'Let me expand on that. It’s OK to point the finger at management, but all those Bobs have a part to play in this game. You have to ask yourself: “Is what I am being asked to do reasonable?” “Do I have the time, resources and political will to do what is being asked of me?” and “Can I ingest cloud learning at the required speed to provide what is being sought?”
If the answer to all these questions is “no”, you’ve got a problem and need to feed that up.
And here’s where you need a good project manager.'
Yes ... you're assuming that the Bobs of this world were invited to the meeting, told about the change and asked to contribute. Lots of time these decisions are took and the implementation and rollout is meant to happen like magic - no change and no budget.
As far as good project manager goes. Is that the person who was laid off a few quarters ago? He was a manager, so we get one one of the general mangers to to their job.
For their own sae, I wish companies would keep on top of what their required skills bases is and who many (or few) people have those skills.
I spent a pointless few months sitting in on a mid sized companies 'staff retention/business continuation' meeting. It was new. It had evolved from a flap when they released all the 80% of their software bodies were flying out on the same plane. Oh they shouted! Only x% should ever fly on a single plane! All very well + good for the very unlikely event of the plane crashing. Much self congratulations of averting disaster, readout in the quarterly heads up, plastic plaques handed out the continuity czar.
Next meeting, I asked 'What is the notice period of the software people?' 1 month they answered.
'How long does it take to recruit a software person?' 4 months came the answer.
'Do our products need maintaining and are their penalty clauses?' Yes.
'Are we paying the top decile in the local market?' 'Err our package is very competitive.' Thats management for No.'
Next 6 months saw 50% of the software team leave for better paid jobs.
The economy and job market is driven by supply and demand. There's a lot of demand for software people. Hardly surprising as it really is eating the world. There's little demand for general managers.