CMI Summer’10 Newsletter – Management in Focus
In the last article I began to set the scene explaining the ‘failed social experiment’ that we have lived through over the last 30 plus years. It was a theme we developed at our first Management Munch in March at which 17 regional members participated in a fascinating and thought provoking discussion encompassing positive and negative liberty, the rationale behind target setting and my personal views on its potentially disastrous impact on the managerial profession.
So what might be the managerial mindset that will successfully enable us to survive and prosper in what has been chillingly termed the ‘zombie economy’? This was the theme for our second Management Munch held mid-May. Here we debated what good management would look like, what skills and attributes a successful manager might have, how these might be developed and than what government might do to facilitate this. Here’s my very brief interpretation of what we discussed…..
Managers will have to be effective at delivering positive sustainable change. In other words deliver faster, cheaper and better products, services and processes. They must understand the innovation process, can cure causes – not effects, have the ability to ask questions, know what to change, how to change it and want to change it, are focussed on ‘win/win’ not ‘not losing’ and can collaborate effectively.
They will lead through what I am calling ‘authenticity’. This means having self-knowledge, belief and ‘being comfortable’ with themselves. Have clear clarity of purpose and vision and know what has to be achieved in the long term, medium term and short term. They can receive and act upon open feedback and develop real trust, respect and reputation through example. They will be consistent and genuine, have appropriate, demonstrated values, principles, correct behaviours and attitudes. Style will be about ‘Inspiring and doing’ rather than ‘coping and reporting’. An ability to build and lead effective teams will be essential. They will need to create an appropriate structure and delegate to it with organisations broken down into units of 150 max and ‘led’ accordingly through culture, identity and commitment generated through vision and communication. They must identify ‘micro’ leaders then develop and lead through them allowing these ‘micro’ leaders to challenge and adapt rules with culture guiding decision making in preference to rulebooks where appropriate.
All managers must be ‘developed’ to the appropriate level of their responsibility and take on the personal responsibility to continuously develop themselves.
The development process will start with correct selection with a greater emphasis on promoting from within as ability has already been demonstrated. Reviewing performance through 360 deg feedback and checking and evaluating achievements will be more commonplace as will the use of experienced managerial mentors and the recognition of Chartered Managers.
Government support could begin with leading by example with all Ministers to have an accredited managerial qualification and be working towards CMgr. In the Public sector there should be no promotions without an appropriate accredited qualification whilst in the Private sector there should be ‘Kite mark’ recognition for those organisations only promoting with appropriate accredited qualifications. Funding for training should be simplified with enhanced tax breaks for organisations, costs claimed directly by organisations for accredited qualifications and improved funding/ tax benefits for individuals paying themselves. With regard to employment laws these should be simplified and made more sensible to allow leaders to actually lead and managers to be responsible for their actions too. Finally we would like our MP’s to engage with us more, especially at a local level.
CMI Spring’10 Newsletter – Management in Focus
Ever wondered where we have been managerially for the last 30 years and why? What are the likely themes and issues that will determine where we are going next?
Our Branch Education Officer David Broadhead has some controversial views about the subject, not surprisingly, and is not only working hard to discuss these at a national political level but also helping develop a new generation of middle and senior managers from all sectors equipped to survive and prosper through the forthcoming ‘zombie economy’.
As background information, over the last 10 years David has independently tutored more than 150 post-graduate managers to Masters level awards through his company Partners in Management, based in the Media Centre Huddersfield. Prior to this he was a Senior Lecturer at Huddersfield University running conventional MBA/DMS programmes which followed a successful senior management career in international manufacturing industry.
So why his concern over the last 30 years…..
“In my opinion we are now seeing the death throes of a failed social experiment, originating in the Cold War, that has in many ways reduced our society to economic and moral bankruptcy and has had serious negative implications for the managerial profession” says David.
“The focus on micro-managerial control through political obsession with targets and the one-best practice/system approach has removed purpose, meaning and real innovation from organisations. Organisations have seen change as positional and radical without fully understanding the implications and consequences. They are missing real opportunities for meaningful evolution and instead are focussing their resources on just managing systems and processes. This emphasis on management through targets is what Mintzberg refers to as ‘deeming’ and in essence just pushes problems to the ‘point of delivery’ where individuals probably have the least opportunity or authority to resolve them. A further disastrous consequence has been the destruction, particularly in the public sector, of the rich cultures many organisations used to have and which formed the focus of their existence, for example the diminution of head teacher’s authority in schools. This has been done in the mistaken belief that promoting individual liberty and destroying controlling elites was the way of the future. The furore over MP’s expenses and bankers bonuses where individual greed and lack of moral responsibility has overcome common sense, is just one further example of the end product of this failed philosophy.”
So what are we going to do about it?
“In our view we are in for an austere decade, devoid of external growth due to lack of available finance, manufacturing capacity and skills, particularly innovative ones. There are tremendous opportunities out there particularly given the new emphasis on environmental issues but we need a new mindset in order to succeed and make the most of them. The skills and managerial mindsets needed will be focussed around collaboration, trust, integrity, authenticity, open communication, individual responsibility, creativity and sustainable, organic innovation. Organisations will become smaller, local, faster and through being effective will by default become inherently more efficient. The ‘efficiency saving’ monoliths much favoured by central governments and institutional shareholders will be seen as the dinosaurs of an industrial age and no longer viable in the information age of constellation organisations and cloud computing. Individuals too, although physically still employed by organisations will however be engaged emotionally by brands and organisational identity, ethics and values.”
In support of these beliefs, David and his colleagues are pioneering a new range of readily accessible management development programmes all focussed around these key concepts of personal awareness and development, managing sustainable innovation and facilitating effective change.
Passionate about the subject and the role management has to play in rebuilding our society and economy, David has become an Ambassador for CMI locally, has contributed to developing and launching the CMI Manifesto for a ‘Better Managed Britain’ and also recently spent time in the Houses of Parliament explaining his views to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Management’s Chair, Barry Sheerman MP. He is also keen to promote the role and significance of the CMgr award too and sees this as a significant aspirational status all managers should aim for in order to demonstrate their competence and commitment to the profession.
Post Election Discussion – How good management will return us to prosperity and what government can do to promote this.
This discussion has now been set up on the CMI regional discussion website
Central and West Yorkshire Branch members met up on 17th May at the Media Centre in Huddersfield for our second Management Munch where we held a Post Election Discussion – How good management will return us to prosperity and what government can do to promote this, the theme being the future of management and leadership in this new so called ‘decade of austerity’ we are allegedly entering. Our findings are discussed in more detail in June’s regional newsletter but one thing we believe in is that good and effective management and leadership skills are going to be essential in leading us successfully out of recession and in reducing the burden of national debt we now carry.
Given the new coalition government and its opportunity to break the traditional mould of adversarial leadership, we thought it appropriate to make suggestions as to how government can actively intervene and help promote the development and recognition of effective management and leadership skills. In the next weeks we intend to ask for comments from all our local Members of Parliament regarding our suggestions – we will keep you posted with their comments!
CMI Mgt Munch – Monday 17th May
Our next Management Munch is on the 17th May at Café Ollo in the Media Centre , Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL and will be a:
Post Election Discussion – How good management will return us to prosperity and what government can do to promote this.
Given the current economic and political situations, we desperately need good management now, probably more so than in any other post-war situation.
As such we have decided to focus on this issue at our next Management Munch at which we intend to:
- Determine what is good management in today’s changed environment
- Identify what this new managerial skill set comprises
- Suggest ways in which individuals and organisations can develop these skills successfully
- Produce recommendations for all our local Central and West Yorkshire Branch MP’s to comment and act upon
Given the obvious natural London-centric nature of policy both within the CMI. the media and major political parties, we feel it important that we in Yorkshire make our views and opinions known. As the expression goes ‘don’t vote then don’t complain’ – now’s your chance to contribute with your views about the future needs and direction of your profession!
Start time is 6.30 for 7.00 with a buffet for which we charge £5 on the door. Please let me know if you wish to attend as places are limited! Our first Management Munch was a success – let’s make the second one a success too!
Contact: david@partnersinmanagement.co.uk
CMI Management Munch – March 22nd 2010
Monday evg saw 15 existing and prospective CMI members get together at the Media Centre, Huddersfield to listen to my personal views on ‘The Future for Management & Leadership’.
The First Management Munch
I tried to explain (to the best of my abilities) the concepts of negative and positive liberty, the rationale behind political and managerial target setting and the subsequent disastrous impact on our society and managerial/leadership capability.
It’s not all bad news though as I outlined the tremendous opportunities for the future linked to the need for sustainable innovation and the impact on the managerial profession through the necessity for real ‘authentic’ leadership. I suggested as well the likelihood of a return to smaller, local, more tribal organisations led more through cultural values as opposed to imposed targets.
In other words we will want ‘meaning and purpose’ injected back into our lives, our organisations and our society!
The presentation slides are available from our website.
Here’s a better explanation of positive and negative liberty taken from the BBC TV series ‘The Trap‘.
Background
The owner and founder of Partners in Management, a CMI Level 7 Accredited Centre, David is an experienced management professional and academic with specific interests in personal and organisational innovation.
Along with his colleague Chris Sheader, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and proud to be one of its Ambassadors, a role he combines with that of Education Officer for the Central and West Yorkshire Branch.
