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"The opposite of a profound truth is also true!"

1. Big changes in an organization are a lot harder to make than small ones.
false Look at VJ day or the falling of the berlin wall the entire world changed in a single day. I guess because
everyone thinks he or she has go something to say in small matter like where to put the coffee maker or when
and where to have the company picnic these meetings can take forever to resolve.

2. .The more a firm communicates the less it communicates.
true This is especially true with all the different ways we have to communicate: memos, e-mails, enclosed
word documents. Plus short statements like IBM's "THINK" or HP's INVENT say a lot while a ten page
mission statement will never be read.

3. Every act of a manager is political: either to redistrubute or reinforce power, wheither to build a handicapped
ramp or direct most of the conversation in a meeting to the men present as opposed to the women.
true

4. Organizations that need help the most will profit the least from that help.
true They are unlikely to listen and even less likely to impliment the changes needed.

5. Once you find a management process or technique that works try to improve it.
false All new management techniques work and none of them do.(sort of like diet plans) What I mean to
say is that any of them work for a time and then they don't.
A good rule of thumb is as soon as you find one that works go look for another.
But remember: good management is not in the technique.

6. Technology creates the opposite of its intended purposes.
true Before washing machines were introduced women spent at least one day a week washing clothes.
Famillies still do because we expect all our shirts and jeans to be clean every day. Add air bags and
seatbelts to cars and the roads become far more dangerous for pedestrians.

7. Most of what we remember from grade school is to: sit still, raise our hands, wait in line, obey authority,
and ask permission.
true Maybe we only raise a finger instead of our entire hand but those "metamessages are highly ingrained.

8.Nothing is as visable as the obvious.
false The too tall truck was stuck under the bridge it was that apparant that the solution was to let some
air out of the tire. Legend has it that it was an onlooking child who figured it out.

9. The better things are the worse they feel. Complaints and even strikes are signs of good working conditions.
true You'll never see MacDonald workers go on strike and I would not put their work amongst the best places to be employed.
People like airline pilots who are able to strike or enact work slowdowns have got it pretty good. If your subordinates
can beef about conditions: you're doing alright.

10. An effective manager is in total control.
false Only if you are clueless will you try to rely on control. Deleagate, empassion, lead, teach, listen, be sensitive,
these are just some of the characteristics of great managers.

New Technology Project Manager Délégation aux relations internationales Ecole des Mines 158 cours Fauriel St.Etienne FRANCE  tél. +33 (0)4 77 42 00 82

Would you like to check out Yukna's Bazzar? You should find a lot of quizzes, lessons and ideas there. A great deal of the Bazzar is dedicated to ESL exercises, English vocabulary building, TOEFL, etc. however there are lots of other subjects like Harry Potter, Murder and Crime, or Industrial Design (that's why it's called a Bazzar!)