The document discusses the need to innovate management models to better engage employees. Traditional top-down management styles that treat people like cogs in a machine no longer work. By focusing so much on business strategies and operations, companies have forgotten to create healthy organizations that are "fit for human consumption" where people feel empowered and engaged. The author argues that management innovation is as important as product or process innovation for companies to be successful and engage their employees.

1. The postage stamp.

2. That little tiny piece of adhesive paper

3. so powerful it can travel across the globe

4. and find its way from one address to another

5. bringing a thought, a message,

6. a package, a revolution.

7. First used in Britain, then Brazil

8. it moved our words, our dreams and our destinies

9. for the past 170 years.

10. It took 20 years to become

11. a worldwide phenomenon

12. and 120 years before it’s first major innovation

13. the ZIP code

14. also known as; the Zone Improvement Plan

15. So?

16. what’s that got to do with management, you ask?

17. a lot.

18. a lot. Hmmm

19. Then came the telegraph,

20. the telephone,

21. the fax,

22. email,

23. text messaging,

24. instant messaging,

25. twitter

26. twitter?

27. 140 characters or less

28. The postage stamp, without the picture.

29. or the actual stamp.

30. And electronic….instantaneous..

31. and only 4 years old.

32. And it went global in about a nanosecond!

33. I’m exaggerating…….

34. …….but not by much.

35. What’s that got to do with management?

36. A lot!

37. everything

38. everything Hmmm

39. management is the postage stamp

40. it was fit for purpose

41. but in today’s world

42. it’s no longer one-size fits all.

43. It was built for a different world.

44. Traditional management was needed

45. for a DIFFERENTworld.

46. Management is about the same age as

47. the postage stamp,

48. when the Zone Improvement Plan came along.

49. But nothing really changed,

50. the stamp remained the same.

51. It just got delivered more quickly.

52. Each time a quicker product comes along

53. and we want our communication more instantly

54. the stamp gets left behind,again.

55. Management needs innovating

56. Not just a better model,

57. a different model.

58. A model built for people.

59. A model built for people. Uh huh!

60. Management Innovation

61. Management Innovation huh?

62. Let me explain

63. with an example

64. Businesses have always been run by rules

65. There were many, and one for every occasion.

66. But what if…….

67. …you learned from the postage stamp?

68. …or twitter?

69. What if ?

70. Every rulehad to fit on a postage stamp?

71. Every rulehad to fit on a postage stamp? Huh?

72. OK, what if all messages at work

73. had to be 140 characters or less?

74. Shouldn’t connecting with people at work,

75. communicating with people at work,

76. be as simple as that?

77. ‘As if’ you say?

78. ‘As if’ you say? Yeah…as if!

79. A weekly recap of performance

80. shouldn’t take more than 140 characters

81. …surely?

82. Especially, if you

83. say it face to face.

84. routinely, and casually….

85. No fancy forms that people hate

86. filled with fancy words.

87. That have little affect

88. on performance.

89. Performance reviews have long since worked

90. effectively,

91. but were a tool used since we started to work.

92. It’s time we

93. reinvented the performance review

94. process;

95. a management process.

96. Just one of many management processes

97. in need of innovation.

98. What management processes

99. will you innovate?

100. to better fit

101. our world

102. and us,

103. the people in it?

104. My Manifesto Pamela Hackett It’s time to innovate management! 1 4 WHAT DO I WANT TO CHANGE? WHAT IS A BUSINESS FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION? For years I’ve studied the results of surveys the globe over, aimed at determining how happy, how satisfied or how engaged we are at work. For years, the results have not been a pretty picture. They speak of doom and gloom, a veritable ice age of dislike, disenfranchisement, disgruntlement, an epidemic of under-engagement. People in general, are not exactly chipper about showing up at work each day. And totally showing up they rarely do, often choosing to leave their heart and spirit at home while they drag themselves through their jobs, dreaming of a life that doesn’t require work! It’s costing businesses billions in low productivity and lost opportunity, and people their health and happiness. A workplace of teams powered by common sense & trust, energized with initiative at every level, who know what they’re aiming for and how to use their business infrastructure to its best. A highly engaged leadership team providing a sense of purpose greater than profit and financial results; a business bubbling with opportunity for sales & people growth; and people who totally show-up for work each day! They feel known, cared about, helped, inspired, led and moved, and they have the freedom to act on behalf of the organizations good. This is a different way of managing. It’s time to focus on our management models not just our business models. 2 5 SO, WHY ARE WE UNDER-ENGAGED? MANAGEMENT MODELS? I speculate that much of the reasons we are under-engaged at work centers around the way work gets managed & done in organizations today. We built our businesses around production management & military commands, where we followed our leaders without question; they were brighter, better or they were simply, the boss. This doesn’t work anymore. Businesses that don’t recognize the need to engage their people in meaningful work, those that lack a true purpose, that don’t practice collaboration or help their people connect, and haven’t found a way of managing the organization to bring out the best in people, will surely fail, given they are failing their people. These companies are perpetuating the myths of old style management. For years we’ve run our businesses in a similar fashion, no real changes to the way we manage the business. We select, train, organize, lead, reward, recognize, develop and grow our people principally, the same way we did decades ago. We motivate, connect, manage, compartmentalize, define our strategies, develop our objectives and make our decisions in a similar way we did years ago. These things, when placed together, form a management model. This is the underlying way we run the business; command and control through to explore and discover. Businesses need to rethink their management models, and in so doing will become more productive and consume less profit! 6 WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN? 3 WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? It means management innovation is as important as product, process of service innovation. We need to reinvent the principals, practices and processes we use to get the work done in our business, to better connect with and engage our people. Until we really change the way we manage and lead our businesses, we’ll continue to fall short of the results we could achieve, and our people will continue to be under-engaged in their work. Engagement and the vehicle to get their, management innovation, is the battleground of the future, if you really want to stick with a military analogy. But beyond that, military style organizations, should be history. We have spent more than a few lifetimes focused on business models and strategies, on functional expertise and operational excellence. And while we’ve focused on creating smart, productive organizations, we’ve forgotten to focus equal attention creating healthy, fit organizations. Organizations that are fit for human consumption. It’s time to create businesses that work for people, and focus on management approaches that help people do remarkable things. How come people will take to the streets for what they believe in, but find it hard to take to the street that takes them to work? ©Copyright 2010 Pamela Hackett www.pamelahackett.com

105. Become a magnet fortalent, ideas, innovation & growth! Create an organization of people with the spirit of volunteers. Building businesses fit for human consumption with less profit consumption www.pamelahackett.com pamela@pamelahackett.com Author: getGruntled!