Last week I wrote that “management innovation” is about reinventing your management model. So what exactly is a management model? The management model defines what managers do and how they do it. So what do mangers do?
Peter Drucker once said management is “Getting things done through other people”.
This entails 3 elements: (1) things, (2) getting them done, (3) through other people.
(1) Things
So what “things” are we talking about?
What is it that managers try to achieve? What is the objective of management? On the highest level, it is to ensure the survival of the organization. Making money is a means to an end. To achieve long term survival organizations need to be able to adapt themselves to the changing environments (remember that fit Darwin wrote about?). They need to be resilient. They need to able to renew themselves and adapt to changing circumstances. Thus we could say that management is the task of making sure the organization adapts to a changing environment. To do so the strategy, organizational structures and processes, the culture and the people, or their skills, need to be constantly renewed, adapted and further developed to make them fit the new environment. Of course there are many different ways and theories on how to achieve this adaptation and renewal.
Survival needs 3 things. You could also say that the big objective of survival needs to be broken down to make it manageable:
- Strategic objectives: Build potential for future success. Enable the organization for future success. (The long-term view if you like.)
- Operational objectives: Exploit existing potentials and generate profits from them. (The mid-term view.)
- Financial objectives: Generate profits and cash to ensure liquidity. (The short-term view.)
(2) Getting them done
So how to get these things done? By coordinating and aligning effort and activities, and allocating resources and assigning talent. This is usually done by defining and implementing organizational structures and processes, controlling how well the objectives are achieved, and rewarding their achievement.
(3) People
Of course managers done do all of this on their own. (Even if some of them tend to believe they actually do. Some might also have that feeling because of the sheer amount of work. Or delusions of absolute power.)
People need to be hired, trained, developed,… Their efforts need to be aligned and most managers think that need to be motivated as well.
Of course this view looks at employees in particular. I would argue that not only the relationship to employees, but also to other stakeholders and shareholders need to be build and nurtured. Not only the employees’ demands need to be taken into account, but also those of these other stakeholders. And very often it’s not only about taking them into account, but also balancing them carefully.
All 3 elements entail a vast array of processes like strategic planning and execution, budgeting, project management, internal communications, hiring, training and development, business planning, knowledge management, periodic business reviews, employee assessment and compensation. (thanks to Gary Hamel for this extensive list).
When it comes to reinventing all these processes and management practice, it seems that, at least for the time being, engagement and involvement of employees plays a vital role. Companies move a away from tide controls from the top and the illusion of having everything under control. Organizational structures and processes become looser.
I suggest to start the processes by mapping out how you do and organize all these processes. How do you set objectives? How to do coordinate your employees? Once having outlined your management model, think about what you can change and what a radical departure from current practices looks like.
Of course this kind of reinvention of management relies on that 50 year old definition of Drucker! So how innovative can it be? It might be a first step leading to some new possibilities. But how radically different will they be? How far will they push the practice of management really?
I put forward a more radical idea: what if we reinvented the very notion of what management does altogether, instead of relying on that 50 old year definition? Watch out for future posts!
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