re: #121 silverdolphin

Undervaluing experience and overvaluing leadership: the ballad of Boeing

Bring back Alan Mullaly, the last true Boeing engineer/leader wh was forced out of the company by the McD MBAs. He was a part of every single Boeing plane since the 60s. He retired from leading Ford successfully through thee automobile debacle in 2008 (only company that did no need a loan from the government).

Decades ago, while working on a master’s at the U of MN, I decided to take a class on project management. The instructor was a former Boeing executive. I’m talking with the guy after class and he backhand compliments me on how smart I am for expanding my knowledge beyond engineering and proceeds to tell me an anecdote about a Boeing engineer who spent 40 years designing “only rivets”. He made it very clear he thought that was tragic. This is pretty much verbatim my uncensored response: “Holy shit. That’s about the stupidest thing I’ve heard. You mean to tell me that a guy who spent decades a working on airplane design,, an expert in his field, someone who likely worked on or was consulted on every airplane built by Boeing for decades, someone who likely knows wing design and materials and structures and forces better than anyone else at Boeing, wasted his life? Someone who worked hard, was dedicated, had a life is disappointing to you?” I got a meek “that’s not what I meant but you understand I was trying to say”

Same guy tried to tell me that having a Gantt chart with a dozen interrelated work streams all ending on the same day wasn’t a set up for delay and failure.