The Cranky Middle Manager Show #24- How To Make Strategy Reality

Posted on 25. Nov, 2005 by Wayne in Podcast

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The Cranky Middle Manager Show #02

Greetings once again. Today’s show is all about strategy- why does it work, why doesn’t it work and what’s our role as managers in the whole crazy scheme of things.

0:00 Welcome to the show. For a great example of the manager’s role in implementing strategy we look to The Charge of the Light Brigade. A bad plan, to be sure, but the middle managers sure passed the orders on like they should have. We especially give a post-humous salute to Captain Edward Lewis Nolan, God bless his little order-giving heart.

3:23 Our Quote of the Week is from the poem, “Charge of the Light Brigade”. You’ve used the quote, now get it right….. A little poetry won’t kill you.

5:24 Welcome David Norton of the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Why does most corporate strategy fail?

7:30 What’s our role in all this?

12:17 How can you use compensation to drive strategy? Here we introduce the Balanced Scorecard concept.

19:25 Strategy is a team sport. There is no “I” in strategy. There’s no “Q” either which makes it a lousy scrabble word.

22:19 Having someone responsible for cutting across siloes sounds great, but isn’t it just more bureaucracy?

27:00 More resources. Check out the Harvard Business School Report on Balanced Scorecard.

Don’t forget, only 1 more week to find the Worst Manager on the Planet!… EMAIL ME or send me a message by SKYPE at wayneturmel. We have great prizes…you can find out more here.

Don’t let the weasels get ya down…….

Thanks Heidi!

Posted on 24. Nov, 2005 by Wayne in General

Heidi Miller’s excellent podcast, Diary of a Shameless Self Promoter and her blog, Talk It Up, have always been great supporters of this show. Thanks to Heidi for this piece in the November 18 edition….

To the participant who asked about how to do an interesting podcast about insurance, I ask, “Is it interesting to you?” and bring up the example of Wayne Turmel’s Cranky Middle Manager podcast. I mean, who would think that a show about middle management could possibly anything other than forehead-to-table boring? However, the host is a former comedian with impeccable comic timing and a laugh-out-loud sense of humor about his life and business; he brings on great interviews guests to stimulate topic interest; and he’s even currently running a “Worst Manager Ever” contest, complete with valuable prizes!

Thanks Heidi! We do have passion for what we do. You have to have, I mean who would ever listen to a show by some chick who’s obviously a shameless self-pro……. uhhh like I said, Thanks Heidi!

This Might Be The World’s Best Boss

Posted on 23. Nov, 2005 by Wayne in General

Just in case you think I hold all managers in disdain….here’s one I can’t even hope to aspire to. Would you offer an organ to your employees? NOTE TO HR… THAT IS NOT AN INNUENDO

World’s Most Generous Boss Article…..

Let me know if you had the world’s worst. Our contest has one more week to run. EMAIL ME with your horror stories and win cool prizes.

The Whine-y Department Head Game

Posted on 22. Nov, 2005 by Wayne in General

Okay, You’ve worked hard all day, now it’s time to have some fun. Try to match the comments below to the department heads who made them. This won’t change the world, just a chance to vent…

Match the department of your organization to the comments below:

1) Human Resources
2) IT
3) Finance
4) Facilities
5) Sales

a) “Everyone knows we run the show here- nobody would have a job if we don’t do ours first- they don’t have President’s Club for nothing.”
b) People are our greatest asset- no shut up, they are….. guys, listen up…. Oh come on……
c) We are the nerve center of the organization, nobody would talk to anybody if it weren’t for us….now if we can just get someone to talk to us, at least without giggling
d) If we didn’t keep an eye on things this place would fall apart and no one would have a job….so shut up and watch the spreadsheet. Yeah I know you can’t read it but what it says is……
e) ¿Estos puercos hacen tres veces lo que hacemos y ellos no pueden poner toallitas de papel en la basura pueden? Este lugar desharía con fuera nosotros.

The Answers

1) b 2) c 3) d 4) e 5) a and we get it already, shut up about it.