Management Design: The “designs” we have now: You can manage only if you’re from here
The Manager by Design blog advocates for a new field called Management Design. The idea is that the creation of great and effective managers in organizations should not occur by accident, but by design. Currently, the creation of great managers falls under diverse, mostly organic methods, which create mixed results at best, and disasters at worst. This is the latest of a series that explores the existing designs that create managers in organizations. Today’s design: Hire as managers only those from within the organization.
In this “design”, the organization values promoting people into first-level and upper-level management positions from within. This is a natural tendency, because there are a lot of good outcomes from this process – it encourages thinking through management development and creating programs to support it; it creates career paths for employees; it assures that managers are familiar with company, department, and team procedures and expertise. The manager is networked already within the company. So if you are going to err on having this be your management design, this would be a good place to start.
However, as a design, it is still lazy, and there are some pitfalls and risks that need to be addressed.
Management Design: The “designs” we have now: Hire the premier technical expert
The Manager by Design blog advocates for a new field called Management Design. The idea is that the creation of great and effective managers in organizations should not occur by accident, but by design. Currently, the creation of great managers falls under diverse, mostly organic methods, which create mixed results at best and disasters at worst. This is the latest of a series that explores the existing designs that create managers in organizations. Today’s “design” we have now: Hire the premier technical expert.
Having the opportunity to hire a premier technical expert to improve your organization’s performance is a great idea. It brings in a fresh perspective, the technical knowledge you need, and perhaps will transition your team from being mediocre to industry-leading. What could go wrong? Lots. Read more
Management Design: The “designs” we have now: Promote the top performer
The Manager by Design blog advocates for a new field called Management Design. The idea is that the creation of great and effective Managers in organizations should not occur by accident, but by design. Currently, the creation of great managers falls under diverse, mostly organic methods, which create mixed results at best and disasters at worst. This is the latest of a series that explores the existing designs that create managers in organizations. The “design” we have now: Promote the top performer. Read more
Management Design: The “designs” we have now: You’ve managed a team before? We need you!
The Manager by Design blog advocates for a new field called Management Design. The idea is that the creation of great and effective Managers in organizations should not occur by accident, but by design. Currently, the creation of great managers falls under diverse, mostly organic methods, which create mixed results at best. This is the second of a series that explores the existing designs that create managers in organizations. The design discussed prior was, “Hire MBAs and Consultants.” Today’s design: Hire someone who has managed before.
In this “design”, organizations solve the problem of finding good managers by seeking people who have managed before. A more specific version of this is to put in the job description the requirement for people who have managed teams of a certain size: Have you managed a team of 5 or more people? 10 or more people? 50 or more people? By seeking this prior experience, organizations are making an effort to eliminate the error of having someone who is inexperienced in the role. With many management designs, hiring an inexperienced manager is far too risky.
Obviously, hiring managers from a pool of existing managers is an important way to reduce the risk and improve the quality of your management staff, and of course managerial experience tends to be better than lack of experience. However, overreliance on requiring management experience as the method of ensuring good management has its perils, because on its own, it’s bad design. Here are the perils: Read more
Management Design: The “designs” we have now: MBA graduates and Consultants
The Manager by Design blog advocates for a new field called Management Design. The idea is that the creation of great and effective managers in organizations should not occur by accident, but by design. Currently, the creation of great managers falls under diverse, mostly organic methods, which create mixed results at best and disasters at worst. This is the first of a series that explores the existing “designs” that create managers in organizations. Today I’ll start with a traditional way of finding managers: The education and prestige route.
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