PRETZEL MANAGEMENT

PRETZEL MANAGEMENT
By
Bill Cottringer

“Pretzel Management is when you stop trying to figure out when one thing ends and another starts. You just spread some mustard, take a healthy bite and enjoy it.” ~ The author.

I don’t think it’s just me but I sense management is getting tougher for all managers these days. Organizations are like pretzels where you can’t unravel things and put them back to the way you understand they would work best. You can’t stop the running train to fix it perfectly. Besides nobody in the workplace seems to want to hear your wonderful answers and solutions to fixing their complex problems.

The less this valuable tribal knowledge gets used though, the wider the gap gets between what managers think they know and can do and what employees are actually doing. Binoculars no longer work to see both ends of this gap. A Hubel telescope is needed today!

Sometimes managers feel they are trapped in a car being forced to idle their engines when all they really want to do is put the pedal to the metal, screech tires and lay rubber. Why is this frustration occurring? What is causing it?

For one thing we aren’t dealing with tangible things anymore, but rather abstract ideas and an infinite supply of them. And with the I-net everybody has instant access to everything they need to know to be an expert. An MBA education is only a few clicks away. But, all this information our Information Age has produced is having its toll. We are being buried in information and there is never enough time to know and do all we need to, in order to keep from drowning.

The lesson managers are being taught is a valuable one. We have to change. We have to change our very approach to leading change because the change has already gotten ahead of us when we weren’t watching the store. Instead we were being quite content with what we though we knew, never bothering to dust it off and try it out again to see if it still worked. What we are finding out the hard way is what got us here isn’t working well enough to get us there.

Now comes the so-called millennia and entitlement generations. But who taught them their wicked ways? We did of course. We entitled ourselves to know it all without seeking input, verifying our knowledge or updating it fast enough. And we let the changes get ahead of us which took the wind out of our sails and set us on a reverse course. Ah but what to do to regain reasonable control of our own boat? Socrates’ advice of “Know thyself” has always been my best answer in troubled times.

Some soul-searching worth considering:

1. Have I possibly gotten out of touch with how others perceive me? Have I turned into a clueless know-it-all that has a toolbox full of useless, obsolete answers to questions nobody asks anymore? Is all my security too tied up with my identity, which is mainly all that I know? Am I getting unnecessarily defensive when challenged?

2. Have I become too content with what I think I know to be so? Do I need to find a way to challenge my own CPU to clean house and make room for new stuff? What is keeping me from letting go to seeing what is really happening in the workplace today? Is it like I fell asleep at the wheel for a couple of years?

3. Do I let my darker side out too often--possibly appearing to be unpleasable, manipulating, untrusting and over-controlling? Do I bully, interrogate or intimidate people with my intelligence, experience or authority?

4. Let’s get real here. Can I really manage this total overload or do I need to be a little more discerning and pick my battles in learning to do what matters most? Do I feel secure enough inside my own skin to admit that I don’t have all the answers? Can I expose my vulnerable side to trusted friends to get a more accurate and complete picture of reality?

5. What is the most important change I can make personally to get this boat afloat and headed in the right direction? Is this the one thing that will make me most uncomfortable? What am I really afraid of? Where do I need to start? Or who should I ask?

6. What am I waiting for? Isn’t it later than I think?

Seeking honest answers to any one of these questions will be much better than feeling too comfortable to ask them.