The Manager's Success Rate.

Off and on over the last few days, I’ve been watching the live camera feed from the Gulf ocean floor at the site of the BP oil spill as crews attempt to install a new containment cap on the well. Over several days, I observed with a mixture of amazement and horror the activities taking place a mile underwater. On one hand, I’m captivated by the dexterity and skill of the remote submersible operators as they manipulate mechanical arms to handle tools and move equipment into place. On the other hand, it has been horrible watching thousands of gallons of oil gush from the uncapped well during the operation.


According to the press coverage over the last number of weeks, bad management decisions may have contributed to the biggest oil spill disaster in history. I’m not going to comment either way on that theory, however watching the attempts to fix the problem has driven home to me the following: When management messes up through poor decisions, it’s the skilled journeymen and women who end up fixing the problem. While we in leadership can point fingers and try to divert blame, the welders, crane operators and mechanical arm controllers have to do their jobs with skill and excellence to stay employed. These individuals are given very little room for error. The crane operator, who snaps a mile long cable with a 10,000 pound piece of gear on the end, will probably not work again on that job.



An acquaintance of mine who was once a manager in BP once told me that when he was hired for his role, his supervisor told him he needed to make decisions or be sacked. He then stated, “The best you will ever achieve as a decision maker is 90% good decisions”. I find a 10% error rate is pretty high. If that percentage is true in real life, then as a leader I have to realize that my error rate can cause a lot of collateral damage. I am going to need a team of great people to support me. While things are going well, I need to build and nurture and encourage that team. One day I may need them to clean up my "train wreck".

Do you find a 10% bad decision rate is acceptable in leadership? If you’re a leader, how would you rank your decision making success rate?

Tablet PC vs iPad on the road.

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Singapore with my good friend Maurilio Amorim to attend a conference looking at TWR’s global ministry in Asia. I traveled with my trusty Dell XT2, 64 bit Windows 7 tablet Notebook. Maurilio was sporting his new Apple 3G iPad. As a busy executive, I try and remain productive on the road and maintain connectivity with my organization’s Enterprise network which includes of course email and MOSS 2010 document workspace. As the president of a Web and Marketing company, Maurilio also needs access to company email and remain cutting edge and creative with social networking and the blogosphere.

The MOSS workspace gives me access to my document store either online or offline. That’s great for when I’m sitting at 35,000 feet above the Arctic icecap on a trajectory from Chicago to Hong Kong and want to edit or save documents. This second leg of the trip however is a 15 hour flight. My XT2 battery is going dead after 2.5 hours of activity and I have to shut down and read a magazine. Okay, I could carry a second battery, but I like to travel without checking luggage, so everything I am bringing for 7 days in Asia is with me in the cabin. I could also purchase a smaller laptop with longer battery life, but I like having a tablet for reasons I have blogged about earlier. Maurilio however lands in Hong Kong and posts the blog he’s been working on during the flight. His battery power indicator shows 85% remaining. He won’t even need to charge the iPad for the 3.5 hour flight down to Singapore. He’s enjoying some food and beverages in the Red Carpet lounge while I scramble to charge my laptop so I can get some work done on that same flight.

The conference in Singapore lasts two full days and we are sitting on chairs in rows – without nearby power outlets. Again, I cannot take notes and handle emails on my notebook while I’m plugged in. Several times during a presentation, I have to slip out of my seat and make my way to a power outlet about 20 feet away and plug in. Maurilio shows me his charge indicator which is again at 85%.



While I have the enterprise tools and multitasking OS on my notebook to get my work done, I am hampered on long trips by limited battery life. The iPad is only single tasking and not as connected to the enterprise as Windows 7. It does however deliver its applications hour after hour without a charge. Which tool would you prefer to travel with?