Still in Philly, working with another group today, more on Elliott Jaques.
__
The Board of Directors had assigned a goal to the president, Wilfred Brown. It was Wilfred, alone who would be accountable. It was Wilfred, alone, who had the authority to make the necessary decisions, to commit resources, to set the reasonable Time Span of task assignments for his management team, to adjust the strategy, to shut down a project, to acquire a technology. It was a long term goal defined by the Board and the Board had entrusted its execution to a man named Wilfred Brown.

And what is more, Wilfred Brown was up to the challenge. He understood. He had the necessary capability to plan and execute, to achieve the goal.

Wilfred’s executive team was hand-picked, each chosen for their experience, their skill and their capability for the tasks they were assigned. But the tasks (goals) they were assigned, were of shorter Time Span than those (goals) created by the Board for Wilfred Brown.

And it was at these Management Team Meetings that Wilfred would present the problems he faced and the decisions to be made. His executive team could, each, see the impact in their own discipline, and each, in their own way, could make decisions appropriate to their assignments.

But in the largest sense, they failed to see what Wilfred Brown could see. Wilfred could explain and demonstrate, argue and persuade, but in the end, in some cases, he would veto the team’s conclusions on the largest decisions.