Management as making it difficult for people to get things done

by Lilia Efimova on November 4, 2004

Martin Dugage:

From Peter Drucker:

Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to get things done

Morning teaser for waking up brains: what are those ninety percent?

Some points from my list (not necessary the most severe ones, but those I care about most):

  • Thinking in terms of interventions, not personal productivity (re: personal knowledge management)
  • Thinking in terms of formal organisational structures, not social networks and communities
  • Measuring what could be measured, not what matters (re: invisible)
  • Holding controls instead of giving responsibility to people (re: attitude change)
  • Managing weaknesses, not strengths (re: strengths finding)
  • Fitting businesses around market changes and equipment life-cycles while forgetting about natural rhythms of people and fun of flow (re: work-life balance)
  • Relying on codified knowledge and pushing codification
  • Managing conveyor belts, not social ecosystems (re: middlespace)
  • Lack of reflection and skills to facilitate reflection of others
  • ???

See also: leadership as releasing energy of others

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/11/04.html#a1412; comments are here.

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