The Middle Man: a Survival Guide for Middle Managers

The Middle Man is the first of a 3 part series. It's simply a survival guide for corporate warriors who happen to have landed somewhere in the organizational middle between Senior Leadership and the Workforce. Miller believes people remember things five ways; - Visual presentation - Personal experience - Participation in successful experiences - Participation in disastrous experiences - and last, but not least, a good old fashioned story. Included within are tools and theory to support you in your pledge to move your company forward. The tools covered in this part of the series are the "Initiative Quadrant" and "The Onion". The "Initiative Quadrant" is a work / project readiness and leadership communication tool which presents senior leadership and the workforce with a single page representation of business value, risks and costs associated with all current and planned initiatives within the organization. The "Onion" is a easy to use and administer staffing methodology which helps management and senior leadership understand the nuts and bolts of supporting all products within your portfolio. These tools help to constantly and consistently answer questions that keep your organization fit and prepared for supporting your organization in abundant or lean times alike; What are all our folks working on, and why? Are our operational and capital budgets being spent on the right initiatives? Are the teams working on competitive and absolutely necessary initiatives? Are our staffing levels right to support these initiatives as well as current solutions? Miller's years of experience in the technology field, and over a quarter century of management responsibility in large international companies, combined with his down to earth story telling abilities, help us to understand how to continually deliver solid business support. His methodologies will help guarantee alignment of "the right folks" working on "the right initiatives" to keep your company ahead of the competitive tsunami.