I was at the WorkHuman conference this week in Nashville and came across some great content I wanted to share. One of my favorites was from Professor Gary Hamel who has a very real, no-nonsense approach that you probably either love or hate, he’s not your normal HR conference speaker.
He shared his theory on Management 2.0:
So, I really like this, but also know how hard, in reality, it is for most of this to happen in an actual company! Let’s break them down.
1. Of course, you want everyone to act like an owner. It’s just really difficult to pay and give flexibility to everyone like they are an owner.
2. Operating units are small. Makes sense because the smaller the unit the easier it is to know who actually owns getting stuff done!
3. Leaders are chosen by the led. Great theory, in practice this can go very wrong. But it’s very aspirational and feel good.
4. No internal monopolies. Yep, I’m all in, just don’t tell Mary who is the top salesperson by a mile and has other ideas.
5. Control comes from around, not from the top. And we all act like adults. Another hard one to put into practice, but with small units it could happen and it would be a super awesome work environment.
6. Tasks are chosen not assigned. This one instantly feels very Hippie, right? But, if you have great measures that are agreed upon on what success looks like, why do we care how the tasks of making success actually get done?
7. Coordination is the product of collaboration. Yes, I’m all in.
8. Decisions reflect the wisdom of the crowd. First, let’s assume the crowd is wiser than any one person. That’s a giant assumption and if you’ve worked in organizations, especially really successful organizations, what you find is there are usually a person, or small group, that is a bit wiser than the collective. Let’s be careful on always assuming more equals better. Not actually true.
9. Compensation decisions are peer-based. And welcome to Lord of the Flies.
10. Everyone reports to the customer. Yeah, another one I’m willing to buy into, but we also have found out that the customer isn’t always right and sometimes the customer is downright awful to your staff. In that case, you don’t report to the customer!
I love that Gary’s Management 2.0 really gets you to think about what leadership and management could be. He would argue all of this is 100% doable, I would argue some of it is doable, and some of it is pure fantasy. Even if you had an executive team that drank the Kool-Aid, much of this would still be next to impossible to pull off.
But, this is what is great about WorkHuman. You get content that will challenge the norm and make you truly think differently about what you believe is best.
So, what do you think, could you make Gary’s Management 2.0 work in your organization? Or what parts would you like to steal and try right now?
Interesting insights. They have a hint of holacracy to them. In theory, it is a great way to approach work, but as you mention, in practice it can be very difficult to pull off. Strong Talent Acquisition practices would be even more crucial to a team/company that used these management 2.0 practices.
Nice post. Your comments were diplomatic and fair rather than go the snarky route. I have seen, as an owner/partner in a business that employees can never have an “entrepreneurial spirit” without sharing some level of risk (personal investment). I have seen behaviors completely change once someone has something to lose.