Managing for Excellence - Submit a Comment

U.S. Department of the Interior | Reclamation Internet

Search Reclamation

Reclamation Home

Managing for Excellence

Submit Comment

U.S. Department
of the Interior

Back To Comments Home
Comment	Submit Date
There appears to be an emphasis on Planning Division (Mid-Pacific Region) activities with the assumption that work originates in that shop. By definition, this is top-down management. The top down approach will always suffer from a degree of insularity. We have never dealt with the us-verses-them problem, which was first recognized in the employee surveys of the early 1990's. Project Managers in the Area Offices are so often out-of-the-loop and discounted. Cooperation, at times, seems to be stifled. In many instances, the physical separation of the departments reinforces such insularity. Cultural differences between the two professions also may inhibit cooperation. Project managers have a tendency toward immediate action where Planners have a tendency toward longer-term strategies. Planners in the Regional Office often have (or seem to have) access to policy processes that the project managers can only guess at. Typically, the project manager's most cogent policy indicators come through when budgets are cut. There may be definite biases at work, namely: A reification bias: "Strategy is a thing." Planners tend to think that strategy is a blueprint, a book, or a product that is finished and fixed once it is done. However, strategy does not deserve the name unless it is evolutionary and highly adaptive. A control bias: "I am in charge - whatever I say is implemented." Overconfident Planners may think that the strategic process can be unilaterally controlled from the top. Sadly, some zealous Planners at the top often filter out vital information that flows from the bottom up. When planners fall prey to unrecognized and unexamined biases and assumptions "blind-spots" which filter out critical information. The result can be distressing. This insularity often damages the creativity and productivity that lie hidden in our organization. If Planners and Project Managers work together in and environment that discouraged the top down approach, they may overcome many barriers to cooperation to forge effective working relationships. All we can ask is for the opportunity to do a better job.	10/13/2006

Back To Comments Home

Comment

Submit Date

There appears to be an emphasis on Planning Division (Mid-Pacific Region) activities with the assumption that work originates in that shop. By definition, this is top-down management. The top down approach will always suffer from a degree of insularity.

We have never dealt with the us-verses-them problem, which was first recognized in the employee surveys of the early 1990's. Project Managers in the Area Offices are so often out-of-the-loop and discounted. Cooperation, at times, seems to be stifled.

In many instances, the physical separation of the departments reinforces such insularity. Cultural differences between the two professions also may inhibit cooperation. Project managers have a tendency toward immediate action where Planners have a tendency toward longer-term strategies. Planners in the Regional Office often have (or seem to have) access to policy processes that the project managers can only guess at. Typically, the project manager's most cogent policy indicators come through when budgets are cut.

There may be definite biases at work, namely:

A reification bias: "Strategy is a thing." Planners tend to think that strategy is a blueprint, a book, or a product that is finished and fixed once it is done. However, strategy does not deserve the name unless it is evolutionary and highly adaptive. A control bias: "I am in charge - whatever I say is implemented." Overconfident Planners may think that the strategic process can be unilaterally controlled from the top. Sadly, some zealous Planners at the top often filter out vital information that flows from the bottom up.

When planners fall prey to unrecognized and unexamined biases and assumptions "blind-spots" which filter out critical information. The result can be distressing. This insularity often damages the creativity and productivity that lie hidden in our organization.

If Planners and Project Managers work together in and environment that discouraged the top down approach, they may overcome many barriers to cooperation to forge effective working relationships. All we can ask is for the opportunity to do a better job.

10/13/2006