The Future of Management by Gary Hamel

So I was reading Jamie Notter's Blog, and he talked about a book by Gary Hamel titled The Future of Management. The book cites a sturdy where 85% of workers are giving less than their full commitment, and the possible reasons were:

1. Too much management, too little freedom
2. Too much hierarchy, not enough community
3. Too much exhortation, too little purpose.

I thought this was fabulous, because it perfectly summed up 99% of the conductors I played for when I was a professional musician.  So here is a bass player’s take on how to manage better:

1. Too much management, too little freedom

Power is delicious, but what’s the point of having it if you can’t exercise it?  People who have risen through the ranks by being endlessly obedient have, in their minds anyway, earned the right to enjoy some obedience from subordinates.  Most people think of positions of power, i.e. management, as a place where one can finally indulge in the deliciousness of having some control, not a position where one must constantly appreciate and facilitate the work of others.  But the best conductors I played for consistently delegated as much power and authority as they possibly could.  And they kept an open mind about what we did with that power and authority.  As long as the audience was happy, they were too.

2. Too much hierarchy, not enough community

Let’s be clear here, hierarchy is key to all primate societies, including ours.  The idea that you can get rid of hierarchy is kind of like thinking communism will work.  People like to know their status and rank, and earning higher rank is a very rewarding element of belonging to any social group, including one’s workplace.  The conflict between hierarchy and community comes when people become overly anxious about losing status or rank in the hierarchy.  A big part of the power of a manager is the ability to demote, or promote others who are now below you to positions above you.  For most people, if stepping outside of a very narrow prescribed path is likely to cause a loss of status within the group, then such innovative behavior is essentially prohibited.  So instead of getting rid of hierarchy, it’s really important to solidify the predictability and consistency of hierarchy, especially for those who are eager to do unusual things.  Otherwise, confusion over what behavior gets rewarded will result in caution and the least amount of effort from everyone.  This was something I always noticed an orchestra culture… if someone was promoted up in the pecking order of a given section, and everyone generally felt that this was not deserved, this not only destroyed teamwork amongst that section, it also rippled out to everyone else in the orchestra, as it suddenly became unclear as to what was approved of and what was disapproved of behavior. Caution becomes the word of the day. 

3. Too much exhortation, too little purpose.

There’s nothing like a conductor working up a big sweat, and one of those little beads of sweat flying through the air and landing on your 300-year-old Amati violin’s finish. (This inevitably begs the question:  "is this really necessary?")

When experiencing the immediate anxiety, stress, and excitement of a performance, it’s easy to lose track of the big picture.  If things are not going well, it’s easy to think that greater swinging of the arms will improve things.  But here is a classic case of a Principle of Applied Stupidity: the more work a manager does, the less work the managees will do, and vice versa.  More information from management is that much more stuff that has to be complied with and conform to.  So there’s that much less opportunity for team problem-solving.  The more management you put into a situation, the more passive the managees become. 

All too often, conductors I played for really didn’t know what they were actually trying to accomplish.  They were eagerly imitating icons of management (i.e., other conductors) that they admired, and their true purpose was to imitate and display to all loyalty to those icons.  Their focus was always pointed up to people above them, not down to the people they were supposed to be helping. 

The devotion that many musician show to long dead composers is nothing short of amazing.  It is so great, that most of them lose track of the purpose of the exercise, which is connection with, and entertainment of, their customers. 

(c) Justin Locke