The Coach's Handbook Part II - The Managing Model

In traditional, hierarchical managing, the manager is the focal point. Basically, everyone else is
around to do the manager’s work. The name of the game is to do what the manager tells you to do,
and the way he tells you (or you think he would tell you) to do it.

Some of the beliefs which justify the rationality of this design are: knowledge flows up; the higher
up you are in the organization, the more you are supposed to know; compensation flows up;
power flows up. The goal in our work culture is to become a manager. To remain at a lower level is
demeaning and has negative connotations. The higher up you are, the better you are.

“Better” is meant in a superior sense here, so that managers are literally the superior ones in this
model. Problems flow down. Whatever problems there are at the top are passed down to those
below for solution, fault or blame. Many of these beliefs have become unconscious and
unexamined. They automatically come with the territory of our work-lives and culture.

This hierarchical/managerial design is a historic model. It was developed for industry during the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution. People from the country sought work in factories. They
needed to be organized in an efficient way. The work was routine and fairly simple. Hence, the
system, which the organizational chart represents, was born. Under this system, the manager
knows what to do and the worker follows orders and does exactly what the boss says.

In the last 150 years, this system has changed relatively little. It is geared towards producing
mediocre or average products. As long as you met the standard, you could keep your job. As in
school, a grade of “C” was tolerable.

Another aspect of this system is that for the sake of efficiency, different departments in
organizations gave rise to their own bureaucracies. These departments created their own
fiefdoms, and the famous Turf Wars began pitting marketing against finance, engineering against
operations. Soon these types of organizations created cultures that predominantly benefited
managers at the expense of the front line workers and, ultimately, the consumer.

Over time, and particularly in the past twenty years, work life and business culture have changed
dramatically. Workers are better educated and more sophisticated. Many routine tasks have
become automated and computerized. Decision making is now more complex and requires more
from both workers and management. The globalization of markets has made business much more
competitive, requiring more knowledge from those involved. Innovation and speed have evolved
into key underpinnings of business survival.

It is clear that many of the traditional principles ought to be and are being seriously questioned. It
is also clear that managers do not have all the knowledge, nor are they intrinsically better than
anyone else.

The past system is not working for most business organizations. The forward-looking
organizations are designing and creating a new way of organizing themselves.

Next week - I'll compare managing and coaching models