Hack:
Time to Stop Drinking Your Own Bathwater?

By Alastair Dryburgh

October 17, 2011 at 1:10am

Moonshots

Amplify imagination

Rethink the philosophical foundations of management

Summary

Thinking outside the box is much easier with help from people who were never in that particular box in the first place.

Problem

The discipline of "management" is by now well established, with clearly defined institutions, theories and boundaries with other disciplines. This is actually becoming a problem. See, for example, Andrew Hill's recent column in the Financial Times, where he predicts that future progress in management will be at best incremental.

Given that we don't currently lack management challenges, this is worrying. It is less worrying, though, if we start to look for the future of management outside "management."

Solution

One of my clients recently went to a dinner of very senior people from the largest UK companies. At my instigation, he asked as many people as he could, "where do you expect to get the ideas move your business forward?" This is the summary of what they said:

"...the best minds from their emerging markets (and I confirmed, they were non-MBA educated) were their best source of new and different ideas. Unsurprisingly, they also shared that the somewhat trying times made those ideas more important than ever. Looking critically at the west from the east was the theme."

Reflecting on who had most helped me with my thinking as a consultant over the last year, I came up with these three:

Andy - former lecturer in computer science, NLP practitioner, consultant in organisational development;
Nathalie - web designer, psychologist, musician;
Nick - consultant psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, former head of a major psychiatric institution.

The message is the same - the most useful ideas come from very different worlds.

Practical Impact

If you want to avoid the risk of drinking your own bathwater (or breathing your own exhaust fumes - choose your own metaphor) you will need to start talking to a much wider range of people.

First Steps

Think back over the last few months, and ask yourself:

Who have I talked to about the management challenges I face?
Do they have similar background and qualifications to me?
Do the read the same stuff I read?
Do they work in the same industry, same organisation, same profession as me?

If the answers are mostly yes, you need to change.

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October 18, 2011 at 7:00am

Andrew Armour

Very interesting point.

My build is that one way management can obtain this kind of fresh thinking and new ideas - is to engage externally. Collaboration is often cited as the key driver for true innovation (see - Beth Comstock from GE for example - http://tinyurl.com/6cyhyzp ).

Management in dynamic industries facing disruptive technologies and first mover advantages - is about new ideas and conversations - not repeating past ones with the same people, in the same rooms, with the same outcome. All progressive marketers and managers need to be in 'the conversation busiess' - internally, to encourage flow of information within. But more importantly - externally, with suppliers, key customers, industry allies and partners. ( see http://tinyurl.com/3j4jyg5 )

Management should not just be about drinking in your own limited bathwater - but looking to swim in a whole different pool of insights, perspetives and ideas. Partnerships and collaborations give you this. They can be hard work - and they need time to nurture. But in my experience not only are they the source of the best innovations, they are also personally stimulatin and more fun too.

You can see more of this at my blog; www.andrewarmour.com

Best,

Andrew Armour
www.benchstone.co.uk
www.andrewarmour.com