Feb 7, 2014 - What I Should Have Learned in College

My current employer has a large and wide-ranging set of training offerings to teach managers how to deal with people more effectively. I was able to take a solid sample of these in the last 4 weeks, going through 4 of the major offerings.

One of the classes offers an assessment of what upsets you, how you tend to deal with conflict, and provides insight on how you can decrease your destructive responses and increase your constructive responses. One class was concerned completely with the balance between a manager's responsibility to manage others and to deliver on his own commitments. Another was on how to adjust your own coaching style based on the situation and individual. Another covered a wide range of topics, from word choice, to framing a request, to posture matching, to processing the concept that words do not represent ideas. They are how a person presents his thoughts and notions, based on his experiences and views of the world.

These classes are, in short, a primer on how to be effective in interhuman relationships. They are, incidentally, not required curriculum for either a BS in business or an MBA. They are more geared for the Organizational Development people, or the psychology people. And yet - these are the exact skills and competencies that every professional in the world who works in an office environment needs to master. So I now have the task of recreating these training offerings to deliver to my staff in smaller chunks over the next 6 months or so. It will be fun.  I'm excited about it.

Also, in the news today was an article stating that IBM was trying to sell or find a partner for its microelectronics business. This happens to be the part of IBM that is my customer. I don't see any major changes for us, even if they do find a buyer. The product we are making still needs to be made, and it still requires our equipment to do it. So there's a runway, but it's certainly a confluence of uncertainty: my company is going through a merger, and my customer is trying to sell itself to another entity. In the end, it'll work out. It always has worked out for us, and I have no reason to expect differently. We'll ride out one bump after another, and see where it leads us. I will say that, in general, I'm very pleased with what I've been able to accomplish at this place. I have a good network of good people, widely dispersed in the company, with whom I interact and create value for the organization. My team is excellent, and recognized for doing good work. So, given the vagaries of the industry I'm in, we're doing just fine.

I've taken a lot of pics recently, and haven't had a chance to blog with pics for a while. I should get some up tomorrow, mostly of hiking with the kids and snow stuff. Tomorrow we will also lose 2 trees: 1 dead one in the driveway, and a dying one close to the house, but leaning away from the house. They both need to come down, and I'm excited to have firewood for next winter. Not so excited to bond with my chainsaw and axe, but that's the price one must pay.