$17.95 / Perfectbound
ISBN: 9781608440481
196 pages
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Collaboration through the Process of Decision Making is the Key to Getting the Job Done

The job of an executive, manager or employee (from here on in all three will be used interchangeably) is to get things done. He or she has the organization’s resources to work with—people, knowledge, facilities, money, all the things that make the organization go. The job of the manager is to use whatever of these are appro­priate, in the most efficient way, to achieve the desired results. When something gets in the way of the organization, the manag­er’s job is to get over or around or through the obstruction so that there can be progress toward the organization’s destination. Whether something is wrong that has to be corrected, something is not as good as it could be and needs to be improved, or some­thing is going to go wrong and needs to be prevented or avoided, problems are obstructions that impede progress. It is the manager’s job to get them out of the way.

Some managers are better and get more done with less ef­fort than others. They personally benefit from this, and so do their organizations. Their organizations grow faster, make more money, and are better places to work. Good management pays off. Resolving problems quickly and efficiently pays off. And so does anticipating and avoiding future problems.
The best managers get more of the things we value in this material world—money, respect, attention, promotions, oppor­tunities—because they are worth more. They bring more gain and prevent more loss. Here we speak of managers as anyone who manages people and resources: executives, managers at all levels, and supervisors, whether in manufacturing, industry, ser­vice, or finance; scientists, academics, government and civilian workers; and all those who have responsibility for getting things done.

Yes, good managers get more of the good things than poor managers. Since all of us want to get our share of the good things, we need to ask, “Why are some managers better than others?” What do the best managers do that the others don’t? How do they know where to put their energies to get the most done? How do they get others to collaborate with them and share their knowledge? And how can we learn to do likewise? This book is dedicated to exploring those questions and to find­ing practical answers you can use.

Modern management is complex and difficult. Ordinary ef­fort is no longer enough. There aren’t many isolated, simple problems that exist without accompanying issues nowadays, and there are guaranteed to be even fewer in the days that lie ahead. Going beyond the ordinary, accomplishing more than the minimum, getting others to cooperate in resolving problems, and drawing on the full knowledge and experience within the organization make the difference between being a leader and being an also-ran in the competitive horse race we are all en­gaged in. It’s as simple as that.
If you are an exceptional manager and go beyond the ordi­nary in what you do on the job, you may not gain much from the ideas we present here. But wouldn’t it be nice if everyone else in your organization were as smart as you? You may have found it hard to tell others how to be as creative. You try to motivate them to work together and come up with better ideas; some respond, but others don’t. They seem willing enough, but they don’t know how to make it happen.