New President Interview -- Part 12*
Q> When you were in college Dr. Laurence J. Peter
(1919-1990) wrote the book, The Peter Principle : Why
Things Always Go Wrong (1969). You wrote a paper that was later published
saying that what they said was not new.
You traced the idea that competent people get promoted to a level of
incompetence appeared in 1767
in the comedy
Minna von Barnhelm by the German playwright, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing[1].
A> In Lessing’s drama, the character Major
von Tellhein suggests that Paul Warner (an old sergeant) should become
something more than a sergeant. Warner answers, “To become something more than
a sergeant! I do not think of that. I am a good sergeant; I might easily make a
bad captain, and certainly a worse general.” Warner
knew that everyone has his own level of comfort and competence.
I was
young[2] when
I wrote that paper yet I understood the roots of the Peter Principle are in the
book of Deuteronomy 16:18 “Judges
and officers shall you appoint for yourself”, and the next verse, “You shall not plant for
yourself an Asherah of any kind of tree” Asherah is a tree associated with idolatry.
Anything connected to idolatry totally forbidden. An organization is
responsible for appointing people to the right positions and making sure they
are competent. The point at which an employee is no longer able to perform at
with competency, demonstrates the Peter Principle. At the time I didn’t understand the
connection between connection between the hiring agent and a level of
competency.
Q>
I’m a little lost. What have you learned
since you wrote the paper about the process to hire competent people?
A>
Remember I wrote the first article as an undergraduate almost 40 years
ago. I understood literature and history
more than I understood management. The
teacher, Resh Lakish, in the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 7b: explains
the Biblical verse in such a way to show us that the appointing or hiring body
has a pivotal role appointing the best judges.
An organization must appoint people to the right jobs.
For
example a person who gives spelling binding speeches and tells people what they
want to hear may get elected to a high political office, but giving great
speeches does not indicate an ability to govern, make decisions and lead. An arrogant leader, who does not recognize
his or her limitations, soon will reach a level of incompetence and drag down
the entire organization.
A
good speaker with a command of language and the material is but one indication
of competence. One has to be articulate, but spell binding is not a
requirement. Sometimes the speech is all
we have to judge someone, but actions speak louder than words.
In
another college, where a friend is the librarian, the dean who supervised the
library was really quite clueless as to what is required for a library to
function. Based on postings in library
listservs this is not uncommon. The
business functions of the library are very different from an instructional
department. Instructional department
budgets mostly consist of personnel.
Libraries need to purchase books, databases, and other resources so they
can serve everyone in the college.
I
encouraged all the deans and program directors meet with the librarians to figure
out ways to be on the same team. When we conducted a search for new assistant dean
of instruction, we found several candidates who had
not been in a library or used library resources in such a long time, they
couldn’t their last visit. These
candidates had not written an academic paper since they left college. These
candidates never made the first cut.
Q> How does this translate to the College? How does
the College make sure people are in the right positions?
A great teacher or professor does not make a great dean. Someone
who knows how to say the right things at the right times may advance to higher
and higher positions, but that does not mean they are competent. Part of the job of an administration is
learning how to make people feel good who work for you. That is motivation. It’s my job as president to make sure my
department head have the tools to get their jobs done. Competency
requires the worker to use the tools and produce value for the
organization. If the tools are not
working, it is hard to do a good job.
People get frustrated when they have faulty equipment or systems.
Good leaders know how to choose team members who complement
each other. A manager needs to trust the
people s/he works with. Team members
know they can’t all have the same knowledge, background and expertise. Team members know how to share information so
that the team works as a single body
Q> How does sharing information help the
team?
Imagine someone walking into a college building for
the first time and needing to attend a meeting.
This visitor does not know which room to go. The person asks the security guard for
help. In team player organization, the
security guard would have the tools to either tell the visitor where to go or
know how to find a person who could help the visitor. In a customer centered organization, any
staff member should be able to help a visitor or caller find the right place to
be or find the phone of someone who can.
I once visited a college for a meeting. I was told to meet on the first floor of the building
and someone would come to get me. I
asked which building. And they said none
of the buildings have names or numbers on them.
Since I was meeting with a librarian, I found the building with the
library and waited at the desk near the entrance. The appointed time came and no one showed up.
I asked for help in the library and no one knew where the person I was meeting
could be found. I was finally told, I
was in the wrong building. This was an
information failure. Not only did they
fail to give me accurate and precise information, the college was not properly
marked, and no one knew how to help me.
Projects within the college need to pay attention to
how they impact both the students and those who deliver services to the
students. After several shootings at
universities the College made a plan for emergency notifications. This system, in place before I joined the
college, is used to inform students, faculty and staff of any urgent
situations. For example when the College
closed because of a winter snow storm, the system was activated.
All the photocopiers in the College were replaced in
January. This was a huge project that
impacted to way we do business in every office.
Before I approved the project I insisted that we include a notification
plan for everyone involved including the students. I did not want anyone to be surprised. Training to operate the new copiers was begun
before the first one walked through the door.
It amazed me that the project leaders did not even think of how to communicate
the changes. This is an example of a
time that I had to be very insistent so that we can be more of a team.
Q>
Is there a cure for the Peter Principle?
It depends on what you mean by a cure. People need tools to succeed. The tools include things they can hold and
touch and systems and procedures that are intangible. We need to continuously
identify the skills and tools needed for success. We need faculty development
to show them both how our organization works and encourage them to attend classes,
workshops, and training sessions so they keep up with the profession and meet
fellow professionals in similar organizations. We need to fund ways to let they
do research, writing and study. We need to find ways to get to “yes.”
If an employee performs well we need to find ways to
make sure they do not become disillusioned and stagnant. We have to separate
the ability to spellbind the audience from the skills needed to get the job
done. The ability to carry out the duties and responsibilities should be primary
reason for getting appointed to a position. Before a promotion, one must show
the ability to perform the new duties of the job.
Q> What is the
cure for being clueless?
Learning never ceases. When one completes one area of learning, it
is time to start new learning. In other
words, never stop learning. "He who adds not to his learning diminishes
it." [3] One
must always be aware that we are knowledge workers. One person does not know everything and you
can not expert your associates, colleagues, or student to be mind readers. If someone in the organization is not asking
questions, no one is learning enough. "There is only one thing more painful
than learning from experience, and this is not learning from experience." [4] One
must not only understand the organization, but never stop learning outside of
what you are competent in today.
The head of the organization
must set the example for those who work below.
I was impressed last week when I heard a scholarly lecture from the dean
and chief academic officer of a college.
Not only was he an excellent administrator, but also and expert in and
aspect of 16th-17th century German history.
Someone who is considered
clueless is not making connections between areas of knowledge. The cure is to learn about areas outside your
department and area of comfort.
Q> Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
*Part twelve of an imaginary interview with the
recently appointed president of the College. Note this is just for
your information and edification. Any connection to a real college president is
strictly coincidental.
[1]
I used an e-book from Google books. Full
citation: Lessing , Gotthold Ephraim. Minna
von Barnhelm / with an introduction by Edward Brooks. Philadelphia,
D. McKay [1899].
[2]
Remember I was Bible major.
[3]
Rabbi Hillel in the Talmud, Avot 13:1.
[4]
This thought is often attributed to Laurence Peter, but it seems to have first
been written by Archibald McLeish, poet, writer, and Librarian of Congress.
There are at least 40 books that include this quote, but none give the name of
the original source.
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