{"id":4637,"date":"2024-07-19T15:34:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T13:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2025-02-07T17:16:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:16:48","slug":"how-to-transition-to-the-next-managementby-stephen-denning-heidi-musser-and-hugo-lourenco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/how-to-transition-to-the-next-managementby-stephen-denning-heidi-musser-and-hugo-lourenco\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Transition To The \u2018Next Management\u2019
by Stephen Denning, Heidi Musser and Hugo Lourenco\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We need to follow Peter Drucker’s advice “to look outside the window and see what’s visible but not yet seen.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What will be involved in enabling the next management to become a noble calling that helps create a worthy society? In his HBR article of June 2024, Richard Straub suggested that it should include at least seven aspirations, as shown in Figure 1.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1: Straub, R. \u201cThe Next Management,\u201d HBR, June 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How then do we get to the \u2018next management\u2019? To figure out what comes next, one useful step would be to ask: what have we already got? Being clear on the content and quality of our current management and its complaints may help us get a better handle on the nature, length and difficulty of the journey towards the \u2018next management\u2019, as well as to better plan our navigation towards it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Management Today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What then is management today? Definitions vary. On March 27, 2024, Drucker Forum president Richard Straub suggested: \u201cManagement is the whole set of rules and tools by which organizations are professionally run.” <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Gary Hamel\u2019s recent definition is similar: \u201c\u201cManagement is simply the tools, methods, processes, and structures that we use as human beings to do together what we couldn’t do alone. \u201c <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our own research confirms that these definitions broadly reflect the type of management that is common in around 80% of major public corporations today.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is The \u2018Next Management\u2019 Simply A Better Set Of Methods, Processes, And Tools?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If management is a set of methods, processes, tools, and structures, then is the \u2018next management\u2019 simply a better set of methods, processes, tools, structures that might help us make progress towards the seven “aspirations” of the next management? Some discussions of the \u2018next management\u2019 have seemed to adopt such an approach, even though it could amount to a drastic narrowing of the scope for enhancing management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because an excessive focus on methods, processes, tools, structures could be the source of many perceived problems with our current management practices. Thus, at the March 2024 meeting of the \u201cnext management\u201d initiative, Professor Tammy Erickson said that the journey to the next management implied “upending the way we think about management.” In effect, we need to get beyond merely a better set of methods, processes, and tools.  We need to think about the \u2018next management\u2019 in a fundamentally different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upending Our Thinking About Management By Putting Human Concerns At The Center <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way of upending our thinking about management is to follow Peter Drucker’s advice “to look outside the window and see what’s visible but not yet seen.” If we were to do that, we would notice that the fastest growing public companies of all sizes (around 20% of public firms) are not being managed primarily by a set of methods, processes, tools, and structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, these firms have often found ways to enable human concerns to drive and transform the methods, processes, and tools that they do use. As a result, they have been able to detect and adapt to change, grow much faster and generate exponentially more value for their stakeholders than the other 80% of firms. They have also made significant progress on some of the seven “aspirations,” particularly innovation, ecosystems, long-term focus, self-renewal and customer value.  No firm is perfect: all firms need to continue to make progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The terminology used by different firms varies. Microsoft talks about \u2018mindset\u2019, \u2018empathy\u2019 and \u2018values.\u2019 Apple talks of a different \u2018culture\u2019. Amazon describes its \u2018leadership; principles and “customer focus”.\u2019 Some firms talk of \u2018mental models\u2019 and \u2018narratives.\u2019 At LVMH, CEO Bernard Arnault talks of giving designers \u2018freedom without limits\u2019.<\/span> Among smaller firms, e.l.f. Beauty drives \u201ca culture of inherent curiosity\u201d and collaboration in all their staff and customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the terminology, a new breed of firm is using subjective, human concepts to drive their business methods, tools, and processes. These subjective mindsets, goals, and values are the very things that traditional management tended to dismiss in principle as secondary or irrelevant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shift in the way firms think about management changes everything in the firm. It’s not that methods, processes and tools disappear. But in these firms. mindsets, values, and culture drive and transform the methods and processes, rather than vice versa, resulting in a culture where employees thrive and create value for customers in new and innovative ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor are the firms in the fast-growing 20% without flaws. They all need to make continued progress towards meeting more fully the seven \u201caspirations\u201d and avoid falling back to the old ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons For Others <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding how these fast-growing firms are being managed would already be an important step forward for the 80% of firms that are still being managed by yesterday’s methods and processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a clearer understanding of how the fast-growing firms are being managed could also be helpful to regulatory agencies that are exploring whether and to what extent the fast-growing tech firms have acted illegally in achieving their gains or and\/or whether different kinds of regulation are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: To learn more about these ideas on making the transition to the \u2018next management, join our workshop in Vienna on the day before the Drucker Forum, November 13, 2024 from 2.30 pm <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Stephen Denning<\/em><\/strong> is a Senior Contributor at Forbes.com and a director of the SD Learning Consortium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugo Louren\u00e7o<\/em><\/strong>, founder of The Agile Thinkers, and co-founder of the World Management Agility Forum, is a leading global voice in Agile practices, dedicated to innovation and transformative organizational and management change, and commitment to human factors in team performance – NTECH skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidi Musser<\/em><\/strong> is an accomplished Board member, Board advisor, and C-level executive who advises and leads businesses on modern ways of working, sustainable innovation, and enterprise agility to achieve competitive advantage in this next economic revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n

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