NOVEMBER 16, 2017 // 23
The importance of
mid-level managers
At a time when organi-
zations from Wall Street to
Hollywood to statehouses
around the country are under-
going accusations of harass-
ment, skullduggery, cover-ups
and shake-ups at the highest
levels, who will be left to run
the show?
Perhaps it’ll be the ones
who have always kept things
humming: the folks in middle
management. And in a case of
pretty astute timing, Ana-
cortes-based author Mike
Cook has just come out with a
book to help operational-level
managers excel in their work.
It’s called “Thriving in the
Middle.”
Cook, whose 36-year
career includes time spent
working in human resources
for Standard Oil of California,
now serves as an adjunct pro-
fessor at Western Washington
University and works as a
‘THRIVING IN THE MIDDLE’ BELIEVES THAT
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT, IF GIVEN THE TOOLS AND
THE LATITUDE, CAN BE A CATALYZING FORCE
FOR HELPING COMPANIES WORK MORE
EFFICIENTLY, CREATIVELY AND SUCCESSFULLY.
business consultant. In these
capacities, he’s been urging
a critical reconsideration of
hierarchical business mod-
els that may not be nimble
enough to keep up with the
challenges that crop up in
today’s fast-paced and often
ambiguous work environ-
ment.
Cook even goes so far
as to describe the modern
workplace as “… hostile terri-
tory. There are hidden snares
everywhere and even when
we think we can relax a bit,
someone tells us a stupid joke
or makes some other kind of
comment that throws us —
maybe it’s even just a look on
their face.”
In these times of ongoing
social flux, acute corporate
expectations and pervasive
anxiety, Cook argues that the
conventional transmission
models used for training
management — some infor-
mation-dump classes, backed
up by an employee manual
that gets shoved to the back of
a drawer or, more commonly
these days, a morass of online
tutorials — do not inform or
sustain effective management
over the long haul.
Lessons are forgotten, phil-
osophical underpinnings are
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ignored, sometimes problems
arise that haven’t even been
anticipated. And — the author
doesn’t say this, but haven’t
we all seen it happen? —
sometimes figures get fudged.
To improve the account-
ability of operational manag-
ers, while avoiding heaping
unreasonable expectations
upon them, Cook advo-
cates for a different model
that provides incremental
trainings over the long term.
Sometimes called “Commu-
nities of Mutual Success” or
“Distributed Development
Communities,” this model
also emphasizes the impor-
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“Thriving in the Middle”
By Mike Cook
Elevate
208 pp
$22.99
tance of collaborative prob-
lem-solving around on-the-
job experiences, and strong
peer CONNECTIONs. (Cook
uses this word repeatedly and
capitalizes it to ensure that
the reader will understand its
importance.)
The author calls for
“restoring the luster to middle
management.” It may not
sound like the most revo-
lutionary idea in the world,
but the author holds that just
as much as having a strong
leader is a requirement for
organizational success, so is
the assurance of having an
empowered management
core.
“What I have learned is
not everyone who goes into
management is interested in
rising as far upward as they
can,” Cook writes.
“… (T)here are mid-level
managers for life. They are
where they should be, and
they should be celebrated for
it.”
“Thriving in the Middle”
believes that middle manage-
ment, if given the tools and
the latitude, can be a catalyz-
ing force for helping compa-
nies work more efficiently,
creatively and successfully.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column fo-
cusing on the books, authors
and publishers of the Pacific
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com.