Impact of reengineering on jobs

AlexiaM@aol.com
Thu, 26 Jan 1995 03:05:04 -0500

A friend and mentor, Joe Podolsky at HP, passed on one of "Joe's Jotting,"
reflecting on "the really interesting area where organizational needs and
personal careers intersect. Today's (1/24/95) Wall St. Journal, touching
on that same space, grabbed his attention.

Joe writes: The column is called "Managing Your Career," written by Hal
Lancaster. Today's column is the second of a two-part interview with
Michael Hammer and James Champy, of "Re-engineering the Corporation" fame.

Lancaster's interview, brings out some interesting thoughts. Here are
some excerpts:

Question: How must management change?

Hammer: When you get through re-engineering, the few managerial
jobs that remain will have three flavors -...one I call a PROCESS OWNER.
It's really a work engineer...The second is a COACH - teaching, developing
people. The third kind is the LEADER, who primarily motivates - creates an
environment where people get it done.

Q: What are the skills needed to thrive in this environment?

Champy: People who are profoundly questioning about what they do.
Why do I do this work? What's the fundamental purpose of this
organization? People who can hold seemingly contradictory notions at the
same time and actually operate on them at the same time.

Q: Can you give me an example?

Champy: I tell you I want all the benefits of decentralization, of
being close to the customer, so manage so all of your people are out in
the marketplace. But I also want all the economies, the cost savings, of
centralization at the same time.

Q: What must companies do to foster these skills?

Hammer: I tell companies to quintuple their investment in
education. Training is about skills; education is about understanding
broad knowledge...

Champy: These are things that have to be taught in the company
context, both through classes and experientially...You also have to teach
more behavioral things...how do you behave and make decisions.

Q. What about those (managers) who don't survive the
(re-engineering) process?

Champy: I think that we're going to see five to 10 years of very
difficult dislocation for a large number of people. I'd like to say we
have the growth engine of business moving to a point where we'll quickly
absorb those people into high value jobs. I don't believe that.

Hammer: I think there are a lot of people who will never find a job
again. The market is over for bureaucrats. If you can't design or sell
products, if you can't do real work, I'd get real nervous.

Q. So, in the future, what will a successful career look like?

Hammer: A successful career is no longer about promotion. It'll be
about mastery...

Champy: What I tell my kids is: Have a profession, don't ever have
a dependency on a single company, and measure your success by growth in
skills and knowledge and what you have in the bank. End of Joe's
Jottings.

Mighty sobering thoughts---particularly for bureaucrats.

I assume this group has had dialogue about reengineering before, but
perhaps not in terms of the impact on jobs and what we, and our esteemed
colleagues must do to thrive, and learn, and grow. "Training and
education" are not nearly enough. Teaching "behavioral things" too seems
inadequate. How might we in this dialogue add to Hammer and Champy's
thinking?

Alexia (Lexy) Martin
Co-Development International
12950 Saratoga Ave.
Saratoga, Ca. 95070
408 366-0466
408 366-0474 fax

AlexiaM@aol.com