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Letters to a Young Manager


It's not a problem; it's a learning experience, #133
LTYM > Process and Operations Management



Dear Adam,
***
A major outage in your data center is a big deal. But don't fall victim to the "blame game". This is a primary learning opportunity.

Years ago, I read a story about an IBM sales VP who had just lost an important account. He was summoned into CEO Thomas Watson Sr's office.

Watson asked him, "do you know why you're here?"
"You're going to fire me?" asked the VP with a fair amount of resignation.
"Hell no! It just cost me $600,000 to train you!"

Notice how Watson turned blame into value.

When I was running a Wall Street data center, I made clear to my team again and again, when a problem arose, they needed to answer three questions:

1) Exactly what happened? Do they know the details, the root cause, etc.?
2) What will we change to ensure it does not happen again?
3) If it happens again, how will we be faster to fix it?

If they could tell me these three things, then it's not a problem; it's a learning experience.
***
Sincerely,
Ed
________________________

[1] see the Thomas J. Watson quote, here: http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/recently-i_was_asked_if_i_was_going_to_fire_an/264910.html

Takeaways:

Don't waste a mistake; learn from it

Discussion Questions:

1. What problems gave you experienced that resulted in finding the person (blame) rather than the root cause?
2. When is a witch hunt a learning opportunity?

For Further Reading:

Buck Rodgers, The IBM Way, Harper & Row, 1986. Amazon Kindle edition is here:




© Copyright 2005, 2024, E. G. Happ, All Rights Reserved.


1) What happened? Exactly!
2) What will we change to ensure it does not happen again
3) If it happens again, how will we be faster to fix it?

Also: The Thomas Watson Jr. story: Fire you? I just spent $2M educating you! --Buck Rogers?

“Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”
--Thomas J. Watson, http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/recently-i_was_asked_if_i_was_going_to_fire_an/264910.html