Voice of the Employee

[Cory Smith]

[chevalier]

Story of my life.

[swcook6]

The people who plug away each day at the production level have some of the most useful ideas. By ignoring those ideas, management only hurts itself, not taking advantage of what could lead to cost savings and even new business ideas. Most of the time, the ego of the manager gets in the way of using someone else's suggestions, because they didn't come up with it. In today's economic climate, you better use every asset you have to improve or you may cease to exist as a company.

[SQCGuy]

Eliminate your ego as a manager and this problem goes away. You always have to consider that there is someone in your team who could do your job better than you do.

[gordo]

Eliminate your ego as a manager and this problem goes away. You always have to consider that there is someone in your team who could do your job better than you do.

Jobs are hard enough to find. Why would I hire someone who could do my job better than I?

Tongue planted firmly in cheek :-) gordo

[HPC]

Make sure your people, the true assets of a company, feel empowered enough to make good decisions and offer suggestions. Way too often the people have great ideas, their supervisor kills the idea and who looses... management. Dear management, get out of your office, get out in that plant, see whats going on and talk to your people.

[otherthoughts]

First Rate!!

[Erik Nikkanen]

The phrase " Knowledge is Power" is a clever way to distract employees and people in general. The idea that, if one comes up with good ideas based on some better knowledge, this can give one a path to succeed is a cruel hoax.

Knowledge is NOT Power. Power IS Power.

And the managers have the power and try to keep it and their interest is to not get crushed by someone higher up than they are, who has even more power.

The view is that reality can be manipulated if one has power. The goal is not to make improvements but to maintain ones own position in the power chain.

Since there is no real interest to make improvements that means any suggestion to try any particular idea to improve the company's position, means nothing. Logic and knowledge mean nothing in that situation.

Managers play these games but one should not think that it is always their choice. If one is a manager in a culture that forces them to act that way, they have to for their own survival. I have seen it often.

One should try to understand the political dynamics and work within its limitations to get ideas accepted. It can be done but one has to be careful and patient. Ideas won't be accepted because they are good but because they improve the power status of the managers.

Some managers are lucky enough to not have to work in that kind of culture.

[gordo]

[SNIP]
One should try to understand the political dynamics and work within its limitations to get ideas accepted. It can be done but one has to be careful and patient. Ideas won't be accepted because they are good but because they improve the power status of the managers.

Some managers are lucky enough to not have to work in that kind of culture.

I do agree with what you wrote (that I snipped for brevity) when you are in a top down hierarchical organization - which is, I think, how most print shops are organized.
The problem is that in the political dynamic you describe, there is no incentive to bring ideas forward for the good of the company. And if you bring up ideas that, as you put it "improve the power status of the managers" then you risk being isolated by your coworkers ("X sucks up to his boss").

I was very fortunate to have worked in a company (Creo) for 9 years that had an extremely flat organizational structure. Although that management style sometimes made decision making a challenge, since most were made by consensus, it made for an extremely dynamic, innovative culture, that enabled the company to grow very fast and bring industry changing products to the market.

best, gordo

[Lukas Engqvist]

You know what they say, people will reject "my idea" but feel more ready to accept "our idea". I don't have a quote on who said it, and I have a vague idea about some pun to express it. The art is expressing the problems that you want solved so that management needs to solve them, give them clues on how to solve them if you must