Fresh Voices: Management in the 21st Century

May 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Note from Art: While I am referencing a well-known leadership and management author here, the Fresh Voices come from the rich and thought-provoking comments and commenters to the author’s post.  

If you are fascinated as I am about the evolution of management and its role, form and function in our current and near future world, I strongly encourage you to check out Gary Hamel’s blog post (Help Reinvent Management for the 21st Century).

This is a case where the post prompts a flood of great thoughts and ideas from some sharp people from around the globe.  

As background, Dr. Hamel is producing a conference on May 29 and 30 in California, that will bring together 35 luminaries from business and academia to focus on reinventing management for the new century.  

The four questions that Dr. Hamel and the brain-trust will attempt to answer include:

“1. What are the deep-seated impediments, or “design flaws,” that limit the capacity of organizations to adapt (to change without trauma); to innovate (to mobilize the imagination of everyone, every day); and to engage (to create environments that inspire extraordinary contributions).

2. Given these systemic impediments, and the new demands that will confront organizations in the years ahead, what should be the agenda for 21st century management innovators? That is, what are the “moonshot challenges” that must be addressed if we are to create organizations that are truly fit for the future?

3. Can we imagine, even in outline form, some potential solutions to these challenges, and if so, what sorts of experiments might be useful in helping us to test these ideas in real world settings?

4. More generally, what could be done to help accelerate the evolution of management in the years to come, that is, what is it that limits the pace of management innovation and how might these limits by overcome?”

While I’m certain that the event will generate some fascinating ideas, Dr. Hamel acknowledges what you are probably thinking about now: the solutions will not emerge and change our lives as an outcome of this conference.  In his own words: “A few dozen braniacs are no substitute for a crowd of inspired and unconventional thinkers.”  

He’s right of course, but the questions above are heady and invigorating topics for any collection of motivated management professionals. 

A few of my favorite comments to his post include:

-The Professor who makes  his case rather belligerently that all of our management problems would be solved if only we would adopt military style leadership.  He is kind enough to include a link to a list of books that support his philosophy.

-The Open Teams approach to breaking down the traditional “monolithic hierarchy.”

-The many comments (almost essays) that attack traditional, ingrained approaches to leadership and management and offer glimpses into how these approaches must change.

-Several comments that support a Silicon-Valley approach to management and innovation and at least one that indicates the positive influence that will flow from the movement of the Millennials into the workplace.

-A fascinating and lengthy post from a doctoral student in India that challenges us to look hard at 4 invisible but evolutionary urges driving the evolution of human society.   

and many others.  

The Bottom-Line for Now:

If the future of management is of interest to you, reading the comments is certain to start your wheels turning.  Feel free to join their discussion or start your own thread here.  I plan on tackling Dr.Hamel’s questions in both locations.

Filed Under: Career, Leadership, Leading Change, Management Innovation Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Podcasts, Hamel, Dickens, Time Off and a Holiday Week of Reading

December 21, 2008 By 1 Comment

For many, this week takes on a significant spiritual and family focused importance.  Given the mid-week timing of the Christmas and New Year holidays, many of you may combine remaining vacation days and gain a bit of an early winter break.  The current economic turmoil may disrupt this plan for some of you, but hopefully not all.

I’m busy working on my plans to launch The Management Excellence podcast series early in 2009 and of course this involves a whole new learning curve for me.  I’ve wanted to create a podcast series for quite some time, and instead of thinking about it, I am taking my own advice and turning ideas into actions.  The podcast format will offer some great opportunities to involve other professionals via interviews and guest episodes as well as a new format for me to share ideas and insights on management excellence. Stay tuned.

For those of you seeking seasonal reading or looking for some cutting-edge thinking, I’ve got two very different suggestions for you.

The first one comes from author and consultant Gary Hamel (The Future of Management) and according to surveys, one of the world’s most influential business thinkers.  Hamel offers up his criteria for books he views as “worth reading” in his post at the WSJ, entitled: “What Business Advice is Worth Taking?” His criteria emphasize issues like, “Does it challenge management dogma?” and “Does it dig deep and look at root causes,” just to name a few.  The books that he believes meet these criteria merit serious consideration  if you happen to find yourself newly armed with a gift card from your favorite bookseller.

My second suggestion is one of that is timely from both a seasonal perspective as well as for many struggling with employment issues, a profoundly personal perspective.  In a book review at the WSJ entitled: “How Charles Dickens Rescued His Career and Remade Christmas,” the new book, The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford, offers some fascinating perspectives on Dickens and the impact that he had on this holiday.

Deeply in debt and with his Christmas ghost story rejected by every major publisher, Dickens was forced to borrow and self-publish.  In the process, he redefined his career and along with it the modern celebration of Christmas.  As a Dicken’s devotee, this book has moved to the top of my wish list!

Enjoy your reading, and if your focus this week is spiritual and/or family focused, may you find peace and enjoyment in the process.  And if reading is on the to-do list, Hamel and Dickens are both worthy subjects.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Pain and Promise of Collaborative Management on Display at Cisco

December 9, 2008 By 1 Comment

Author and consultant Gary Hamel writes in the preface to his latest book, The Future of Management, that, “Management is out of date.  Like the combustion engine, it’s a technology that has largely stopped evolving and that’s not good.”

Hamel challenges leaders and managers to eliminate the toxic effects of legacy management practices and innovate in ways that create “organizations that are capable of spontaneous renewal” and “companies that actually deserve the passion and creativity of the folks who work there, and naturally elicit the very best that people have to give.”

Noble thoughts that I agree with and that I espouse at every available opportunity.  Unfortunately, many firms and many top leaders are still stuck in the Managers Manager and Workers Work era that Frederick Taylor ushered in over 100 years ago.   The number of teams and ideas that I see held hostage to adjudication by these out-of-date, out-of-touch and hopefully, out-of-time command and control leaders is shocking.  Please, set your people free.

One organization and leader that has gained a great deal of coverage for ushering in new approaches to managing is Cisco Systems and its CEO, John Chambers.  The interview with Chambers, “Cisco Sees the Future” in the November, 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review is must-read material for anyone interested in the cutting edge of management innovation as well as some profound thoughts on identifying and exploiting market transitions and disruptions.

Cisco has effectively flattened its organization and now operates with a small executive team and manages its priorities by cross-functional, collaborative councils and boards. Chambers indicates that the impact is: “This companywide council-based leadership model has allowed us to move from taking only one or two cross-functional priorities a year in the past to addressing 22 this year.” He goes on to add, “We think this is what organizations of the future will look like and that this 21st century leadership style will be a major competitive advantage for us over the next decade.”

At this point, I’ll stop quoting the article…it’s worth taking a look at on your own.  However, what I found most interesting aside from the insights into the structure, management and results of the many cross functional teams, was the fortitude that Cisco and Chambers showed in adopting this new management model.  You get the impression that the gains did not come without considerable pain.  Over 20% of the executives washed out of the new collaborative model, and in essence, the entire culture had to change. Chambers even confesses to the challenges that he had in changing his own style from one of command and control, provide the answers and direct the troops to one of letting teams solve problems and then execute.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Seven years in the making, the results of this new management model at Cisco are encouraging.  Of course, time will tell if Cisco has truly changed, as well as defined and implemented what can truly be called a management innovation.

I suspect that Chambers and Cisco are closer to right than wrong on their approach.  It’s an exciting time to be leading as the pendulum seems to be swinging away from a style of leading and working that minimized the value of the individual to one that emphasizes empowerment, creativity and the freedom for groups and individuals to think and act.   It’s hard to imagine a future where this formula does not produce winners.  Of course, the proof as they say is in the pudding.

Filed Under: Decision-Making, Leadership, Leading Change, Management Innovation, Project Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,