IT in Europe has had it

[threaded]

A manager I respected immensely taught me that.

My self (dev team manager) and a peer (the networks team manager) were arguing over the best way to do something technical. We went to the Big Boss and she sided with the networks team manager. He wandered off all elated and I stayed to query her decision.

BB: "You came to me for a decision. I gave you a decision."

Me: "But why did you disagree with me?"

BB: "Both of you were convinced you were right, and I do not know enough to know to tell which of you was more right, so either decision was OK."

Me: "But why did you agree with him?"

BB: "It was his turn. Sometimes it is more important to make a decision than the quality of that decision. Now get back to work."

And she was a career civil servant. But she was special.

Ah ha, management by 8 ball I call that. A lot of that here too.

[MPwannadecentincome]

A good manager would ask them all to present their points of view to him/her individually and would have the experience and theoretical grounding (in systems deveopment, not Prince II, CMMi or some other methodology-tosh) to understand the arguments and judge them on their merit.

However, this also requires some training in the detection of BS. Carl Sagan's guide to baloney detection is quite useful for spotting weak arguments in any context, take a look at it.

WHS hear hear!