By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to focus on the the operator rather than simply on the operation. Reading time: 2:09.

           Consider the fictional chief executive officer who purchased a machine that could virtually run every job in his factory. Thousands of jobs were eliminated in a salute to efficiency where “two machines can replace 114 workers.”

           Finally, when the chief engineer loses his job to the machine, he confronts the CEO:

           “They should have stopped you a year ago. Somebody should have held you down and put a bit in your head and poured in some reminders that men have to eat and work! And you can’t put them out to pasture. I’m a man—and that makes me better than that hunk of metal. Betttterrrr!!!!!”

           That “Twilight Zone” episode on television in the 1960s still hits a nerve of every entrepreneur trying to balance people issues and bottom-line realities. But real leaders know that no machines, no robotics, no technology can operate without a MANual.

  Inventive but not Thoughtful

          Finally, even the chief executive officer in the “Twilight Zone” is finally replaced. By a machine. Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, observes:

 “There are many bromides applicable here: Too much of a good thing. Tiger by the tale. As you sow, so shall ye reap,’’ observed Twilight Zone author and producer Rod Serling. “ The point is that too often man becomes clever instead of becoming wise. He becomes inventive but not thoughtful. And sometimes he can create himself right out of existence. “

          Leaders create themselves and others into even greater existence. With a more comprehensive understanding of technology. Indeed the most effective leaders I have known embrace technology a tool that leverages human creativity and ingenuity. Those leaders know very well that the word technology comes from the Greek “techne” – an ancient  term for “skill in weaving.” That puts the emphasis on the Man in MANufacturing.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Focus more on the people than the process to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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