Straight Ahead Management

Dr. L. Michael Tompkins founded Straight Ahead Management on July 1, 1981. Serving, business, government, industry, education and healthcare. Consulting can mean many things to many people. To Straight Ahead Management, as the name suggests, the role...

Dr. L. Michael Tompkins founded Straight Ahead Management on July 1, 1981. Serving, business, government, industry, education and healthcare. Consulting can mean many things to many people. To Straight Ahead Management, as the name suggests, the role of consultant is direct. Dr. Tompkins has an uncanny ability to size up a situation – sometimes in less than an hour – then quickly move to, “Here’s what we’re going to do…” He does not sell a program, a process, or an unnecessary lingering relationship. He offers practical solutions to management as they relate to interpersonal as well as structural glitches. Tompkins uses a very similar approach in his psychology practice. He sees himself as a detective, cut out of the same cloth (pardon the pun) of Detective Lt. Columbo…”Just one more thing…” He attempts to uncover the root cause or causes of distress, be it personal or organizational, then lay out a road map to the solution. Can he solve all problems? No, Tompkins says, but he will either solve it or clarify the futility of it. Some organizational problems have no solution. As Management by Objectives great, the late George Odiorne opined, “If you pit a good person against a bad system, the system wins every time.” Here’s how it works: the client calls in Straight Ahead Management for an initial interview. Tompkins, who usually works alone, meets with the decision makers, not the screeners, to get a feeling for the nature of the problem or problems, and what actions have already been carried out in an attempt to resolve them. Next, he prepares a proposal, budget and work plan, usually in the two to four-page range, and submits it. If approved, the work begins. Intervention is usually a combination of coaching, counseling, providing feedback, group facilitating, conflict resolution, and in some cases training or lecturing. Interventions vary from one-half to ten days. If interviews are required, only the bare minimum are used, and only with those directly affected by, or contributing to the problem. He is open to team building exercises, but only if not a sting operation—i.e. all members want to improve the way they work together, not if the purpose is to roast one or more of the dysfunctional players. Tompkins’ avoids using jargon, but does use the language of the organization. A final report is rarely provided, but oral and written debriefings are part of the process. Straight Ahead Management’s problem-centered approach has been successful in serving virtually all sectors of the economy, small, large, public, private, health care, academia, industry, and the media.