Managing in a Changing Environment

THE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATION

• This opening session provides the foundation the course. The participants develop the key role of the middle manager in a multi level organization and differentiate the job of middle management from that of top management and subordinate supervisors. They are shown that the usual definition of management is insufficient to describe the middle manages and that, quite literally' the job of middle managers is to manage organization.

GETTING TOTAL SUPERVISION

• Through a case study, the participants look at the supervisor's total Job. The realities of the supervisor's environment are examined by the group with particular emphasis on the pressures and influences created by demands to change. The case is designed to demonstrate the magnitude of a supervisor’s job and how managers "signal" what they want the supervisor to do vs. what they say they want (meetings, memos and formal discussions)
• Recognition of the supervisor's total job, the innumerable pressures from various sources and organizational influences and pressures exerted set the stage for the positive approach to Total Supervision.

CREATING THE CAUSAL ATMOSPHERE

• This represents the single most powerful tool the manager has for implementing change within the organization. Three types of supervisory atmosphere are presented - discourage, allow and causal. The group is shown how the managers create each type and what they should do, step by step, to generate the Causal Atmosphere. Participants then reinforce their understanding of this tool through the application of the Causal Atmosphere technique in a case study simulation.
• This exercise demonstrates that managers do not have to change their styles to get more out of their organizations; rather that if they understand their organization, and how they are currently using the Causal Atmosphere (on the right or wrong objectives) they can more effectively apply the technique to real priority objectives.

THE MANAGER'S APPARENT INTEREST INDEX

• In order to know how well managers are succeeding in creating total supervision using the casual Atmosphere they need a tracking tool. The Manager's Apparent Interest Index is presented with emphasis on how to use it and how it can help managers determine their own effectiveness and make modifications when and where necessary.

IMPROVING THE ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

• The group participates in an interactive discussion of line/staff relationships. They learn how, through misuse of staff functions, the organization pays four unwanted prices; supervisory abdication of authority, authority without responsibility (staff control), competition between line and staff, and elephantiasis (the growth of a second ghost organization, duplicating the line organization). The participants are shown how they can avoid these costs, maintain responsibility with authority and simultaneously generate excellent line-staff relationships.

MANAGING CHANGE

• While this theme is paramount to the entire course, one major section is devoted to the change processing this section, efforts to implement current concepts related to Total Quality Management arc discussed in details within a specific change model created by the class. Specific topics such as empowerment, team management, employee involvement and development of people are discussed. This section concludes with The New Leadership-the 5 characteristics of effective leaders in today's business environment.

ADVANTAGES TO THE ORGANIZATION

• Middle Managers tend to be the forgotten level of management when it comes to preparing to initial or respond to change in organizations. Yet, along with supervisors, they are the most crucial since they have enormous influence in the operating environment. This seminar is among the few that are designed specifically to assist managers to make the behaviaral changes necessary to adapt to the current environment. If managers don't change, neither will the environment in which they work.