The Peter Principle?

The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." While formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1968 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded" by Peter; the principle has real validity.

It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain.

Peter's Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence".

Do you know anyone like this?

Employee development continues to be the competitive advantage for companies as we navigate these extreme global business market changes.

Companies that fail to develop current organizational talent will face enormous pressure for survival. Good companies consider training and development important. "World Class" organizations consider training and development NECESSARY for survival.

The Super Operator

The super operator is possibly a key person on your team. Who are they? Where do they come from?

The "super" operator is the good machine or equipment operator that was promoted to supervisor with little or no training to do the job. These individuals struggle for success because they lack the tools to be successful. "Someone" assumed they might make a good supervisor because they know the production process. Simply put, process knowledge is only one small part of the skills necessary to be successful as a supervisor.

Additionally, many super operators dislike the duties required to be an effective supervisor and "take the job" because it is the only way they can grow financially. They hate to communicate with others, don't like training and development, don't know how to confront and tend to skip the activities they don't really care to perform.

Unfortunately, these individuals tend to settle in this role and remain until retirement or decide to leave on their own. Too many organizations are afraid to deal with this issue "head on" and avoid any action at all.