It’s Time!

OK, I am about to conduct an experiment with myself and I invite anyone who wishes to join in. What I want to do is critique the The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel (with Bill Breen) as I read it.

I am well aware that I may well be inviting egg on my face, severe criticism and ridicule. However, it is exactly these fears that have kept me quiet for too long (this may be news to some of my friends and colleagues ).
What’s Bugging Me?

I have a deep weariness of reading about supposedly new paradigms emerging in ways of working and management practices. On the face of it, this book sounds like another attempt to promote novelty. Professor Hamel’s goal is to help the reader become a management pioneer and equip him / her  to “reinvent the principles, processes, and practices of management for our postmodern age”.

My argument is that we already know many of the principles, processes, and management practices that are appropriate for effective strategic action in the face of current global environmental turbulence. They have largely been ignored or over-looked. To my way of thinking, a good place to start is with what we already know rather than needlessly reinventing ‘new’ principles. Reinterpreting – yes, definitely.

How Dare I?

I am sitting here asking myself that! Professor Hamel is highly respected, and I approach my critique from a respectful stance.  He says:

“I’m humble enough to know that one person’s imagination and foresight are no substitute for those of a multitude”.

That multitude includes, for me, the hundreds and thousands of academic researchers whose work is written up in obscure academic papers in obscure academic journals and which most likely never sees the light of day except when accessed by other foot-soldier academics like myself, when writing yet more obscure academic papers that end up in further obscure academic journals!

Here’s the thing, though. This collective intelligence (see it was there long before Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0) over the years reveals patterns, connections and insights that are now becoming invaluable. My intention in this critique is to make sure that some of these insights add to whatever Professor Hamel is proposing.

And Finally For This Post

“So this is a book for … everyone who … thinks that employees really are smart enough to manage themselves, who knows that “management”, as currently practiced, is a drag on success  – and wants to do something about it.”

Yep – you can count me in!