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Thanks for the explanation. I've got a working theory: most people, even managers, even lauded ones, don't know much about "textbook" management. They mostly ma
by heymijo 9y ago
Thanks for the explanation. I've got a working theory: most people, even managers, even lauded ones, don't know much about "textbook" management. They mostly manage how they were managed, some picking up a few things here or there.
It's recursive.
I've worked in businesses, started and scaled my own, and have also been a teacher (k-12). We all go to school for at least 13 years and internalize what "teaching" is. Most teachers' classrooms end up looking like ones they experienced even if the "textbook" lays out massively different ideas. It's the same problem as management.*
We all also work, and internalize some conception of "management." Thus, most manage they way they were managed.
Throughout my career I've worked with over a hundred different organizations. I can read about many more in the news and case studies. I see very little in practice that aligns with hardly any of the big ideas in management that I've learned from the likes of Drucker and Deming.
*It has not gone unnoticed that education is our first experience with management. Often it has Taylorist, Theory X, command and control roots. In contrast, the great teachers I see have a lot in common with great managers and management theory (see Drucker, Deming).