During the episode where Michael goes out to do a "survival show" in the woods (ala Bear Grylls). Jim is the temporary manager while Michael is gone, and he tries to combine several staff birthdays which are close together into one big celebration. It backfires terribly.
When Michael returns and Jim expresses his relief, Michael explains that he made the same mistake Jim did once and explains that the decision to celebrate the close birthdays separately is a very deliberate one. He also implies that Jim is very much on the same trajectory as him.
He then makes a "That's what she said" joke randomly, and Jim basically replies "Uh, what?" and Michael explains that he makes dumb jokes often to just break the tension.
It's a pretty lucid moment for an otherwise often opaque character, but does imply that Michael's quirks are a result of his staff and not in spite of them.
Honestly, that’s pretty out of character for Michael Scott. For a character who otherwise repeatedly makes the same mistakes over and over again, to show even that tiny bit of insight is a pretty big plot twist that maybe he’s not completely the bumbling oaf he lets on.
I’m not saying he’s secretly a Machiavellian genius, but his stupid antics belie what seems to be a pretty high emotional IQ at times (in sales and management, at least).
To add to the previous comment, Michael was also well known for making bad choices that did damage to his own life.
But then again, Michael having an inconsistently high emotional IQ is a recurring theme. When he’s in “sales mode”, he’s really good at making an emotional connection with people and making them feel like they’re buying from a friend.
I dunno. It’s an interesting conundrum the series presents and obviously doesn’t dig into too deeply since it’s a sitcom. Michael is sometimes unnaturally attuned to someone’s feelings and other times extremely oblivious to them.
- Whole company going downhill and when Jim as co-manager got nervous about another Michael's "brilliant" idea of distracting people from work, he stuns him and audience with "They need this game. Let them have this stupid little game"
- Another dialogue with Jim implying that "That's what she said" lines are more self-conscious than everybody in the office thinks.
Scranton branch having one of or lone best finance numbers across whole company just makes me think Michael knew along what is he doing. This plot was never expanded in the show for obvious reasons.
I think these moments are there to show us that Michael tries his best to be a good manager, and that he sometimes does have good ideas.
As for the numbers, I think that’s all thanks to his employees - he just gets carried along for the ride.
I can agree that if you look at the storyline as a whole, this theory doesn't make much sense, but these little hints here and there are always giving me second thoughts. Goes to show that art, even such low-key one as TV comedy, can really shine when you keep your head open to more interpretations than just the silver-plattered one.
The Office – How Michael Scott Makes a Sale
(7 min video essay)
TLDR he's a people-person.