Although many of us are working on projects on most of the weekdays, carry out work in the countryside, or participate in meetings according to the needs of our clients, sometimes we need to get together without the pressure of the external business life. On October 13th, more than two weeks ago, we could meet each other in a special inhouse gathering. Great hospitality with snacks and a delicious lunch – and, last but not least, an unusually sunny and warm autumn weather made our day really special. The purpose of the gathering was, on the one hand, the transfer of knowledge, information and further training. On the other hand, we could also share in-depth experiences and opinions relevant to recent topics and projects.
Rajmund Virágh’s introductory speech also supported this: The perception of trends in the world, the management or psychological background behind each project is just as important for strengthening the team spirit of Hammel & Hochreiter as discussing the thoughts and attitudes of employees from different projects in a relaxed atmosphere.
The first speaker of the day was Zsuzsa Szvetelszky, a social psychologist who talked about the interlinked trends of acceleration and complexity. In short, complexity is constantly increasing, while change is accelerating – from this economic and social environment she highlighted specific aspects such as the integration of generations into a company, or the change in the organization’s communication and restructuring, depending on technology. She pointed out, without expressing any positive or negative appreciation, that we must know the phenomena of the changing environment and cannot pretend that we know nothing about them.
She was followed by the presentation of Zsuzsa Tóvári about belief, the key role of a stable combination of commitment and conviction. In the interpretation of Zsuzsa Tóvári, faith is a kind of inner core, to which the interim manager can return to at the end of the day, after completing a task, and can benefit from reevaluating it. This way the interim manager can better pursue the project, irrespective of gap or crisis management. The psychologist has approached the individual, its attributes and development towards a smaller and more perceived business and general environment and has found that self-knowledge and reflection are the key to finding the meaning of our everyday life and interpreting it in the complex aspect of personality. This is especially important when we consider the balance of the client, service provider and interim manager triangle.
Later that day, Péter Fejős’s presentation was based on the key issues of interim management. The concepts of crisis, change, project and gap / bridge were analyzed by comparing the roles of a consultant and an interim manager, stating that the interim manager not only performs the analysis and prepares a situation analysis and (survival) plan, but also implements these and combines them with daily operational management. As an external, who is not part of the existing culture, but has a “crowbar” function, it gives extra energy. The interim does not want to have position in the organization, but as a highly qualified leader brings knowledge and experience, that was gathered through similar tasks before. Péter Fejős, as a leader dedicated to lean philosophy, has not only defined the principles of analysis, stabilization, standardization and development, but also analyzed the priorities of the Safety-Quality-Delivery-Cost target system. It is important to recall the term “persona non grata”, also known as Tim Wood, an undesirable person in the company who represents the seven losses of lean. Péter Fejős’s presentation reached the flow, emphasizing the small steps of continuous development and sustainability considering the goals.
As the lectures were barely finished, a lively conversation started. Many felt that from the everyday experiences and diverse projects they had plenty to add. There have been countless stories and interesting reports. The overall conclusion of these accounts confirmed a former message of the Interim Management Academy: The skills of today’s interim managers will become the skills of future managers/decision makers.
