Kubler-Ross in the 1969 book, "On Death and Dying" introduced the concept of "Coping Cycle" when dealing with Grief. Indeed, management turns this model on its head where we could replace Grief with Hubris; and what i'd like to call the "Carping Cycle".
This is essentially what happens when failures happen during the Dark Manager's watch
Stage #1- Denial
The Dark Manager will start of ranting about how well it could have been done. Complaining about how the staff or contractor do not have the skills to manage the situation, and usually ends saying something like "this is a small issue" or "non-issue".
Stage #2- Anger
The situation gets escalated to Audit which now breaths down the manager's neck. He/She then vehemently shows proof that all procedures have been followed and a two bit fresh grad with 1 year experience has no place diving through his documents.
Stage #3- Bargaining
So Audit sends someone of higher seniority, and the issue gets escalated higher up. Which now the Manager justifies that he is after all protecting the company's good name. And that tight datelines need to be met and hence concessions were required . Approval is sought from the upper management for more time to close the gaps.
More often than not the Dark Manager will begin to ignore emails or play hide and seek with the Audit manager with excuses like "Oh, the VP just called me, I have to go..." and since there's at least 12 VPs in the organization, no one really knows who he's talking baout.
Stage #4- Depression
The project crumbles around him, staffs are resigning, and you see him either spending more time in the smoking room sulking or not seeing him at all. We term it as going AWOL but in his terminology - he's just too busy working with international customers that he needs to be on site. He/she begins to swear by Genchi Genbutsu.
Stage #5- Acceptance
Unfortunately, Acceptance never actually happens. The manager pushes ahead anyway and concocts a report that everything is under control with the project. And that it is NOT HIS JOB to fix environmental/situational problems. The often quoted comment is "My job is to deliver the project on time, everything else is irrelevant.
An extremely nifty approach should your organization be filled by other Dark Managers that are too lazy to "prepare" the necessary requirements for the project in the first place.
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