Jour fixe – diepresse.com
Thomas Pisar – satirical – about leadership and led. Season 2/episode 6.
The every week of Coo Jour Fixe starts on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. The two directors Kitzler and Sproter are there five minutes before the start and lunge around in the board. They have a coffee from the assistance and demonstrate merciless presence to the board members who are currently in their offices. Facewashing.
The directors Strotter, Potter and the director Kotter are there at the beginning. They demonstrate merciless efficiency and have already made an appointment beforehand. Lichtenberger has the agenda firmly under control and invites the first guests to deliver a project status report via video call. The equipment spins as always, and it takes five minutes to at least hear the virtual guests. Seeing would be too much. Even nothing is transferred from the room. They talk in the void.
The report from the project is not interested in anyone. Everyone who affects it already knows it. It has been coordinated three times in advance, beautified and housed. Green on the outside, red – classic watermelon. The COO as the addressee of the message comes ten minutes late due to a traffic jam on the highway. When she arrives, everything has to be told again. For reasons of efficiency, you started on time and demonstrated that you would also be able to act as a COO leadership without a COO. Almost. When the report is almost finished, director Achtermeier arrives – as always fifteen minutes late. She still hears so much that she can ask a few unnecessary questions. This demonstrates merciless commitment. The COO is interested in the report as well as the weather forecast from last Monday. She also knows that she is served green fruit here. She can also answer a few emails. The spectacle is over after twenty minutes. Departure project status report.
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Skill development. It is reported on the ongoing measures for the team. The lecturer is the responsible department head, who has never made a move in the topic itself. She declared the lecture as a chief inner matter. Only she talks. After all, she reports to a board. The slides are exciting like an eight -hour French experimental film with Finnish subtitles. Half of the directors get another coffee, the other half can be seen in a chat that runs next to the meeting. In the end, the COO looks up from her laptop, where she planned the flights for family vacation and appreciates the valuable work. Departure skill development.
The next agenda point is the personnel and budget numbers. This is now a topic where everyone gets air to plan up. Armchairs are moved, corners of the mouth hike down, nasal wings bloated, you tighten yourself – it gets serious. Merciless strength is demonstrated. Each from the director of the director is in the magazine like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III. Your rods have made excellent preparation. Everyone is informable down to the smallest detail and can demonstrate knowledge. This is important. You know your numbers. This can explain that not a single saving is possible – except if the COO wants to answer that everything, but really everything, goes down the stream in the second. You don’t go to a shootout with a knife. The game is well known for everyone, but is always played that way. A silent agreement.
The controller announces that the costs are 7.3 percent above the budget. The necessary savings are distributed on the round that take their new budget goals with them theatrically. There is no commitment. But it doesn’t matter – the goals also apply without commitment. That too is part of the game.
Similar things can be found in the number of staff. As almost always, Kitzler goes into the role of the stray and takes over more dismantling goals than the others. He is truly a good mercenary. Internally, it is referred to as the graved graves of his organization – Mr. Underakers. Degree of targets 100 percent and more. Especially when it comes to personnel loss. It is better to sail with the wind in the back that comes from above. He can. The others breathe. Budget and personnel numbers ticked off.
The last agenda dot comes: the upcoming exam. The possible goals are discussed in detailed brainstorming. So not what you want to achieve, but where you drive. One half is thermal for three days, the other half for the middle castle country. Sproter doesn’t want a red wine, Kotter doesn’t want to cycle. You agree on South Styria – with a hiking trip and wine tasting.
After all, you have to treat yourself to something in this difficult situation, where you only have to discuss savings and staff reduction.
Learning
A jour fixe on this level is a ceremony and a stage at the same time.
- It is the playground with the boss/COO for the directorial team. It is her habitat. Here you can underline what you are welcome to see: presence, commitment, commitment, tough management.
- The presentations are polished and, for safety’s sake, coordinated with all relevant people in advance. Nobody wants surprises or bad news here. Managers don’t want to be surprised – some not even for Christmas.
- It is an appreciation of their work for the subordinate department heads and projects. At least that should be. The currency of the lead is called « dedicated time ». Anyone who can present here is primarily valued – but the hoped -for effect is often overestimated. The tight schedule often forces other things to do in parallel. Fairy: Not all presentations run like this.
- Since corona and online or hybrid meetings, parallel chats have become naturalized for particular agreements or simple blasphemy. Without further comment.
- The only important points are the budget and FTE numbers because they are relevant to the goal and thus bonus. They are meticulously prepared and hotly discussed. Nevertheless, the content -related discussion often steals to the farce because the corporate need dictates the goals. There is no escape.
- Every argument against a saving is sacrificed on the altar of lack of alternative. If you don’t play along, you will soon no longer play along.
- The leadership has learned: the predicted disasters rarely occur. « A little something always works », that’s the learning.
- The valve is the discussion about the exam. It reduces the tension and at the end brings everyone back to a table.
Are you from time to time in a guest in such a jour fixe? How do you perceive the round?
Are you an integral part of such an illustrious round yourself? How much fun is the weekly fixed date?
Are you in the role of the COO and organize a similar jour fixe? What do you do so that it doesn’t just become a stage?
Feel free to leave us your questions, thoughts and comments in the comments or in one
« /> Thomas Pisar, a doctorate in physicists, who worked as a manager at A1 for many years, keynote speaker and consultant for change and transformation, tells a short case study every week, similar to how it actually happened, presents Learnings and asks questions about further thinking.
