The Art of Self-Deception

When I mentioned the Voluntary Separation Plan, we've already encountered the almost desperate need of managers to deceive themselves. In that instance, since the world was cosy and rosy for them, then everyone must be happy. I believe this need for self-deception results from the infusion of something that should not be in management--the ego. Sorry to get religious on you, but the Bible states that "Whoever would be great in the kingdom of God, would be a servant to all." Despite the origin, if you look at management with that in mind, you begin to understand where 'THINGS WENT WRONG". To put it plainly, it is the responsibility of any manager in your organization to make sure that you can do your job. Think about it, that would include everything: Equipment, workspace, safety, etc. However, once ego enters into the equation, things fall apart. Ego is reason that managers self-deceive. "If I'm promoted to this position, how can I do anything wrong?" Then the fantasies begin.

At one company, the structure was very simple, they had production & engineering. Production had it's top tech as supervisor in Final Test and a manufacturing engineer. When all else failed, then engineering was involved. It didn't take an act of Congress, all they had to do was come over and get us.

Then we got a new production manager. A woman from a major aerospace manufacturer. The key here is not the woman part, but the 'major' part. The larger the organization, the more it relies on the managerial 'buddy-buddy' system. That is another subject. However, back to the situation....the problem arose when the production supervisor (one step below the lady) and his group leader decided that they were tired of getting beat on for late shipments. The solution was easy, blame Engineering! When a unit got tied up in final test, it was immediately marked as moved to Engineering for debugging, even if Engineering never heard of it or got it for a week later. Now our manager was getting beat up. However the lady had a great idea! To solve the problem, all she had to do was get a few of those lazy engineers transferred to production, problem solved!

Here's where the self-deception occurred: One of the techs that was going to be transferred was going to be put in the position of customer support (answering the phone). This particular guy was at the company for a few years. First he was a final test tech, then he really, really wanted to get into engineering. He was going to school at night, etc. There was an opening for an Engineering Tech, but someone talked him into taking on the customer support job. After a year, we had fought to get him into engineering and now, 3 months later, this lady wanted to move him right back into that position AGAIN. He even told her he did not want that job, to which the lady replied that if he didn't take it, she didn't know if there would be a position for him.

As you notice, this lady, despite being told the situation, refused to believe it because it conflicted with her idea. Roughly 6 months after the transfer, this guy left. When the lady was told that it was because of the transfer, she responded that he was going to leave anyways! As you notice, there was no compulsion to actually believe that she had done something wrong.

The big key here is: If you can't admit your mistakes, you can't learn anything!