From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: Management styles vis a vis SCA
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 01:47:22 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.215651.1131@newsroom.utas.edu.au> u83161@postoffice.utas.edu.au (Alex Tewes) writes:
>Greeting All!
>
>Bretram writes
>>I know that Carolyn and a few others might be interested in discussing
>>the SCA in light a various management philosophies.  Would anyone else
>>like to add their comments?
>Anyone given any thought to the "Management Teams" approach and why it is 
>usually a *group* of officers/ autocrats/ household that gets things done?
>
>Anyone done any study on "Management in the SCA?"
>

I'm not sure if this is really apropos, but here goes...

A couple of weeks ago, I cooked my first feast. I couldn't have done it
without the assistance of the members of an informal household I'm in in
both the planning and cooking stages.

	These were the advantages I had by relying on a group.

1) A multiplicity of good, experienced opinions - If the members of the
household though an idea sucked, I dropped it. If people in the
household thought I was forgetting something or being naive they told
me.

2) People to help me in a crisis - I had people to get me moving when I
was panicked from procrastination 4 days before the event, I had people
run to buy supplies when I was running out of time before the day of the
feast and still had stuff to pre-cook. I had that same wonderful wealth
of experience to draw on if there was a crisis in the kitchen.

3) People to help get things done - The same people who backed me, also
served as competent workers in the kitchen. I KNEW that they would turn
out good food, relatively unsupervised, if I gave them a decent recipie.
I just coordinated, kept everything on schedule and filled in where
there was a hole in the line-up. As people got tired I rotated them out
of the production line and asked other people to fill in. I was not so
much a cook as a shop supervisor. 

	The only real difference in the way that I ran the kitchen at
our event this year, and the way that I have seen the kitchen run in
past years when I have been an "under-cook", is that I deliberately
tried to encourage a relaxed, consensus-based enviorment. Partially this
was because most of the other members of the household are vastly more
experienced at running feasts than me, and I felt like a shave-tail 2nd
Lt. bossing a couple of first sergeants around. It was also because that
is the way I like to run any project. One of my experienced cooks
commented afterwards that he didn't feel the tension that he normally
did while the feast was going out. I take this as a sign that my style
was successful.

	The advantages of the management team should be obvious in this
example:

1) Including a lot of people in the decision process under a nominal,
but acknowledged leader (generally the person who does most of the work)
allows options to be explored and opinions to be voiced in the planning
stages of an operation. Everybody is happy that they have had a say,
especially if their ideas are incorporated into the plan in some way.
Everybody feels secure, because they know what the team leader intends
to do.

2) The various members of the team cover for each other and aid each
other. Many people looking at a problem from many angles detect more
problems than one person working alone.

3) More people working on the details of a project allow the team leader
to step back periodically and get a "broad view" of the project, or
address crisis areas that need extra workers. More people working on a
project means everyone works less and fewer people get burnt out.

Looking at it this way, I don't see any other suitable approach for a
volunteer organization than the management team.

Lothar \|/
        0

BTW the feast was delicious, filling and I didn't accidently poison
anyone. I kept my people happy and brought the feast in under my
proposed budget. Except for the fact that we lost money (not my fault)
because we didn't sell enough tickets I accomplished all my goals.
Eventually, I plan to do ANOTHER feast. But, not right away.
 
>Pls feel free to write and comment privately; I'd be interested in some 
>discussion
>
>Martin de Mont Blanc (mka Alex Tewes)
>
>Shire of Ynys Fawr/Lochac/West
>
>U883161@postoffice.utas.edu.au
>
>


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