After many days of great weather, today is a dreary day.  It was pretty bad last night that I had to watch Texas vs Detroit play in ALCS. I recognized very few players and besides I didn’t care about the outcome. While watching that and this morning, I heard about the dismantling of the administrative structure of Red Sox (as well as players feeling unhappy) after several successful seasons.

I also noticed that a Google Engineer “accidentally” shared a communication written primarily about the bad management practices at Amazon and then about Google. I have “accidentally” in quotes because I am always suspicious when smart people claim to do things like this or lose a “to be released” iPhone in a bar accidentally, so I think it was intentional. On the other hand, what do I know?

In both these cases you will see “management” discussed in negative ways, not surprising. Management is not easy, as you already know. There are courses that train managers and they do a good job. I have even seen courses for those who transition from being a technologist to a manager. Given the need to create new businesses every day, I won’t be surprised if there is a company offering a course that teaches one how to go from Manager level I to II!

I have come to like the OODO loop – Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This is very relevant to management. This came out of Air Force training where, there is only so much one can be taught during training and in real life situation, things happen that requires one to apply the OODO principles. Management is like that. Training helps, but it cannot cover all the different situations one encounters.

This is why it is a continuous learning process. Management requires a good understanding of the culture, the goals that the organization is trying to achieve, how to bring everyone in the organization along, how to balance the expectations of those that we serve against the expectations of those that work in the organization so on and so forth.

When a manager observes that a process/project is lagging, she/he has an obligation to intervene and move the process/project along. Typically, those involved in it are likely to view this as interference or micromanagement. On the other hand, the manager feels that sitting on the sidelines is unlikely to change the outcome. In the leaked memo, the author is ranting about the management style of Jeff Bezos in Amazon. I am sure that the staff at Amazon feel differently about this than the Board members and the stockholders who see that the end result matches the goals of the company.

You heard similar things about Steve Jobs – especially early on,  and Bill Gates. In many cases, the issues arise out of miscommunication. Middle level managers communicating what they heard from senior folks in ways that it was not intended, and the whole miscommunication getting compounded by the levels of hierarchy it has to travel through. So, the senior folks making themselves available to talk to anyone about major initiatives and strategic directions is critical. Of course, this is nearly impossible in a very large organization.

It goes without saying that without the dedication and the hard work of the staff in any organization, it is highly unlikely for senior leaders to succeed. At the same time, making sure that we all are working towards delivering the best products and services is critical. For this to happen, clarity to who is going to do what, who is going to make decisions, and where does responsibility lie are all important.

Consultation with everyone is an important step, but, letting everyone also know ahead of time that it is next to impossible to make sure that every single person’s ideas are accepted. In the end, some people who feel their ideas are the best are likely to feel that they have been wronged. Part of the solution is to observe that, and explain to that person the rationale and hope it reduces the disappointment.

The other part of management is the amount of differing view points you hear on how to handle a situation. Again, the manager needs to make choices.  Going back to the letter by the Google Engineer, he feels that Google+ should never have been released without the “platform” – the APIs that make it useful. I tend to agree with this assessment. However, I also don’t know what other factors made Google release it when it did. I hope that Google management sees this as an opportunity to learn and act differently next time.

I try to apply the OODO loop whenever possible. I am thankful to have accumulated several seasoned veterans as colleagues and mentors and when the situation warrants, I consult with them to reorient myself to handle the situation. Deciding and acting comes with experience and accepting that no matter what you do, you will be criticized in some quarters. The trick is to minimize that, and get back in the loop of meeting with those who are unhappy about your decision and have a conversation about it. If those conversations require you to decide and act on something you do it.

This exercise of constant looping is like an operating system, which is in some sense, an infinite loop. Except, it is like a manager who went to school and repeatedly practices what she/he was instructed to do. We need to be intelligent OODO loopers.