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.

Management Principles

Most people know that President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk that said:

• The buck stops here!
  

Many may not know that he is also quoted as saying:

• It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
  

Two principles of management. Managers sometimes forget one or both.

According to Newsweek online, President George W. Bush admires Truman.

Which one of the principles is Bush forgetting?

The Hardest Part

I wish you could meet Riley. He’s the little guy that made me Grampy in Chief two and a half years ago. He is good looking (he gets that from his parents), smart, curious and funny. He loves cars, airplanes and baseball. Baseball is in his genes, so his mother has become a fan too. If you met him you would be impressed but think that he’s just a normal kid.

On Monday we were abruptly reminded that he is not just a normal kid. Riley was born with a heart defect. He has a single ventricle and no spleen. So, even though 2005 has been hospital free and Riley has been thriving, the clock has been ticking. The two open-heart surgeries of his past lead to a third. His cardiologist scheduled the surgery. We were all taken aback because he has been doing so well. We thought we had more time. (His Mom and Dad have written about their reactions.)

On March 2, 2006 Riley will have a heart catherization. They will map his heart and the major blood vessels in preparation for surgery. The Fontan operation will be a week later, March 9.

Riley has the best care in the world. The staff at UCSF is phenomenal. His surgeon, Dr. Karl is one of the very best pediatric heart surgeons. The nursing staff in the PICU is highly trained, focused and caring. They operate on infants and children on a daily basis so they are skilled and experienced.

We want to protect our children and grandchildren. Handing Riley over to the anesthesiologists, waiting for hours during surgery, looking at the little guy with all the wires and tubes, and worrying when his temp spikes, those are the hard parts.

I have only about three months to get prepared.

The Ball That Stopped My Heart

86 years! My father was two when the Red Sox had last won the World Series.

86 years! The Sox were down 3-0 to the hated Yankees in the ALCS, the curse seemed still alive.

Wait, the Red Sox won the next four games. They won three more against a great St. Louis Cardinals team.

If you are a member of the Red Sox Nation, you were pumped during that fourth game, but there was always the curse…

Then, a soft underhand toss from Foulke to Mientkiewicz and the curse was dead!

I don’t know what the judge of Suffolk Superior Court will say about who’s ball that is. But, I do know to whom it belongs. It belongs to the Red Sox Nation and it belongs to history.