There are some books of which one may truly say that “no home library is complete without them”. One such great book is The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson. It is a must-read for anyone working in Quality Assurance or management (Quality Assurance is in large part, very simply, management), or in fact, anyone dealing with people at large (and that would be… everybody?).
The story tells of a young man in search of an optimal management style. In his quest he meets many managers: some tell him they are results-oriented, but then the people they manage are not pleased with them; others claim to be people-oriented, but then the results are not so impressive and their managers are not pleased with them. Until one day…
As you can see, the book focuses on the question: people or results? Naturally, it also gives the answer, and even a great deal of simple and precise practical guidelines on how to implement it.
For me, there is no question
Indeed, consider this: if we have already established the fact that everything begins and ends with people; that people are the ones who make the processes; and that Quality Assurance (and management) deals with these said processes – then what is the point of being results-oriented? Of being focused on results?
It is the people who produce the results! Therefore, instead of focusing on trying to force results to improve while keeping the existing processes and people as they are, one should focus on empowering the people and improving the processes. That will naturally bring about better results.
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