I work for a rather large technology company that’s working to downsize themselves to the new reality of their market. This is a perfect example of how NOT to manage a project for the betterment of the company.
They decided that it was necessary to have a reduction in force of several thousand people. OK, we won’t get into the fact that a layoff usually hurts the rank and file while those that made the decisions and got the company into the mess are insulated from the damage.
Anyway.
This company decided to let everyone know that they were going to RIF these several thousand but couldn’t give any more information. So guess what????
Everyone stopped working! Yep, While before it would take a lot of work just to schedule a conference room, now they’re mostly empty. Forward planning is halted by all the product teams pending the results of the formal RIF announcement…when it comes. Everything has been placed on hold.
What project management rules have been broken by this company and how much damage have they caused themselves because of the way this project is being handled?
It’s just human nature to focus on your own person situation even at the expense of anyone or anything else. There’s a certain factor that is always just under the surface when dealing with management in business. This is especially true of managers in the mid to upper ranges and in a business the is relatively large.
Their position, power, prestige and staying employed is the primary consideration of any decision. This means maintenance of the status quo is often times the critical goal of managers. Yes, I’ve heard the talk but watch the actions behind that talk.
Upper management is especially adept at spinning information to make themselves look good to people that don’t see reality as it really is. Accountability is for the rand and file. Failure of management is spun into a focus on positives, even if the main positive is that we lost less money this quarter than last.
The latest example of this behavior is a VP at a major technology company that has laid off many experienced people because she wants the project development teams to all be local to each other.
The Reason…
All the products her division have been market failures. Her rationale is that the products have failed because the project teams aren’t in close proximity to each other. Never mind that all the other divisions have distributed product teams and they’re delivering good products that the market loves.
So what’s the real issue…
The VP can’t get products the market wants because of poor management and processes, Her and her management teams failure is being covered over with a lame excuse about the need for all the product development people to sit in the same building.
The result of this farce is that the VP keeps her job, the management team that has failed to deliver good products keep their jobs and the rank and file lose their jobs. What’s really a shame is that upper management CEO etc. will buy that story and life goes on. Pity