Managing People

This topic will bubble to the top of my to do list sometime soon.

In the meantime think about managing people at: HP, Kodak, and other organizations in trouble

From The Practice of Management — 1954

A few years ago I received the following letter from the president of a company:

I employ 2,300 people mostly women doing unskilled assembly work. Please send me at your earliest convenience a suitable personnel policy and enclose a statement of your fee.

For a long time I thought this letter a good, though unintentional, joke. But lately it has dawned on me that the laugh was really on me. My correspondent, I have come to suspect, is much like the child in Andersen’s story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” who had the innocence to say out loud that the emperor was naked when everybody else was trying to pretend that he could see the ruler’s garments.

A good deal of what passes today for management of the human organization is mechanical in nature and might indeed be dispensed by mail. The two generally accepted concepts of managing the worker—Personnel Administration and Human Relations—see the task to be done as something one tacks onto a business. To manage worker and work does not seem to require any change in the way the business is being conducted. And the tools and concepts needed seem to apply equally to any business.

See my management-people delicious tag

Amazon link: People and Performance: The Best of Peter Drucker on Management

List of topics in this Folder

#tgd

“The greatest danger

in times of turbulence

is not turbulence;

it is to act

with yesterday’s logic”.

— Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers
who do as they are being told —
either by the task or by the boss —

TO knowledge workers

who have to

manage themselves ↓

profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself (PDF) is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” …



“It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …



… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities:


Workers are likely to outlive organizations
(and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life),

and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

“More than anything else,

the individual
has to take more responsibility
for himself or herself,
rather than depend on the company.”
continue ↓

“Making a living is no longer enough
‘Work’ has to make a life .” continue

… finding and selecting the pieces of the puzzle

The Second Curve

These pages are attention directing tools

for navigating changing worldS — worldS relentlessly

moving toward unimagined futures.

What’s the next effective action on the road ahead

It’s up to you to figure out what to harvest and calendarize
— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then working out a plan for coping with what you’ve rejected.

Your future is between your ears and our future is between our collective ears — it can’t be otherwise.

A site exploration: The memo THEY don't want you to see

What needs doing?

#z98 Copyright 1985 through 2025 © All rights reserved | bobembry bobembryusa bobembry.usa | bob embry robert embry | “BrainroadS toward TomorrowS” | “time life navigation” ^© #TimeLifeNavigation | “life TIME investment system” ^© #LifeTimeInvestmentSystem | “career evolution” ^© #CareerEvolution | “work-life horizons” ^© | “work-life evolution” ^© | “financial investing” ^© | “life design” ^© #LifeDesign | “organization evolution” ^© | #OrganizationEvolution | “brainroads toward tomorrows” ^© | #BrainroadsTowardTomorrows | “foundations for future directed decisions” ^© | #FoundationsForFutureDirectedDecisions | #rlaexpdotcom ^© | rlaexpdotcom ^©

#rlaexp.com = rla + exp = real life adventures + exploration or explored

exploration leads to explored

Examples ↑ can be found through web searches, Wikipedia,
Pinterest and the daily news

Knowledge Worker tools on Pinterest

Some ecological and time awareness ↓ → Ken Burns films

Larger view thinking canvas

The Über Mentor

The Drucker Lectures:
Essential Lessons on
Management, Society, and Economy

A Year with Peter Drucker:
52 Weeks of Coaching
for Leadership Effectiveness

Larger view thinking canvas

#mlp ↓ #z99

My launching pad

(fully responsible officer,
knowledge-worker, professional contributor
and executive)

Discontinued Operations

Worldview