Multiple Channels

When you establish corporate or other organizational structures, you should focus "less on how a task is to be performed and more on how information will be developed and cross-checked," according to auto executive Jack Schmitt, whom we met earlier. You do this with a system of "corporate checks and balances," according to Marriott executive vice president Joe Ryan. "You've got to have some tension so that one arm of the entity does not completely take over the other one," adds Ryan.

To do so, you never let too much information reside in only one place. Ron Gafford of Austin Industries notes that "the people who tend to succeed in management are those who are good delegators and who have proper controls in place (checks and balances) to keep the ship upright. Those controls might include internal audit, contract reviews, separation of responsibilities, and controls that 'close the loop' on all open issues of importance to a company." He and others make use of independent assessment teams. Unless there is a serious legal or accounting issue involved, these independent teams do not have to be outside consultants. But you do use people from the organization who are not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the group in question.

Finally, you establish staff meetings, off-site retreats, weekly teleconferences, and other methods that provide a forum for people to speak their minds. As we discussed briefly before, it is very easy for successful executives to isolate themselves and rely very heavily on one or two people whom they trust. Self-important executives also rely too heavily on the organizational chart, believing that they should only associate with people at an equal, greater, or slightly lower rank than themselves. These management methods are sure routes to the information blockage that can ultimately bring an organization or an individual down.