Any wimp can survive the Australian Outback, but only the strongest survive the office.
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Week 7 - General Manager
March 5, 2001
The field of candidates is getting smaller each week. The person you vote off this week won't get promoted to "General Manager" like everyone else. Just like the TV show, you decide who to promote by voting one person out of the company each week.
Play along each week as we look at what it takes to survive the politics and competition in the workplace. Remember, we started at trainee and we'll end up at CEO. Who is not qualified to be a manager? Vote that person off. You can vote for one person on each team if you wish.
Disaster Strikes
In episode six, a significant accident forced out Mike Skupin so there was no immunity challenge and no one got voted out.
You know that last week, I predicted Ogakor would lose the immunity challenge and that Jerri would get booted off. Based on the performance by both teams in the reward challenge, won by Kucha, and Colby's tossing a bucket of water at Jerri when it ended, I have no doubt she would have been history.
However, sometimes, even in business, unexpected things happen. For instance, you are preparing to lay off person A when person B walks into your office and resigns. You then have to keep person A a little longer than you planned. I think that's what happened to Jerri. She may have survived this episode, because of the accident to Mike, but she's in danger at the next tribal council.
This week
Due to Mike's accident and departure, the two tribe now merge into one with both teams at equal numbers. Both tribes want to pick off the other tribe's people first. This next vote is critical. Whichever team loses a person in this next episode can be reasonably expected to lose all of it's members one at a time in the coming weeks. Think of it as a merger. The choice here is which "company culture" will survive.
Kucha seems bonded together after Mike's accident. Shared experiences tend to bond us into a group. They always were more of a team than Ogakor, and seem to have gotten stronger as a team after Kimmi's departure.
Ogakor seems really divided. I think Keith, Colby, and maybe Tina would vote Jerri off out of personal dislike at this point, even if it isn't the smartest team move. I expect them to pick someone on the other tribe, maybe Alicia, to vote against, but I expect one of them to change their vote at the end.
My Prediction
Remember that up until now the plan was to get rid of the weak ones that might hold the team down. Now the goal is to get rid of the strong ones who might get in your way to the top. Just like in business. I expect Kucha to stick together and vote as a block. For that reason, I think Kucha will pick either Jerri or Colby to vote off. Whichever they pick will lose, because of the strength of their voting block, even if it isn't an alliance.
Ogakor will try to get the team back together and vote together as a unit, but it won't happen. They are just too fractured. They will end up splitting their votes against a couple of Kucha team members and, as a result, they will lose one more of their people.
Do you agree? Or not? Join us as we talk about it on the Management Forum.
PREVIOUS EPISODES
Week 6 - Manager #2
Week 5 - Manager
Week 4 - Supervisor #2
Week 3 - Supervisor
Week 2 - Trainee #2
Week 1 - Trainee
Want to talk about it? Visit our Management Forum.
John Reh
About.com Guide to Management
http://management.about.com
management.guide@about.com
