Pangea

          The most extraordinary geologic event in the history of the world occurred about 250 million years ago. The continental crust of the single landmass known as Pangea split apart.  A new, huge ocean – Neo-Tethys -- was created. Geologists call this “new” northern land mass Laurasia and the south Gondwana. The world would never be the same.

And The Pangea Process

          Today, corporate trainer Charles Johnson teaches doctors, lawyers and bankers how to manage their businesses. Johnson’s series of books -- including The 12-Minute MBA For Doctors, Michelle Publishing, 2001; and The 12-Minute MBA For Lawyers, American Lawyer Media, 2002-- offers business models that have resulted in prosperity and employee satisfaction for thousands of readers and clients. The world has never been the same for the highly-skilled professionals who confronted the business aspects of their practices with Johnson’s help. Their bifurcated practice areas have become unified and whole.

Introduction
[Excerpt from forthcoming book]
THE PANGEA PROCESS
By CHARLES JOHNSON

          Look at people’s careers and the decisions they make. They often face the question of whether they want to become a manager of other people. 
          A highly-skilled person – whether a doctor, lawyer or engineer – might say, “Why should I manage other people? If I manage other people, I have to take care of their problems.”

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          This is a big decision: Should you stay on your current course or take on the responsibility of managing others.
          What happens when someone takes the challenge? First of all, you have to be promoted. Someone has to tap you on the shoulder and say, “Sue, it’s time for you to become a manager. Starting next week, you are going to be responsible for these five or seven or 10 or 20 people.”
          This creates the best 24 hours and the worst 24 hours in your life. The first 24 hours, after you’re promoted, is the best. Now you get to call your spouse, mom and dad, brothers and sisters, perhaps your children and your best friends and tell them the good news. You’ve just been promoted. Out of all the people in your company you have been recognized as the one to become the boss. It’s a great story, you want to share it with everyone. It’s a rush, it’s a high.

          That’s followed by the worst 24 hours in your life. Now that you have been promoted, what the hell are you going to do? How are you going to do this job? You have to deal with other people’s headaches. How are you going to do that?
          Look at the way people learn to be a boss. Many of us did not have formal training programs. We would look back at our mentors. These people include teachers, coaches, former bosses maybe even parents or grandparents.
           What did they do with you – or to you – that made you want to be better at what you did?  Faced with the prospect of becoming a manager for the first time, you look to mentors and try to behave like they did – and hope and pray that it works. You hope and pray they respond to you and do what you want them to do. Remember the manager you enjoyed working for and actually liked? Now, maybe you want your staff to like you, right? The new manager’s first step might be to try to get the troops to like and respect you. That might be the absolute worst thing you can do. 
          When a new boss takes over, the staff might be intimidated and afraid. The boss who spends his time trying to run a popularity contest is headed for trouble. 
          Some people go the other way. They remember their greatest boss was critical and challenging. They decide to take on that role. They become a jerk.
          What happens to the people who knew this guy? “I’ve been working with you side-by-side for five years, suddenly you’ve become the boss and now you’ve changed. Either you’ve changed becoming Mr. Nice Guy or you’ve changed becoming Mr. Jerk.”

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          People are not comfortable with you. You are not behaving as you normally had. They start talking about you. “What’s wrong with Joe? He used to be a great guy. Then he got promoted and it went to his head. Something is really wrong.”
          New managers become confused about how they are supposed to act, particularly with their former co-workers. When people are confused, their behavior tends to be unnatural. 
          What many new managers want to do is the exact opposite of what needs to be done. They want their people to adapt their behaviors to the manager’s needs. True leaders, in today’s business world, can adapt their behavior to the needs of the staff. The center of the world for a good manager is not herself. The center of the world is the people that work for her.

          How do you make this shift: “Now I’m the boss, I’m the king, so my people have to do for me,” to “Now I’m the boss, I have to do for my people?”
          Even big companies suffer from this problem. They promote people to management without a rigorous management development program. They might have some good training seminars, but that is simply not enough.
          This void leaves people to create their own management theories and philosophies about how to become a good leader or manager. Let’s say you have five managers in the company without a formal training process. You have five managers acting completely differently. Perhaps in London you have employees who are happy and content, enjoying their jobs; in New York and Tokyo you have large groups who are ready to quit. Is there something wrong with the company?
          Could be. The number one reason for job satisfaction or discontent is your immediate supervisor. It could be a great company, but if your immediate supervisor is a jerk, you leave. It can be a lousy company, but if your immediate supervisor is someone who helps you grow and develop, then you stay.
          It amazes me how little attention some large companies give to the development of their managers. This brings us to Pangea. How does The Pangea Process fit into this?
          A lot of adults don’t know what Pangea is, but many seven-year-old children do. Pangea was the world, or the single continent before it split about 250 million years ago.
          Our Pangea Process helps companies bring their entire management philosophy, methodology and application back to one system – rather than seven or eight disconnected systems. It’s a unifying process.

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          One of our steps involves application of the Pygmalion effect.
          The idea that one person can transform another is the basis for J. Sterling Livingston’s 1969 classic article, “Pygmalion in Management.” Livingston found that managers who treat their subordinates like superstars generate superstar performances. “It is as though there were a law,” he said, “that caused subordinates’ performance to rise or fall to meet manager's expectations.” He found both enthusiasm and empathy to be infectious.

          Livingston cited a 1961 study by an insurance executive. The executive found that groups of people of sound ability can be motivated beyond their apparently normal productive capacities when the problems created by the poor producer are eliminated from the operation. He had grouped the top performers together.
          Interestingly, the insurance executive also found that average group outperformed expectations because their manager refused to believe that she and her troops were inferior. She motivated her workers to try to outperform the “superstaff.” Her group actually had a higher percentage improvement in sales. Bottom line: What managers expect of their subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance.
          The process has come to life in many dramatic ways, not only in business, but also on stage and in the cinema. George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” shows how Professor Henry Higgins transformed a common flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined woman. Still, Higgins’ perceptions and expectations of Doolittle limit her status. Pygmalion was also the basis for the musical comedy, “My Fair Lady” and, more recently, the Eddie Murphy film “Trading Places.”
          At different times a leader-manager must employ strategies that push employees to their limits to increase production -- or nurture and develop them to improve quality. Again, expectations have a dramatic impact on performance and results.
          The Pangea Process dictates that the good leader must have both qualities, and the wisdom to apply the appropriate strategy for the dilemma he faces.