Many students are puzzled by our public management course so far. There isn't nearly the number of hours' worth of reading assignments as previous classes demanded. I mean, we're in the middle of a three-week course on Stephen Co/vey's Eighth Habit book. Three weeks! I don't even think the Co/vey seminars themselves take that long.
But I'd like to think I know what he (the prof) is trying to do. This is the dreaded "touchy-feely" part of the course that he warned us was coming clear back in August. This is the part of the course designed to shift our paradigms, where we learn our own voice, if I may borrow from Le Co/vey - our own style of dealing with different kinds of people and situations as subordinates and co-workers. And as future managers.
We'll get deep into hypothetical territory next week, I'm sure, and start to learn what makes each of us tick so we can be effective managers when the time comes. Work with our own strengths, recognize and be ready to neutralize our own weaknesses. And possibly (if it's really possible for adults to make great changes in themselves for the better) make great changes in ourselves for the better.
That's why the reading volume has been so light lately. He wants us to live this book, not just skim it.
And it's not a bad book, really. It has some good qualities, and I'm enjoying the exercises and even some of the little parables in the DVD. One thing - it's exasperating to read his concepts and know that he's borrowed liberally from the most famous philosophers/psychologists in history, from Aristotle to Maslow to Freud, without any acknowledgment whatsoever.
Our prof says that's true, but nothing's really new in the world, and that Co/vey just wants to put these concepts together in a new way, for today's reader. Holy frejoles, this professor must reeeally want us to like this book!
In other news, our local paper reported yesterday that public agencies face a loss of leaders in upcoming years. All those selfish Boomers are about to retire, but haven't groomed their successors.
Hundreds of public agencies in California and other states will soon face a shortage of senior managers because they have not identified future executives and moved them through "a leadership pipeline," a new study warns.
Struggling with tight budgets, hiring freezes and outsourcing, government agencies have failed to groom the leaders needed to replace thousands of baby-boomer managers retiring through 2010, said the study by Sacramento-based CPS Human Resource Services. [...]
California's state government has examined the demographics of its aging work force and the findings were astonishing, not only for retiring senior managers, but for workers at all levels.
More than half the state's 208,222 workers will be eligible to retire within the decade, including 3,397 executives and managers, said Sherry A. Hicks, a spokeswoman and director of legislation for the state Personnel Board.
"When we crunched the numbers, it was, wow! Everybody's awake to the issue here now," Hicks said.
Hey Sherry! Here we come! Armed with our eight habits and everything ...
So your prof thinks there's "nothing new in the world"? Well, ask him about Gertrude Stein, cloning and string theory and see if Covey has those covered!!
Personally, I wouldn't want my boss "grooming me" for fear of where the comb might end up. I also think that you, Pam, having lived with a trained singer all these many years would have "found your voice" (a lovely mezzo) without your prof's or Covey's help whatsoever!!
I bet Covey's a tenor. A bad one....
Posted by: Anthony | October 18, 2005 at 07:08 AM
GAH! Stupid boomers.
Posted by: Jo | October 18, 2005 at 07:50 AM
Public agencies failing to groom their leaders... true. And private enterprise failing to develop any corporate memory. All because budget cuts in the past decade or so have meant lean, mean and momentary culture.
When the boomers retire without sufficient time for their replacements to understand what has come before... huge amounts of the "why" things are done will disappear... and the learning curve will be an expensive experiment.
Posted by: Debra | October 18, 2005 at 08:00 AM
What was that first book? "The Seven Habits of Highly Defective People," right? I think I have all those skills mastered.
Posted by: Snow | October 18, 2005 at 09:05 AM