Man, there sure has been a lot written, particularly in recent years, on how to be an effective manager.  And you probably know a manager who has read enough of this material that they can recite it back to you chapter and verse.

However, most of these people would also have to admit – should they stop long enough to really take a look at what they do during the day – that they don’t actually spend much of their time managing like they read about in their books.  Most of their time is actually spent putting out fires.  In fact, many of the managers that I’ve worked with actually look forward to these emergencies – its when they can really shine.

And you and I are not alone in noticing this trend.  We’re in pretty good company in fact.  Jim Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute recently wrote about this same phenomena.

Creating basic stability in core processes is one of four basic value-creating tasks of management, yet it is “almost completely ignored,” observed Jim Womack, LEI founder.

“When you go in and spend a day with managers and observe what they are doing – even up close to the top – they are busy talking to the customer about things gone wrong, they are busy talking to the supplier about things gone wrong, they are busy talking to operations or design about things gone wrong. Complete instability.”

As a result, the main work of many managers at many levels in companies using “modern management” systems is constant firefighting.  Here is Jim’s list of the four activities of managers that create value for their organizations: (more…)