{"id":2528,"date":"2020-02-14T12:29:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T11:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/?p=2528"},"modified":"2023-11-01T15:42:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T14:42:17","slug":"report-on-the-round-table-peter-f-drucker-and-the-society-of-the-future-by-david-hurst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/report-on-the-round-table-peter-f-drucker-and-the-society-of-the-future-by-david-hurst\/","title":{"rendered":"Report on the Round Table \u2018Peter F. Drucker and the Society of the Future\u2019 <\/br>by David Hurst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Panelists: <\/strong>
Chair: Richard Brem<\/strong>, Senior Advisor, Peter Drucker Society of Europe,
Peter Paschek, <\/strong>Management Consultant,
Timo Meynhardt, <\/strong>Professor for Business Psychology and Leadership, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management,
Verena Ringler,<\/strong> Curator, Erste Foundation
Aaron Barcant, Independent Researcher, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe round table began with Richard Brem introducing the panelists\nand each of them summarizing why Peter Drucker\u2019s work and vision\nmattered to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDrucker\u2019s vision<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDrucker always argued that one\u2019s worldview mattered to one\u2019s\nunderstanding of one\u2019s role and contribution in society and one\u2019s\nability to manage oneself and others. American philosopher Thomas\nSowell<\/a>, describes a vision as a \u2018pre-analytic,\ncognitive act\u2019 that helps simplify an overwhelmingly complex\nreality. Think of it as a walking stick that helps you travel over\nrugged terrain, giving you support when you need it and allowing you\nto probe the way ahead. A social vision gives us a sense of how the\nworld works, of the nature of humankind, of causation and how social\nchange happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs panelist Peter Paschek pointed out, Drucker described himself as a\n\u2018conservative Christian anarchist\u2019. While accepting the necessity\nof governance and government, he saw power and the yearning for power\nas the central problem of society, with that of managerial power and\nits legitimacy a particular concern. The political philosopher he\nadmired most was Wilhelm von Humboldt, the pioneer of the modern\nresearch university, who found balance and harmony while managing the\ntension between continuity and change. Drucker was concerned with\nthis balance at several levels, especially those of society and\ncommunity. It was this interest that allowed him to see management as\na social function, an organ of society that is responsible for the\nperformance of institutions and gives the individual both status and\nfunction. Panelist Timo Meynhardt said that Drucker\u2019s depth of\nthought and his emphasis on values \u2013 his practical wisdom \u2013 was\nhis distinctive strength, making him a \u2018companion in the darkness\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDrucker had what Sowell calls a \u2018constrained\u2019 vision \u2013 a\nfeature that he shares with thinkers like Adam Smith, Edmund Burke,\nthe authors of the Federalist Papers and Friedrich Hayek among\nothers. It is a vision of society as an evolutionary product with\nmuch wisdom contained in the traditions that are handed down to us.\nHistory matters and experience is critical. Order is emergent from\nthe interactions of many individuals rather than planned and the\nemphasis is on practices, processes, incentives, trade-offs and\nprudence. This constrained vision was in contrast to the much less,\nif not unconstrained vision of his close friend, Christian socialist\nKarl Polanyi. While he and Drucker agreed on their ends \u2013 to tame\ncapitalism and hold economic power to democratic account \u2013 they \ndiffered greatly on the means to achieve it. While Drucker regarded\neconomic man as a once-appropriate idea that had been over applied,\nPolanyi thought it an outright mistake, with the ideal of a\nself-regulated market never existing in practice. Drucker\u2019s concern\nover the very real limits to what the state can do and the\never-present risk of factional strife, required a large role for\nmarkets, albeit imperfect ones, as a valuable and effective tool to\nhelp balance the private sector against the state. Enlightened\nindividualism must serve society. Polanyi, on the other hand, with\nhis more utopian vision of the primitive community, saw a much larger\nrole for an activist state (it was noted that Polanyi\u2019s ideas have\nattracted renewed attention since the financial crisis of 2008 and\nthe disenchantment with capitalism that has accompanied it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe role of history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFor those with a constrained social vision history really matters.\nPanelist Aaron Barcant suggested that Drucker\u2019s view of history\nmatches that of Neustadt and May in their book Thinking in Time<\/em>.\nHere is what they have to say about thinking of time as a turbulent\nstream:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thinking of time [as a stream] . . . appears . . . to have three components. One is the recognition that the future has no place to come from except from the past, hence the past has predictive value. Another element is recognition that what matters for the future in the present is departures from the past, alterations, changes, which prospectively or actually divert familiar flows from accustomed channels, thus affecting the predictive value and much else besides. A third component is continuous comparison, an almost constant oscillation from present to future to past and back, heedful of prospective changes, concerned to expedite, limit, guide, counter, or accept it as the fruits of such comparison suggest.” (p. 251)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThus\nhistory has predictive value, not because the future will be like the\npast, but because some things will continue, habits will endure, and\nhumans will tend to behave in the future much as they have behaved in\nthe past, given similar contexts. We cannot predict the future, but\nstudying history is a way of expanding our experience, making us\nresilient in the face of change, so that we can interpret the past to\nhelp us understand the present and anticipate the future. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nLooking at the present<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe study of history may actually enhance a manager\u2019s ability to\nstay in the present and to focus on doing what is happening and\nhas to be done<\/em>. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs panel chair Richard Brem pointed out, Drucker was never a\nfuturist. In 1992, relatively late in his career, Drucker identified\nhimself as a social ecologist and wrote: \u2018If there is one thing I\nam not\u2026it is a \u201cfuturist\u201d\u2026.it is futile to try and foresee\nthe future\u2026.the work of a social ecologist is to identify the\nchanges that have already happened. The important challenge in\nsociety, economy, politics is to exploit the changes that have\nalready occurred and use them as opportunities.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe events that mattered did not lend themselves to quantification.\nThey happened at the margins of society. By the time they show up in\naggregates and become statistically significant they are \u2018past\u2019.\nDrucker\u2019s injunction was to \u2018look out the window\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhen we \u2018look out the window\u2019 for clues to the future of society\nwhat do we see? Those with an unconstrained social vision sometimes\ntalk of utopian moves toward cooperation on a larger scale and world\ngovernment. The evidence around us indicates otherwise. The rise of\npopulism and the disenchantment with both capitalism and democracy in\nthe West suggest a movement toward disaggregation, with attention\nbeing paid to smaller units of cooperation. The failure of the\nfederal government in America to address issues of popular concern\nhas led to a renewed focus on the state and municipal government and\nlocal communities \u2013 the\ngrass roots<\/a> \u2013 as the places where things get done.\nPanelist Verena Ringler talked about the blurring of what is public\nand what is private and of cities like Palermo and Barcelona, where\npockets of local cooperation are forming in opposition to the\npolicies of national governments. Other cooperative communities, such\nas the well-known example of Mondragon<\/a>,\nalso offer alternative ways of coping with the tensions between\ndemocracy and management discretion, market forces and social forces,\ncommunity and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u2018What would Drucker have made of China?\u2019, one participant asked.\nKarl Polanyi might have argued that the China case shows that\ncapitalism is antithetical to democracy. Drucker would have taken a\nmore developmental approach, perhaps quoting Berthold Brecht, \u2018Food\nfirst, then ethics\u2019. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The powerful play goes on\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David K. Hurst<\/a> is a management speaker, writer and educator. His latest book is The New Ecology of Leadership: Business Mastery in a Chaotic World<\/a> (Columbia University Press 2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is one in the Drucker Forum \u201cshape the debate\u201d series relating to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum<\/a>, under the theme \u201cThe Power of Ecosystems\u201d, taking place on November 21-22, 2019 in Vienna, Austria #GPDF19 #ecosystems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#GPDFrapporteur <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panelists: Chair: Richard Brem, Senior Advisor, Peter Drucker Society of Europe, Peter Paschek, Management Consultant, Timo Meynhardt, Professor for Business Psychology and Leadership, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Verena Ringler, Curator, Erste Foundation Aaron Barcant, Independent Researcher, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy The round table began with Richard Brem introducing the panelists and each of them summarizing why Peter Drucker\u2019s work and vision mattered to them. Drucker\u2019s vision Drucker always argued that one\u2019s worldview mattered to one\u2019s understanding of one\u2019s role and contribution in society and one\u2019s ability to manage oneself and others. American philosopher Thomas Sowell, describes a vision as a \u2018pre-analytic, cognitive act\u2019 that helps simplify an overwhelmingly complex reality. Think [\u2026]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[272,237],"tags":[270,238,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2528"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}