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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs technologies mature and converge, our choices will determine whether the result is extreme centralisation and surveillance, or a humane future envisioned by Peter Drucker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Car-crashing Mismanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A car shoots out of a side street towards ours. Both cars slam on the brakes. Tyres squeal. I grab the seat in front of me as we collide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two athletic men jump out of their damaged sportscar and start yelling at us. Just our luck \u2013 they are military intelligence. When they learn that my friend and I are on our way back to the airport after a speaking tour, they warn: \u201cPay up, or we\u2019ll give narcotics a call, and you won\u2019t be getting on that plane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I start with that chilling personal experience of corruption because a key motivator for Drucker was preventing totalitarianism and state corruption. The country in question was rich in natural resources. Some people think countries are corrupt because they are poor. Drucker knew better. It\u2019s a case of deliberate or ignorant mismanagement \u2013 like other social \u201ccar crashes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready for a New Narrative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For all his influence, Peter Drucker was very willing to admit that his ideas had not yet won out in the world. \u201cWhere the prevailing doctrines preached control by big government or big business, I stressed decentralization\u2026 and the need to create community,\u201d he writes in the introduction to his autobiography, Adventures of a Bystander<\/em>. He goes on to note that he was \u201cswimming against a strong current\u201d, but that now, at last, \u201cthe tide has turned, and it has turned my way. We are moving toward organic design, informed by mission, purpose, strategy, and the environment, both social and physical – the design I began to advocate forty years ago in The Practice of Management<\/em> (1954).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Drucker was optimistic that the tide had turned, the turn certainly seems to have happened slowly \u2013 or even to have been reversed. For the last three decades, the dominant narrative has been that business is about profit maximisation at the expense of other factors, human and environmental. However, as a consequence of Covid-19, we finally do have a fundamental change in mood. People are again ready for a new narrative \u2013 but we need to ensure the change in mood translates into a change in the dominant philosophy of management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Narrative is an Island<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As Drucker well knew, disillusionment alone can create a dangerous narrative vacuum. The current trend toward environmentalism is good insofar as it encourages resources being better used. But only if it is married with other positive narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if someone believes the world is overpopulated, they may love people individually, but at some level they will see humans as a kind of parasite upon the planet. The consequence of the narrative? The Golem effect<\/a> has us living down to negative expectations. The quality of our global community life declines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even when true in a narrow sense, \u201chumanity as parasite\u201d is a damaging narrative, offering no solution other than damage control (and political control): docile people, and fewer of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Narratives don\u2019t have to be true to be believed. For two hundred years, fears of resource scarcity have been connected to overpopulation, when research<\/a> suggests that population growth has actually made resources proportionately more plentiful \u2013 because people are creative. In any case, within my lifetime, world population is clearly set to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s reframe the narrative. Could it be that we need a bigger<\/em> \u201chuman footprint\u201d? What if the footprint isn\u2019t human enough? Wasn\u2019t that Drucker\u2019s whole point? Because of his biblical worldview, Drucker saw every individual as unique and valuable. So many of today\u2019s narratives are in urgent need of Drucker-isation! Why isn\u2019t Drucker\u2019s voice heard as powerfully as it should be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n To shape the Narrative, use Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his autobiography, Peter Drucker gives us insights into a changing world as well as into how his own views changed \u2013 using stories. \u201cSociety is, after all,\u201d he writes, \u201cmade up of individuals and their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what are the ways in which we usually promote Drucker\u2019s work? Quotes, principles, arguments and case studies! While case studies are useful and can win over individuals, they lack the imaginative power to go viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The consequence of this for me was that for many years, I myself only knew Drucker primarily as an authoritative source of quotable gems such as \u201cculture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d come across dozens of Drucker quotes, but not a single story. If we want Drucker\u2019s ideas to win, this will have to change. To shape the narratives that shape the world, principles won\u2019t cut it. Those must be embodied in inspiring stories. Because the brain is an experience simulator, stories raise the perceived value<\/a> of an idea and even model behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning the Next Generation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I dropped out of school at 15 to become a writer because academia taught explanation and isolated thinking<\/em> when the real world needed experience and integrated thinking<\/em>. To paraphrase Drucker, we\u2019ve been becoming increasingly efficient at running our systems, leaving those systems far from effective in achieving the desired end of human flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, this problem is starting to be recognised by business and academia, as I know from my own work with companies and universities. My generation is rejecting the narratives that got us here. But we need good alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By sharing stories that demonstrate Peter Drucker\u2019s approach and values, let\u2019s build a new narrative together and usher in a \u201cCentury of Drucker\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alternative is a dark place that Peter Drucker warned us about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The clock is ticking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s launch a business storytelling revolution to ensure that Drucker\u2019s time is finally here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who has a good Drucker story to share?<\/p>\n\n\n\n About the author:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jyoti Guptara<\/em><\/strong> is a business storytelling consultant, executive coach and international speaker. His most recent book is Business Storytelling from Hype to Hack: Unlock the Software of the Mind<\/em><\/a> (Pippa Rann Books & Media, U.K.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is one in the \u201cshape the debate\u201d series relating to the 13th Global Peter Drucker Forum<\/a>, under the theme \u201cThe Human Imperative\u201d on November 10 + 17 (digital) and 18 + 19 (in person), 2021. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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