Atlas Shrugged: Management Mistakes

One of the things I enjoy is reading a good book at night to wind down. A little while ago I ran out of books to read and decided to look for new material from authors outside my favorite list. My idea to find new books was search the internet for lists of what others considered the best 100 novels of the 20th century. I figured I reduced the risk of getting a melon by going with this strategy and plus it might make me seem smarter to be able to discuss classics. So I go the library to get the first novel. I didn’t bring the list, but I remembered enough to find one. The library didn’t have Slaughterhouse 5 or anything by Orwell, so I went to Ayn Rand. Low and behold – there is Atlas Shrugged, a monster 1100+ page book that I’m glad my dad didn’t have access to when I got into trouble as a kid. It turned out to be a very interesting book. It centered around the conflict between great business leaders / innovators and an inept and power hungry faction (portrayed as the government). The innovators where represented as giants of both the mind and of industry. The power hungry faction was shown as a collection of incompetent people who only looked out for their personal interests and gaining power. I won’t give a book report here, but what I found interesting was that I recognized behavior of the incompetents in current corporate politics in companies I have worked for. Following are a few of these situations which I recognized that made me laugh at and cringe at the same time. These are definitely no-no’s for being an effective manager and producing a quality organization. Situation 1 Don’t look at me, I can’t help it. I can’t help it if people refuse to cooperate. I’m tied. I need wider powers to make them cooperate. I need more power if I’m to do my job. I’m not to blame, I need wider powers! Situation 2 The economy was better the year before last than last year, and last year was better was better than present. We can’t survive another year of this progression. We must hold the line, to stand still to catch our stride. We must not progress or recognize new ideas. We must stand still and maintain the status quo. Freedom has been given a chance and failed. More stringent controls are necessary. Since men are unable and unwilling to solve their problems voluntarily, they must be forced to do it. We can manage to exist as we are be we can’t afford to move forward. We’ve got to stand still. Continue article - Atlas Shrugged: Management Mistakes: Part 2