The management that we know and is still practiced in most organizations has its origin in the industrial age, more than 100 years ago, that is: it was created in the 19th century.
And, we are in the 21st century !!!! The world ALREADY changed. Point!!!!!
Does anyone have any questions about this ????
We often forget that “MANAGEMENT” is not something natural, that is, it is not something created by nature. It is not like a tree or a river, for example. In reality, management is like a computer, a bicycle. It is something invented by MEN !!!
Gary Hamel, one of the most famous management gurus, claims that management is a technology. Daniel Pink, another renowned guru in the area of Motivation, says that extrinsic motivation is a technology that has become obsolete.
These conditions leave management out of step with the non-routine capabilities, typical of the right brain: where is, among other things, our creativity.
Fundamental requirement required today by most companies of the 21st century that are facing Digital Transformation.
The People Management practice, based on the premise that, in order to act or move forward, we need a push - that without rewards or punishments we would be stopped or, even if, once in motion, people need direction - that without a reliable and steady guide, they would drift DON'T WORK
Is that REALLY our fundamental nature? Or using a language from the digital world, is this our “default context”? When we arrive in the world, are we conditioned to be passive and inert? Or are we programmed to be active and involved?
I say to you that the answer is the second option: OUR BASIC NATURE IS BEING CURIOUS AND SELF-DIRECTED. It is our way of extrapolating limits.
If at 20 or 50, we are passive and inert, it is not due to our nature. It is because something, in the environment we are in, has activated our default context.
And, this thing in organizations is management, which is practiced, which is changing our basic nature and producing “standard” behaviors of passivity and inertia.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to talk about AUTONOMY, without leaving behind standard behaviors. It is necessary to resist the temptation to control people - and, instead, do everything possible to revive the behavior of curiosity and self-direction, which are the pillars of AUTONOMY.
Autonomy is one of the most important human needs. The fundamentally autonomous quality of human nature is essential to the theory of self-determination.
Autonomy involves behavior with a total sense of will and choice. It is different from independence. It is not about extreme individualism, who does not trust anyone.
Autonomy, as a human concept, means acting with discretion - which means that we can be both autonomous and interdependent with others. Autonomy is directly related to general well-being.
Social scientists have found that autonomy is something that people seek and that improve their lives. Autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude.
A survey by researchers at Cornell University, which is located in the state of New York in the United States, observed 320 companies. Half provided employees with autonomy, while the other half believed in the direction top down, or command and control.
The companies that offered autonomy grew FOUR TIMES more than the index presented by the controlling companies and ONE THIRD of their turnover.
Yet the vast majority of companies remain in charge and control. Yet 21st century management is based on the assumption that people are more like puppets than protagonists.
Management is still sustained around supervision, rewards and other forms of control such as "empowerment" and "flexibility".
The notion of “empowerment” presupposes that the organization has the power and, in a good way, gives a part of this power to the needy employees and they are grateful. This is NOT Autonomy. It is a “softer” form of control.
Another example is the adoption of flexible hours, which is also a form of “disguised” control, as people continue to have a flexible schedule religiously, some continue to beat the point, others are directly supervised by the manager and everything ends up in an insane administration Bank of Hours. Flexibility only widens the bars and, from time to time, opens the gates.
Opera summary: management is not the solution, IT IS THE PROBLEM !!!!
It is time to take the MANAGEMENT as we know it and incinerate it and throw the ashes somewhere. Nowadays, CLAIM is not for better management, but for de facto LEADERSHIP. It calls for the revival of self-direction, of AUTONOMY.
Bye, Bye Management !!!!