So on NBC news tonight, they had a little segment with the now former head of the TSA (these are the people who make you take your shoes off at the airport). It was enlightening and vexing to hear what he had to say.
He basically said that the security people at the airports are not allowed to do anything other than follow strict procedure. They are not allowed to use their own judgment or simple common sense. They are actually disciplined/punished if they don’t follow these rules to letter. They don’t want to pat down the 90 year old guy or strip search him, but they have to if they want to keep their job.
If ever there was a case of what I am trying to address as a motivational/inspirational author and speaker, it’s this kind of management approach. It is truly tragic, not to mention directly inconvenient for me, to have to deal with people in authority who have no authority themselves, who are not allowed to think and act like human beings. If absolutely no respect for their own humanity is being granted, how can one possibly expect them to offer even a modicum of acceptable customer service? They are no better than the check-out kiosks at the supermarket. It’s a massive waste of resources, and it’s immense hubris on the part of the upper management who believe their “systems” are better than right-here-right-now human thought.
When I was a professional bass player, I saw these two management models, i.e. massive trust and delegation versus no trust and no delegation, used by various conductors. Without exception, the top conductors all use the total trust / total delegation model. They accessed the virtual infinite problem-solving capability of the team. Those conductors who used the no-trust / no-delegation model lived in a fantasy world of extreme mechanical efficiency, and they were so focused on building perfect system that they never bothered to look up and notice just how much resentment and apathy it fostered.
There is no inert set system that cannot be defeated by a nimble mind. If we are to be safe in the skies, we need the nimble minds working on our side.
The mechanical/factory-based management model is alive and well, and in my experience, it is the system in use 97% of the time. I hate to keep harping on this classroom conditioning element, but if you default to that model, and don’t understand the concept, power, and use of individual problem-solving, you can’t access it as a manager.
© Justin Locke
