Sunday, June 27. 2010Can It Really Be True.......John Linton .......that ducks are smarter and better organised than human beings? We had a very pleasant day doing not very much. We spent the morning at the bird sanctuary that is only a few minutes walk from our hotel and saw an avocet up close for the first time as well as a marsh harrier that was extinct in the UK for over a hundred years until a breeding pair was sighted in 1984. The afternoon we spent visiting the Queen's house at Sandringham and wandering around the grounds - something Annette finds an indispensible part of any time spent in rural England. So, amazingly, the day just disappeared and we are now back at the hotel - Annette watching Nadal at Wimbledon and me catching up with events in Australia in the bar - not because of my preference - it seems that the internet wifi only works here. I have read through the Australian Saturday media - a fairly mundane task with little new added on any topic other than how Australia can be proud of its performance at the world cup - an interesting view of how the team played and how it generally conducted itself (based on press reports only) - I guess it sums up the general veracity of what is published in the Australian media.....where do those hacks come from to write such rubbish? Again, I didn't bother to read the political columns - to me they would be like reading the sporting columns. I started to put together a list of things that Exetel needed to accomplish to justify its continuing existence as part of the long term job goals and 'learning' for some of the company's key people while we were scanning the skies for incoming avia of interest in one of the 'hides' this morning having to keep quiet or risk offending the more dedicated 'twitchers' either side of us who seem to demand funereal silence as the only possible atmosphere in which waiting for new arrivals at the water in front of the hide can be conducted. I didn't get very far along that route but it did indicate that there was more to do than I had thought in terms of 'people development'. I used to be quite a fan of structured career development and formal in house education; almost certainly because of what I experienced in my early years working for multi-nationals. Over the last decade or so I have become quite uncertain about the value (to either party) of such processes. So I made a list, when I returned to the hotel, for two people in Exetel that would be a series of targets (in terms of knowledge and skills) that they would need to achieve to free them from my 'interference' in their day to day and, more importantly, half year to half year job responsibilities. I didn't get very far beyond a lot of meaningless 'motherhood' nonsenses that would make me laugh out loud at their inanity if anyone else had suggested such twaddle as I wrote down. It's a major problem for me, for Exetel's shareholders and for Exetel's employees that I (one of the main determiners of individual career paths within our small company) is so lost in determining sensible 'paths' from here to there - let alone time frames and with absolutely no idea how to define the actual skills and knowledge that's required. How do you actually teach/define a suitable process that provides any individual with the required abilities to become a "manager" as the least level required but then leading on to the required forward thinking and analytical abilities and processes that allow them in increase the scope of their activities and benefit themselves personally as well as providing the necessary growth required by their employer? The reason I started on this 'tack' was having been "shushed" by a fierce looking female at one of the hides this morning my mind drifted to this subject while watching a group of ducks (two parents and 6 ducklings) slowly swimming in single file (one adult at the front and one adult at the back) with both adults moving other birds in their path or intersecting their part out of the way with whatever aggression such delicate creatures possess and the 'rear' adult chivvying the ducklings that fell behind or tried to stray back in line. Who taught them to protect their offspring in such a truly sensible manner? Was there a 'parenting for first time hatcher's classroom hidden in the reed beds? Obviously not. But those two adult ducks were doing an excellent job of teaching and protecting their young with only what their genetic material provided to them. Thus my mind started to think about what human beings needed in terms of vocational training and why we didn't have what every other species on the planet has - an intimate and intricate understanding of exactly what to do from birth until death. Then I thought that obviously our species has exactly the same genetic material and we also know, without being taught, how to conduct ourselves at every stage of our lives - we just choose not to. No education or career direction discussions should be necessary for any human being who wants to have a career - they just need to follow the guidance within themselves and select from the multiplicity of vocational training resources available to them. I wonder if it is that simple? Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2010 Trackbacks
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So graceful are these waterfowl that they organise themselves very neatly. I also agree with 'learn'or 'earn' is a good policy on the path to developing skills.
Comment (1)
Career
Function: intransitive verb Date: 1647 : to go at top speed especially in a headlong manner Did Kevin Rudd career? Perhaps there is some manner more useful than careering through life. Comment (1)
My experience is that those who want to develop themselves... usually do so.
... and those who are happy with their situation ... usually just drift along. Only the first group react positively to the prompting from others. Only the first group progress further in life and business. Sometimes people in the second group change groups ..... but not very often... and then usually only when life changing (threatening?) situations arise. H. Comment (1)
"But those two adult ducks were doing an excellent job of teaching and protecting their young with only what their genetic material provided to them."
Being cynical here, but perhaps those ducks that didn't got eaten, squashed, drowned or otherwise stuffed? "No education or career direction discussions should be necessary for any human being who wants to have a career" Could you use some form of Darwinian process to pick a suitable manager? I suppose that's why KPI's were invented. Comments (2)
Perhaps you could tell me a 'KPI' for a person operating in their current job that is a reasonable indicator of the ability of managing at the next level up?
You appear to have missed the point of the duck analogy completely......it was not referencing the human species depredations of the planet which has nothing to do with the innate ability to be a parent in the best possible manner. Comments (2)
Usually KPIs on a basis of promotion involve some sort of expansion of scope within a similar field. For instance, someone charged with sales of a particular product subset in a particular location would have their own KPI's to work towards. The "next level up" may be either a larger set of products in the same location, or a larger location, or both. They key is that they expand on their current skillset.
It is difficult to predict how someone managing, say, a team of 4 would perform managing 6 teams of 4, each with their own team leader, or, for that matter, someone simply managing their own time, promoted to managing their own and 3 subordinates. That is the basis for my "Darwin" comment. Give them a go, and you will see the employee "fittest" for the job succeed, as I'm sure you are doing, and as I'm sure you know, far better than me. With regards to the ducks, I wasn't making any comments whatsoever about humans, just hijacking your analogy to suggest that perhaps those ducks with the best parenting skills have come from a long line of naturally good parents, while the others have probably killed off their offspring. Hopefully, good staff with good managers would have been taught good managerial skills, which they would then build on and pass on those skills to their subordinates. Part of it may be natural skills and instincts, and part may just be good fortune to be “born” into a well managed team. Comments (2)
I see what you mean about the parenting skills - but - the same skills are exhibited by ducks whenever I have seen them over the decades and I could have used any number of characteristics that are innate and complex.
My experience over the same number of decades is that there are no predictors in measuring current performance in a non-management job that assess likely success in an actual management job. 'Management' means more than helping those you are 'in charge of' meeting their assigned targets (base level supervision) it means conceptualising the future in new ways that go way beyond taking available base data and extrapolating it. It also goes way beyond helping people for whom you are responsible 'meet their targets' - a good manager does that without thinking - a good manager helps a person reach their full potential in diverse ways that both benefit the individual and the company. Over the decades I have almost never seen those characteristics 'grown' or 'developed'. I think, like the duck's parenting skills they are innate and the skill is in selecting people who possess those latent skills at the hiring phase of employment - they can never be 'inculcated'. Comments (2)
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