The urban management challenge

THE SECRET OF MANAGING IS TO KEEP THE GUYS WHO HATE YOU AWAY FROM THE GUYS WHO ARE UNDECIDED

CASEY STENGEL

TRAINER’S NOTES

Topic: The urban management challenge

Time required: Approximately 1 1/2 hours

The overall purpose of this session is to help the participants think about: (a) what it means to be effective either as a manager or an organization designed to serve specific audiences; and (b) the various factors that contribute to individual and organizational effectiveness. It is also a good icebreaker to help get participants into an experiential, interactive learning mode. (This exercise was designed to be used within an urban management course. If the participants you are working with represent a different work setting, change the exercise accordingly.)

TASKS:

1. Brief the total group on the rationale for the session and the tasks they are to perform.

2. Break total group into four smaller working groups of similar size. Two groups are to address the individual dimension of urban management and two groups the organizational dimension. All four groups will be requested to carry out two specific tasks:

(a) To define “effectiveness” from either an individual or organizational perspective;

(b) To list those factors they believe contribute to individual or organizational effectiveness.

3. Give each group newsprint and markers; they should have 30 minutes to complete the two tasks.

4. At the end of the 30 minutes bring the four groups together to report their results. Each group will have approximately 10 minutes to make their presentations when they return to the plenary discussion.

The trainer should ask each group to comment briefly on how they worked together as a team. How did they decide to address each task? Were they frustrated by the tasks and the way they worked together? If they had to do it again, would they address the tasks differently?

Compare, to the extent possible, the responses of the two groups working on the same tasks and the differences and similarities in respect to individual and organizational effectiveness.

Training outcomes should include:

a. A greater awareness of what is meant by “effectiveness”;

b. What contributes to individual and organizational effectiveness;

c. Whether or not the total group sees these two approaches to effectiveness as being fundamentally different or the same;

d. Some discussion of the consequences of the exercise regarding their work together during the workshop (the “so what” factor).

EXERCISE

TOPIC: THE URBAN MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE - PART I

Task assignment
Groups land 2:

Your group has two tasks to perform within the next 30 minutes.

Task 1: Agree on a definition of “Managerial Effectiveness” as it would apply to an urban situation.

Task 2: List those factors your group believes contribute to the manager’s effectiveness.

Your group is free to use whatever method you believe will be effective in accomplishing the two tasks stated above.

Task assignment
Groups 3 and 4:

Your group has two tasks to perform within the next 30 minutes.

Task 1: Agree on a definition of “Organizational Effectiveness” as it would apply to an urban situation.

Task 2: List those factors your group believes contribute to the organization’s effectiveness.

Your group is free to use whatever method you believe will be effective in accomplishing the two tasks stated above.

TOPIC: THE URBAN MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE - PART II

Summarize, briefly, each group’s definition of effectiveness.

GROUP 1: Managerial effectiveness
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GROUP 2: Managerial effectiveness
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GROUP 3: Organizational effectiveness
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GROUP 4: Organizational effectiveness
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TOPIC: THE URBAN MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE - PART III

Summarize each group’s list of factors which they believe contribute to “Managerial Effectiveness.”

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4