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> Most people waste incredible amounts of time “statusing” people who can’t actually help I manage a large team of people. It takes 70 odd people to fly the c

> Most people waste incredible amounts of time “statusing” people who can’t actually help I manage a large team of people. It takes 70 odd people to fly the company I work in. It is the immense privilege of the pilot to be able to have to prioritise their own work, and to have absolutes like fuel load and altitude. I have to negotiate priorities with the company. People constantly come to me for advice. Communication is key to an organisation. The other disadvantage us ground dwellers have is that everything is changing. A pilot knows the key performance metrics of their plane, and has a planned destination. Mine get modified during flite. My destinations get changed. Very little is set in stone. We attempt tasks that nobody in the world knows how to do. It is not much like flying a plane at all

danielscrubs 5y ago
I'll ask for forgiveness in advance for being grumpy. Communication is key is what is said by every manager with that as his primary skill. It's not that it isn't important, but if a doctor said that breathing is his skill you'd probably go to someone else but it is totally accepted by managers to not have any domain knowledge. I've seen examples of economists ruling over doctors & bartenders ruling over programmers but the people on the floor are never happy about that. What is worse, they seem to arrange companies to make communication more important. This includes having a matrix structure in the company, putting responsibility on everyone (which in practice means managers with good communication skills get away from responsibility, which wouldn't be the case with a clear responsibility chain) and making daily meetings even though they don't have anything to say (I've made a bingo card with the buzzwords). What can also happen is that because management knows they have zero domain expertise they make themselves more important by holding on to information that should really be passed on. Most communication is the empty calories of business management. Sorry for the rant, I don't believe you are that kind of manager because you are on this forum, just needed to get this off my chest.

danielscrubs 5y ago

I'll ask for forgiveness in advance for being grumpy. Communication is key is what is said by every manager with that as his primary skill. It's not that it isn't important, but if a doctor said that breathing is his skill you'd probably go to someone else but it is totally accepted by managers to not have any domain knowledge. I've seen examples of economists ruling over doctors & bartenders ruling over programmers but the people on the floor are never happy about that. What is worse, they seem to arrange companies to make communication more important. This includes having a matrix structure in the company, putting responsibility on everyone (which in practice means managers with good communication skills get away from responsibility, which wouldn't be the case with a clear responsibility chain) and making daily meetings even though they don't have anything to say (I've made a bingo card with the buzzwords). What can also happen is that because management knows they have zero domain expertise they make themselves more important by holding on to information that should really be passed on. Most communication is the empty calories of business management. Sorry for the rant, I don't believe you are that kind of manager because you are on this forum, just needed to get this off my chest.