Learning about management / leadership

• Join a premier b-school like IIPM or IIMA• Read best-selling books by management

gurus: “Count Your Chicken Before They Hatch”, “You Can Win”, etc

• Learn from your boss/organization • Google “How to become a manager”• A fifth approach?

By Mathew Eranat

Management Lessons from the TV Show

Contextual familiarity• “The Office” follows the seemingly mundane

office lives of employees in the local branch of a paper sales company

• The branch manager, Michael Scott, is incompetent and clueless

• Wide range of characters as employees• Michael Scott provides the best lessons on

what NOT to do as a manager• Issues like racial diversity, office relationships,

employee morale, efficiency, performance feedback

Mid-presentation Audience Analysis

• As MBA students, such anecdotal learnings are not likely to impress you

• You need more than funny situations that illustrate management lessons

• You need…. • THEORIES• JARGONS• FRAMEWORKS• And DIAGRAMS!!!

Presenting… The Gervais Principle

• tries to explain how someone as incompetent as Michael Scott could become a manager

• developed by Venkatesh Rao, a researcher at Xerox

• named after Ricky Gervais, the creator of “The Office”

• draws upon the works of stalwarts like Hugh MacLeod (“Company Hierarchy”)

Other theories to explain incompetence of bosses

• The Peter Principle by Laurence Peter– people are promoted when they prove themselves

competent at their jobs– at some level of the hierarchy a situation arises where

the skills required exceed their competence– from this point, they are not promoted and thus

incompetent bosses languish at this equilibrium • The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams– companies tend to systematically promote their least-

competent employees to middle management– this is to limit the damage they can do

MacLeod’s Company Hierarchy

• Sociopaths – drive the growth of company, ambitious• Clueless – middle management, buffer between top and bottom• Losers – worker bees, losers only in context of organizational stature

Not all losers are alike…

• According to the Gervais Principle, there are three types of losers– Overperforming losers: put in too much effort

without realizing that it is worthless– Underperforming losers: realize that their future

lies elsewhere, take a gamble by underperforming– Bare minimum effort losers: happy and content

with their current role• Different types of losers have different career

paths

The Gervais Principle

• “Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing losers into middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths, and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves.”

Or in 1000 words…

How The Office illustrates this principle

• Career path of Michael Scott– One of best salesmen in history of company– Incompetent in all other respects– Promoted to branch manager (clueless middle

management)• Career path of Ryan Howard– Temp who couldn’t make a single sale– Attended part time MBA programme– Promoted to VP at HQ in New York

Where do the characters fit in?

• Sociopath – David Wallace, Josh Porter• Clueless – Michael Scott• Overperforming loser – Dwight Schrute• Underperforming loser – Ryan Howard, Jim

Halpert (?)• Bare minimum effort loser – Just about

everyone else

That was the Gervais principle

• More theories based on The Office• The Four Languages spoken in the office -

Posturetalk, Powertalk, Babytalk and Gametalk by Venkatesh Rao

• Book: Leadership Lessons from The Office: What Not to Do in the Workplace from Michael Scott and the Gang by Terry Kirkpatrick

• Key takeaway: Watch as many television shows as possible. It can be more educational than you think.

Coming soon: My new talk

Dirty Scum: Urban WasteDirty Scum: Urban WasteManagement Lessons fromManagement Lessons from

References• Rao, Venkatesh (2009). The Gervais Principle, or

the office according to “The Office”. Ribbonfarm.com. Retrieved from http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

• Buchanan, Mark (2009). Why your boss is incompetent. New Scientist. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427392.600-why-your-boss-is-incompetent.html?full=true