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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt was a cold November morning in 2016. As we walked from our hotel to the conference venue, I asked the late Clayton Christensen why he kept coming back to the Drucker Forum. He said, \u201cAt other conferences, I speak, and here, I learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clay\u2019s response is as simple as it is profound. It perhaps summarises best why many consider the Drucker Forum the world\u2019s premier management conference. It offers unrivaled depth and breadth of perspectives. It creates countless opportunities for thoughtful exchange between speakers and delegates, practitioners and academics alike. And in so doing, it does justice to Drucker\u2019s name and legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is there to redefine?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet something struck me as odd as I read through this year\u2019s conference abstract<\/a> and learned that in 2022 we would aim to \u201credefine performance that matters.\u201d What is there to redefine, I wondered? Drucker taught us that<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drucker was also careful to remind managers of their social responsibilities. Is any of that no longer true? Is something missing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Old questions and known answers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My confusion only grew when reviewing the more specific questions listed in the abstract. Each question fits one of five categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These questions are not new, and we\u2019ve been pondering these very same questions ever since the Forum\u2019s first edition in 2009. What\u2019s more, hasn\u2019t Drucker himself already answered almost all of them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, times are changing. It\u2019s good to revisit such vital questions from time to time. Yet I would argue that not much has changed at the most fundamental level, at the level of principles and foundational truths. We know the answers to these questions. So why do we keep asking them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t use our knowledge<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s abstract rightly points out that \u201cmanagement as a discipline has had many decades to study, test and spread what works in organizations and what doesn\u2019t.\u201d It then asks the inevitable question, \u201chave our organizations become much higher-performing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, they haven\u2019t. The evidence speaks loud and clear. The picture is the same whether we look at metrics such as employee engagement, innovation performance, the success rate of corporate transformations, or financial performance. On average, they remain dismally low (such as employee engagement at 15%, according to Gallup) or have even been in free fall (steady decline of RoA since 1965, according to Deloitte\u2019s Shift Index).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And herein lies the reason why we keep asking these same questions. Because, in practical reality, they are still unresolved problems. We\u2019re violating one of Drucker\u2019s most important principles, that management is a practice and that knowledge is useless if we don\u2019t use it to create results. We know the answers, but we don\u2019t use them in practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The character of leaders<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So why don\u2019t we? Again, I believe Drucker has already given us the answer. He writes in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973):<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLeadership is exercised through character. And character is not something leaders can acquire. If the leader lacks character – no matter how knowledgeable, how brilliant, how successful – he destroys. He destroys people, the most valuable resource of the enterprise. He destroys spirit. And he destroys performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, I believe, is the elephant in the room. How many organizations make character a non-negotiable qualification for leadership? How many look for high standards of moral integrity in their people decisions? Are their leaders committed to speaking the truth? What is their motivation to pursue a career in management? Do they aim to serve customers, their people, institutions, and society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the evidence, I can only conclude that they don\u2019t. The so-called leaders are in it for themselves. And we let them get away with it. Yet an institution is never to be seen as a platform for anyone\u2019s career, status, or enrichment. Sadly, in his fascinating book\u00a0A Time to Build (2020)<\/em>, Yuval Levin demonstrates how that\u2019s precisely what\u2019s going on not just in business but also in politics, education, and journalism. He writes, \u201cthe people who occupy our institutions increasingly understand those institutions not as molds that ought to shape their behavior and character but as platforms that allow them greater individual exposure and enable them to hone their personal brands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth about human nature and the performance that truly matters<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If we\u2019re going to do anything about it, we need to come to terms with human nature. Would you be surprised to learn that Drucker also had something to say about that? In\u00a0The New Realities<\/em>\u00a0(1989),\u00a0<\/em>he writes, \u201cManagement is deeply involved in spiritual concerns, the nature of man, good and evil.\u201d And in a lecture titled\u00a0Peter Drucker\u2019s Theology of Work<\/em>, Joe Maciariello quotes Drucker saying, \u201cI\u2019m only too aware that human beings perversely insist on behaving like human beings. This means pettiness and greed, vanity and lust for power and, yes, evil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the second elephant in the room. Humans aren\u2019t basically good. This profound insight penetrates much of Drucker\u2019s work, and it\u2019s why he puts such a heavy emphasis on character in leadership. We can\u2019t just assume that humans will do the right thing, even if they know how to do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In that light, there may actually be a need to redefine \u201cperformance that matters.\u201d What truly matters is our performance in shaping men and women of character. And in making sure that such men and women run our institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asking the difficult questions<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many will disagree with my analysis, and I invite you to change my mind. Do you have evidence that our organizations have become much better? Or do you have a better explanation for why they haven\u2019t? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m well aware these are controversial questions. But we need to ask them if we desire to make real progress. Questions, especially the difficult ones, are the source of all learning. Remember why Clay Christensen came back to Vienna time and again? And questions, perhaps more than anything else, were the defining mark of Drucker\u2019s work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s wrestle with such questions at this year\u2019s Forum. To quote Charles Handy from his powerful closing address in 2017: \u201cIf not us, then who? And if not now, then when?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n About the author<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Raymond Hofmann<\/em><\/strong> is a management and organisation designer, entrepreneur and pastor-in-training. He is based in Switzerland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a cold November morning in 2016. As we walked from our hotel to the conference venue, I asked the late Clayton Christensen why he kept coming back to the Drucker Forum. 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