.  There's no simple way to get at it in an hour-long talk, so almost nobody tries.  Instead they base their opinion of someone's motivation on how excited they seem, or what they say about their last job, or any number of B.S. things that have no correlation to actual motivation.

Back to managers:  since motivation is the difference maker, what makes a good manager is not their ability to shuffle papers or balance budgets, but how good they are at motivating people.  If your employees believe in you, believe in your ability to lead them to success, they will work so much harder for you that it is like having 50% more people on your staff.  Great managers, far from focusing on the day-to-day trivia that robots could, indeed, do better, instead spend their time winning the confidence of their employees and peers.  Virtually everyone, even people who are self-motivated to a high degree, knows the feeling of working for a manager that you have no confidence in, and how hard that makes it to really put in your best effort.  The opposite is also true, though unfortunately many fewer people have ever had the chance to experience it.

The other key attribute of a great manager is an ability to tell who CAN be motivated.  Some people cannot.  They are there to pick up a paycheck and simply don't care about anything else.  These people need to be eliminated from the org, regardless of their ability.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939835]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from chubbymike]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939662]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[In most cases upper management rises from middle managment, how do you replace or promote upper managers if middle mangement simply becomes a computer program?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939662]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from RavenBlack]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939559]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Then what will be the new mechanism for keeping sociopaths out of trouble and making them feel important?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939559]]></guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Comment  from yodies]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939286]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Scott, I hope you've read this.  It mentions a fast food restaurant's manager being replaced with an application called &quot;Manna&quot;.

http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

It's a quick read (30-60 min) that talks about a robotic future both in dystopian and utopian terms.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1939286]]></guid>
</item>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCSTE_Rstst]]></pubDate>
<lastBuildDate><![CDATA[WedPMCSTE_Rstst]]></lastBuildDate></channel></rss>
