Major crises drive not only business changes, but also management changes. Since the early 1980's successful managers, especially in IT, have been moving away from the old "command and control" of GE and other major industrial giants of the 20th century. If command and control goes away, what will be the model for the 21st century?
A recent issue of the Economist uses the example of Cisco to answer the question and points to the works of Rosabeth Kanter and Tom Malone as the best interpreters of the 21st century management model. They argue that the new model will be oriented to "coordinate and cultivate," an approach, I believe, that has been in the works for nearly 20 years with those companies that intend to use the intelligence and creativity of their people.
In his book, Malone tells of his speaking experiences:
When I give talks about new organizations, I often take a little poll to see how well the audience thinks today's companies take advantage of people's abilities. I ask them this quesiton: What percentage of the intelligence and creativity of the people in your own organization do you think your oganization actually uses? . . . . The average answer I hear is from 30 percent to 40 percent. In the old world of large-scale, mostly routine production, taking maximum advantage of everyone's intelligence and creativity wasn't critical, and the top-down, command-and-control management style was usually quite effective. But as organizations become more decentralized, as knowledge work comes to dominate the economy, and as innovation becomes increasingly important, taking advantage of people's true intelligence and creativity will become one of the most critical capabilities of successful businesses.
Then, Malone goes on to describe the new style of management and chooses the metaphor of cultivation to best describe the 21st century's needs.
Rather than just telling people what to do, managers will increasingly cultivate their organizations and the people in them. To cultivate something successfully--whether it's your farm, your garden, your child, or your organization--you need to understand and respect its natural tendencies at hte same time that you try to shape it in ways you value. More specifically, you try to discover and encourage its positive potential and limit the harm cuased by its negative tendencies. Rather than just trying to impose your will on the system, you try to balance the right kinds of control with the right kinds of letting go.
This is an important topic and I feel I don't understand it as well as I should. Let me know what you think about the new model, and let me also know the percentage of your intelligence and creativity that you believe is being used by your organization. Please either leave a comment below, or send me an email by clicking on the "Email me" link in the upper right hand corner below my picture if you prefer. I won't publish names without your permission.