MANAGEMENT WON’T SAVE YOU
This is a little fact which will save you time and money: Don’t count on management to be your savior.
That’s not in the job description.
The job of management is to get things done in an organized manner. Efficiency is not required. Example: Microsoft Windows. Well organized, but not what I would call efficient. Don’t get me started on Apple systems. Don’t get me started on commercial transportation. “Management” is what CAUSES the problems. Management is responsible for flights being delayed most of the time.
So, will money management make you rich? Don’t count on it. Remember YOU are in charge of it. How have you done so far? Ouch!
How about medical management? How has that mishmash of services and providers and insurance plans helped you? I can tell you this, all those “managers” of health care are costing YOU a lot of time and money. Your doctor spends more time dealing with the “system” (read: management) than he or she spends in the examination room with you. You think he or she does all that for fun or for free? And as a result most medical services don’t have enough time to keep an optimal number of patients serviced. Therefore you have to wait 6 weeks for a simple MRI. Much longer if a procedure involves a surgeon. This is not very efficient. Oh, you think that if we only had national health care (like Canada or Europe) those problems would disappear? Forget that! In Canada they have a “managed system” and wait two to three times longer for an MRI or surgery. Same with Europe. One person I spoke with who had lived in England told me that her family (when they lived there) was assigned an emergency room which was a 45 minute drive away (they would have to pass 2 others which were closer). Medical care there is very “managed.” Having lived a while I can tell you that it wasn’t always this screwed up in the USA, but it has never been great. In fact, all the “management improvements” have failed to improve the system even a little or lower the costs (tho’ they often “claim” to do so). Health care costs always increase faster than inflation due to the managers who have to be paid and who slow down the process.
Management at your place of employment is different, though, right? I doubt it. Don’t you attend long meaningless meetings on a weekly (or daily) basis. You could be much more efficient if they would just stop “managing” and allow you to do your job.
Management isn’t your enemy. I wouldn’t say that it is. But it isn’t your friend, either.
So, self-help articles detail how you can best “manage” your own time, relationships, or money. Remember this again…management is NOT your friend. Every choice you make due to the management ideal pushes you one more step away from being a good person or being a person true to your own core beliefs and goals.
Let me re-iterate several basic facts about management. 1) Management isn’t your savior. 2) It isn’t your friend. 3) You may have already discovered that management doesn’t achieve your basic goals regarding time, money, relationships, or health. It is truly merely a way to organize to get a task done. It should not be given the elevated value it has been assigned. It can’t live up to that. It can live down to a bad result on occasion, though.
What Management is For …
1) To give direction when you are directionless or lost.
2) To change your behaviors so you can achieve your goals.
3) To re-direct you when you aren’t meeting your goals. It is there as a guide and judge.
4) To set expectations.
5) To be role models or examples worthy of being followed.
Management can be valuable. It evaluates the cost, time, effectiveness of the vision. But there are limits. Great Britain, for example, has a standard for the management of health. It is this, “Can this treatment restore the vitality of this individual to where it was before this illness or accident?” Great management question, but poor health care question. As a result, a 74 year old male who breaks his hip, even though he is in fair health otherwise, may not be approved for a hip replacement surgery. He is overweight, high cholesterol, and has diabetes. The treatment for his hip gives him only an 80% probability of full recovery AND he is older and may die in less than 3 years anyway. Management decision or health care decision? Health care decision would suggest he has an 80% or better chance of having a good life for the next 3 years. Management looks instead at the 20% risk.
For this situation, in the United States I know of a patient who had a hip replacement (she was in the same recovery room I was). She was 86. I knew someone who knew her and found out that she lived 3 years and 4 months after the surgery at home, mostly took care of herself, and had good range of motion without pain for most of that time. Without the surgery she would have lived about 6 months with great pain, in a nursing home, would have developed bed sores and sat in her dirty diaper for most of the day. Medical costs for the surgery vs costs of nursing home “care” would have been about the same. Medical decision or management decision?
Management is how you exert control over the process. It is how you direct the project. It is how you supervise employees. Management is how you reach the goals. Management is not the goal.
I will say this, however, whether it is the president of the United States or the lackey who is tasked with cleaning your sewer line, they are all managers. Sometimes they refer to themselves as “leaders” but all that means is they made management decisions that affected lots of other people. Then they put other managers in charge of making sure the changes were put in place. The end result is seldom the best for the people, but great for management.
In the end, management is a system which often endows power to those not directly impacted by the decisions made. Be careful.
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
See more GUEST POSTS from Don!
Comments