It is impossible to describe all of the conversations at Gary Hamel’s conference on management innovation (see Part 1). The dialogue ranged from questions on whether we had the right language to describe how to drag management into the 21st century; is “management” even a relevant concept in a world where the “wisdom of crowds” and wikis increasingly hold sway; do we even want to help business become more effective when it’s already too effective at destroying the world’s resources; and will big, profit-driven companies, which are so invested in the conventional ways of management, ever be able to repurpose themselves for the common good.

So what follows here are jottings from my notes: a series of beliefs, thoughts, and questions. They usually don’t include answers. Their purpose is to start some conversations.

  • Change is accelerating. It’s driven by globalization; the Internet; falling barriers to entry; a swarm of new, low-cost competitors; and a rise in consumers’ bargaining power.
  • The world’s most valuable companies, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, have the lowest ratios of fixed assets to market value. Old-economy companies with huge fixed assets, such as GE and GM, are increasingly less valuable.
  • You can’t extract value from employees; they must offer value, as a gift.
  • Next time you interview someone for a job, ask: What are your gifts and which gifts will you bring to your work here?
  • The results from a 2006 Gallup study, which found that 73% of U.S. employees are less than fully engaged in their work, is a management disgrace.
  • There will always be a tension between inspiring people to be more creative and organizing people to be more effective.
  • Not only is there more risk in the world, but the nature of risk is changing. Most companies are clueless about this. They have no idea how to anticipate the new risks that are emerging (i.e., global warming, soaring energy prices, the colossal cost of health care, the global battle for talent, margin-gobbling competition from India and China), how to measure them, or what to do about them.
  • Is it possible for any one person to perform equally well all the responsibilities of a CEO, or would a team of chief executives, with each taking on a different task, do better?
  • How do we manage the transition from an economy of things to an economy of ideas?
  • Technology gives management the ability to exercise enormous control over many people and huge projects; technology also gives people the freedom to create and it gives management the ability to harness (but not control) the wisdom of the masses. A key challenge for every company: how to manage the tension between freedom and control.
  • How do you make organizations as humane as the people who work in them? Why do we strip the humanity and innovation out of organizations?
  • How do you amplify human capability? How do you best use the Web to aggregate human capability?

Whole Foods: – Prior to last year, when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey announced he’d essentially work for nothing (drawing $1 a year in salary), the ratio of Mackey’s annual compensation to the average Whole Foods employee’s compensation was 19 to 1. (In 2007, according to a report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, the ratio of average CEO pay at big U.S. companies to the pay of the average American worker was 364 to 1.)

  • 92.5 % of the options Whole Foods distributes go to non-management employees.
  • The opportunity to volunteer for the Whole Foods, Whole Planet Foundation has been Whole Foods’ biggest-ever morale booster!

W.L. Gore: – When you create a workplace that encourages the head & the heart to be present in the workplace it is and always will be CHAOTIC.

  • Principles not policies. No policy manuals.
  • Fundamental beliefs: true power lies in small teams, we’re all in the same boat, and take a long-term view.
  • Leadership is earned, not anointed. You are only a leader if people opt to follow you. All leaders are selected by their own peers.

IDEO: – All of this cultural stuff is very inefficient!

  • If no one wants to work on a project she or he can turn away the work (but this happens only 1% of the time).
  • Can you design work as a game that everyone wants to play, and everyone wins? Games provide constant feedback and they enable people who are dispersed geographically to work together intimately.

The day ended with these thoughts:

  • Work should feel like being part of one of the world’s most powerful movements
  • Work should have the transparency and the feedback of the world’s most efficient market
  • Work should be as fun and as immersing as the best game

Work should be as transformative as having your first child.

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