The Light Side of Serious Management

 

The Light Side of Serious Management

The managers in the days of NACA were selected from a class of engineers that had accomplished some meaningful result in his research, and who could also give a public presentation. The NASA managers were of an entirely different breed. Their backgrounds were management. Apparently, they were taught that the way to motivate employees is to set reasonable goals for each one, and then compare his performance with the goals. The goals are deemed to be reasonable if they are arrived at by mutual agreement between the employee and his manager.

This system seems to be fair, and it could well be effective for some businesses, but when applied to a research organization, it spells death to innovative research. The problem is that no one will agree to a goal that he may not be able to meet. It is the nature of innovation that its goal is the unexpected – that which is often surprising when its goals are met.

When this problem was pointed out to management, the response was, “We'll just label the more difficult problems, 'high risk research' “. But it should be obvious that changing the name doesn't accomplish anything toward solving the basic problem. The researcher still isn't going to agree to a goal that he might not be able to meet.

I developed a system for dealing with this situation. After I had solved one problem, I would begin to think through the next one while I was going through the lengthy process of getting that solution prepared for publication. When I had solved the new problem, I would keep that fact a secret, but I would suggest that new problem as one that needed to be solved, and request a job number for it. Using this method, I always stayed one step ahead of the goal-oriented system, and I never failed to meet my goals.

The new wave of goal-oriented managers were not science or engineering managers, but professional managers. They were convinced that the younger engineers were the ones that were innovative, and so they promoted the younger, less knowledgeable engineers to supervisory positions while assigning the older engineers who really understood science and engineering to demeaning tasks that required no technical knowledge. When Dr. Katzoff had reached an age of the early 60's, I dropped by his office one to ask about a technical matter. He happily shoved aside the papers that he was working on. He was editing for grammar a white paper that required no technical expertise. He commented dryly on the typical new manager: “I may not know anything about science or about engineering, but I've got a degree in management, and, dammit, I'm going to manage!”

They managed; and they took themselves very seriously; so seriously it eventually became funny. When a policeman needs to stop traffic in one direction, he throws his arm straight up with open palm. That picture very accurately describes what happened to me one day when I started to enter my branch head's office. As soon as I stepped through the door, he looked up with a frown, and threw his arm up as a signal for me to stop. He busied himself for a few moments with the papers on his desk, and then looked up with a nod, as an indication that I had permission to approach. Another way that he would assert his authority was to have his secretary call one of his branch engineers on the phone, and then when she nodded that the engineer was answering, he would shout into the phone, “Meeting in my office at two o'clock! Be there!”.

He had learned these techniques in some kind of lecture or seminar on the importance of asserting one's authority. But this kind of behavior was completely out of character for him. So, we did not resent it. On the contrary, we welcomed it as a source of amusement. When I would enter one of my colleague's office, he would throw up his arm in the “police man-halt” gesture, and I would wait politely for permission to enter.

One of our new wave center directors really took himself seriously. One evening Langley sponsored a social for engineer's families to get together. A group of wives had gathered to discuss personal matters (mostly gossip). The director walked up and immediately started talking, “Ladies, I would like to address you on a subject related to Langley's future destiny”. It's hard to believe that a real person would talk in this manner, but this real person actually did talk in exactly this manner. And then he continued talking in this manner without pause for a full fifteen to twenty minutes, then stopped, and said, “Now ladies, how would you characterize my remarks on this subject?”. One of the ladies glared at him for a moment, and then told him in no uncertain language just what she thought of his remarks. Then she spun around and walked away. This anecdote went the rounds of the center for months.

Another anecdote, involving the same director, involved a roof leak. The roof of one of the important wind tunnel building had developed a leak. The roof was flat, and so it easily tended to spring a leak. The leak location could be seen inside the building where the water dripped from the ceiling. But there were several pools on the roof, any one of which could be the source of the leak. The innovative idea of dying the water in the different pools different colors seemed to work but the director planned to examine the problem the next day before work began on the repair. To prepare for the director's visit one of the wind tunnel mechanics dumped a couple of goldfish into one of the pools. But when the director's eyes met that sight, he didn't crack a smile. He was obviously furious.

Again this story passed the rounds of the center, and provided a brief respite from the deadly serious management system that afflicted the atmosphere at Langley. Gone forever were the likes of Claude Patterson and Charlie Husson, who had brightened our lives, and showed us that, with a sense of humor, we could live and work happily within the management system.

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