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Managerial Competence: The Key to Surviving Change
by Johanna Rothman. Originally published in Cutter's Business-IT Alignment E-Mail Advisor, April 26, 2000.
In response to Jim Highsmith's Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor of 1 March, "Change Is Changing," I'd like to ask: Is the Internet really changing everything?
I'm not so sure. In the 14 February issue of *Business Week*, there was a fascinating statistic: the median tenure of discharged managers and executives in 1999 was 10 years. In 1991, that tenure was only 6.5 years. I don't think we've gotten that much better as managers between 1991 and 1999. I think we're somehow fooling some of the people some of the time. I also think it's taking longer for some of our colleagues to recognize incompetence.
In his E-Mail Advisor, Jim Highsmith made the point that recognizing we're in punctuated equilibrium is necessary, and that we need to adapt to those changes. Jim is right -- adaptation is a necessary and critical skill. However, adaptation by itself is not sufficient. Competence, especially managerial competence, is just as important as recognizing and adapting to change. If we're not becoming more competent as managers, then it doesn't matter if we recognize that change is upon us. It's essential that we react to the change appropriately.
One of our roles as managers is to consider (for more than one nanosecond) what the consequences of our decisions are and decide if we want those consequences. Competent managers think; they don't just react. Adaptation is the start of management competence; thinking through the consequences is the next step.
One common mistake managers make is to think that they have to have some project done quickly -- and that the quality of the project is less important than the speed of delivery. Fast projects don't have to deliver awful products. Fast projects can use a variety of techniques to ensure a desired level of quality. It is possible to do a fast project where the product delights the customer, rather than becoming a source of aggravation.
What does this mean for IT managers? It means aligning products with the corporate strategy is even more important than before. Discovering and aligning the way we produce those products with what our customers want is critical. Recognizing change is good, and being "right" is irrelevant -- being able to recognize the change, update our understanding of what is "right," and increasing our ability to deliver is the newer competence we need.
Competence doesn't mean making zero mistakes -- you just have to make fewer mistakes than your competition. The company, organization, or manager who makes the fewest mistakes wins. What we need to recognize about punctuated changes such as the Internet is that our time frame for recognizing mistakes and changing our reactions to those mistakes is smaller. The Internet isn't really changing everything, but it may mask our incompetence, even as that competence is becoming more critical to our success.
Johanna Rothman observes and consults on managing high technology product development, looking for the leverage points that will make her clients more successful. You can reach her at jr@jrothman.com or by visiting www.jrothman.com.
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