I teach management and I have a real problem with the subject that I 'teach'.
You see, we management teahers have a whole load of prescriptions and best practices that we recommend to anyone who wants to learn how to be a manager, The trouble is that these prescriptions frequently don't work. So, over the years, we've developed ever more simple ways of encoding what we (claim to) know. there are 7 'S's, 5 'P's, 4'P's, I don't know how many 5-steps, 4-steps etc. etc and the number of 2 by 2 matrices that reduce our complex world to four boxes along two axes is legion. The trouble is that these still don't work.
This all makes management a very oppressive subject. Because the majority of managers I meet, want to do a good job and know, in their heart of hearts, they're not succeeding. "But we've told you how to do it" says the management theorist... the logical conclusion is that, given the very simple and easy to follow prescriptions of management books, there can only be two conclusions about my manager friends. They are either fools or knaves. There's no way round it. They are either too foolish to follow the 5 steps etc etc or they do not want to do the job well.
Now management is difficult and no amount of management books giving simple one-minute or 5 step answers stops management being difficult. So, consequently, management is the most ignored subject I know. "Oh that's all very well in theory" every one says, "but in the real world..."
The problem is that management theory tells us how we ought to act. It tells us what we ought to do. And, if we had the time and if we were able to think about it carefully I'm absolutely sure that we would all do what we ought to do. The trouble is we are always in amidst of the chaos of life, there isn't the time to think, let alone do, what we ought to do.
we ought to listen to what peope say before giving them the right answer (sorry a little sarcasm slipped in there before I could stop it)
we ought to empower others and delegate to them
we ought to analyse the business environment ( a strange phrase that basically means looking around us in a terribly businesslike way)
etc etc
the trouble is that the people we should listen to hurt us or speak rubbish, they let us down by not doing what they say and the world is far too damn complicated for us to analyes. We're in amidst a complex world and the ways we have of learning how to live in it all assume that we have the time to think before acting and I'm afraid that we don't for we are in amidst the rush of life and too long a pause will see us miss the moment...
We know what we ought to do but ought is a powerless word that can not be found in amidst the hurly burly of life and we are left with little else to go on..
Now, I've listened to many sermons in my life, many of them very good and interesting. They have all told me what I ought to do....
Comments