Basically, managing is about influencing action.
Managing is about helping organizations and units to get things done, which means action. Sometimes managers manage actions directly. They fight fires. They manage projects. They negotiate contracts.
One step removed, they manage people. Managers deal with people who take the action, so they motivate them and they build teams and they enhance the culture and train them and do things to get people to take more effective actions.
And two steps removed from that, managers manage information to drive people to take
action—through budgets and objectives and delegating tasks and designing organization
structure and all those sorts of things.
Today I think we have much too much managing through information. Henry Mintzberg calls this "deeming." In other words, people sit in their offices and think they're very clever because they deem that you will increase sales by 10%, or out the door you go. Mintzberg says:
Well, I can do that. My granddaughter could do that; she's four. It doesn't take genius to say: Increase sales or out you go. That's the worst of managing through information.
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