The Schnick Principle
"One incompetent manager can be like a virus that eventually infects a whole department or company."
Are we becoming a culture where incompetency controls companies and organizations? If you are an incompetent manager are you going to hire and
surround yourself with competent people or are you going to surround yourself with incompetent people who won't expose you for
what you are. Incompetent people aren't going to expose the incompetent manager because that person is their protector. Experience means
nothing in the environment of an incompetent manager. If you can keep the experienced competent people far enough away from you then an
incompetent manager can still get the work done effectively and actually have a high performing department. Gradually however such a
department will develop an atmosphere of suspicion and low moral and the competent people will eventually move on to other departments or
companies and be replaced by people with similar characteristics as the manager. Government departments are a good place for this to happen
because profit isn't their bottom line only the perception that everything is running smoothly. This scenario isn't hard to achieve when the
manager and everyone around that person is incompetent and they may actually think they are doing a good job. Eventually the whole department
will become incompetent and poor performing with no way of improving as there isn't any proper quality training for new employees.
Remember there is no reward for doing a good job in this scenario but the reward for doing a bad job is the Dilbert principle
i.e."incompetent employees are intentionally promoted to prevent them from doing harm" or as Dogbert says in the Dilbert strip of
February 5, 1995 "leadership is nature's way of removing morons from the productive flow.”
Is the Alberta Tory Party operating under the Schnick Principle? Since the days of Ralph Klein's leadership the province has been
run using economics as the bottom line not physical requirements. We are building a $1.4B hospital in SE Calgary when the
original cost when it was first proposed in the 1990's was $400M but because of Ralph Klein's desire to have the province debt free
the hospital was postponed. By doing this the government essentially created a $1B infrastructal debt. Is the provincial government
surrounding itself with people that think the province has to be run based on economic decisions? Is that why the Alberta Health Board
has been cutting hospital beds and not opening new operating rooms that have been built? How can it be prudent to invest millions
on new facilities then leave them empty?
Sometimes we can have a sad example of the Schnick Principle.
At present there is a fatality inquiry into the fatal accident in October 2007 when a school bus driven by Louise Rogers
hit a parked gravel truck on Crowchild Trail in Calgary.
As the transportation manager of a private school would Arlene Waldner not be responsible to ensure that the kids
arrived safely to and from school each day? Louise Rogers had mental and emotional problems before the fatal crash
on 18 October 2007 that killed Third Academy student nine year old Kathelynn Occena but yet she was still allowed
to drive the school bus even after she was in the hospital for a possible suicide attempt. If Louise Rogers has no memory
of what happened on the day of the accident from the time she turned onto Memorial Drive until after she hit the gravel
truck then I would have to wonder where her mind was at or what was occupying it. There are reports that Louise Rogers carried
an Ipod, 2 cell phones and a game boy in the school bus that she drove.
Sunil Mattu, Third Academy's chief operating officer, testified that the school has a zero tolerance for dangerous
school transport. He said that he was aware of a complaint from the pubic about Louise Rogers' erratic driving and
a speeding ticket that she had received before the fatal accident. Speeding and erratic driving doesn't constitute
dangerous driving? Did Sunil Mattu follow up on the complaint?
Grade 9 student Catlin Emard, who rode on Louise Rogers' bus, said that she was concerned by the driving of Louise Rogers and
reportedly complained to the school principal weeks before the crash. Catlin reported that Louise was on the phone alot and
rarely paid attention to the road.
Third academy is for special needs children, would not all staff be highly trained with no baggage? How can a special needs school have
someone driving a school bus that has recently attempted suicide, and is on sleeping pills and anti-depressants.
During an incidence 2 days prior to the accident psychologist Zeljko Puric said that Louise Rogers was having family problems and was
emotional but fine.
Arlene Waldner said she knew Louise Rogers was taking sleeping pills (are you supposed to drive when you are on sleeping pills)
Could all this have happened without an incompetent CEO surrounded by an incompetent COO, an incompetent transportation manager,
an incompetent psychologist, and incompetent parents. These are strong words but could not anyone of these people done something to
stop this terrible accident.
You can read blogs finding all the fault with Louise Rogers, but what about the other people, the psychologist, CEO, COO, principal,
transport manager, teachers, students, and parents. Surely they could have done more.
Third Academy private school seems to be a good example of the Schnick Principle.
"One incompetent manager can be like a virus that eventually infects a whole department or company."
The Schnick Principle can be seen in children's recreational sports
Once upon a time a parent who was never very good at sports had a kid who was old enough to start organized sports.
This parent didn't want their child to ever feel bad about not being good so they came up with the idea that they
wouldn't keep score at the games. They would then give every kid a participation trophy. But the kids knew what the object
of the game was from watching sports on TV and they could see how excited their parents got when they scored and they could count
so they knew what the score was and who was winning.
who has decided that the score doesn't matter? Someone who has never won? watch the kids' eyes light up when they score
I would want my kids to play in a league that teaches them how to compet and then leave it on the field whether they win
or lose. Why does the sportsmanship trophy always go to the last place team? Good teams can be good sports too.
How do you teach them that hard work brings results.