Another Management Principle

Recently I wrote about two principles from my management guru, Harry S. Truman.

To be sure I had my quotes right I looked again at some of Truman’s wisdom. I found enough to blog for a month.

Here is another management principle from our 33rd President:

• "You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on."

A manager must resist the temptation to surround herself with “yes people.” It is easy to hear people toeing your line, but in any enterprise you need to look at all sides of an issue.

Getting all the facts, making sure that alternate or opposing views are heard is essential. A vital principle to remember when you are running a country, especially God forbid, if you are planning a war.

Everything that has happened on the ground in Iraq was predicted by voices that should have been heard.

By the way, if you are managing product development, you will be interested in a brilliant blog on getting facts by listening to customers. If I seem too biased, after you read it, come back and tell me.