Rewritten Rules of Management — A Manifesto
May 26th, 2006 by HalTom's manifesto is one shiny silver lining.
Silver linings are everywhere if you're looking. I just found one in the Bill Swanson misdeed. You probably remember Bill is the CEO of Raytheon…the one that plagiarized the work of others and then promoted it as his own turning it into the must-have management guide for 300,000 people. I wrote about Bill's transgressions in the post Stand on the Shoulders of Others. A few days ago writer Tom Ehrenfeld, The Startup Garden, published a manifesto at ChangeThis, The Rewritten Rules of Management. Tom's manifesto is one shiny silver lining.
Tom starts with a recap of the flap. He quickly moves to some basic lessons for leaders. The irony of Swanson's misdeeds is the hypocrisy of his own leadership acts once he was caught. Had he only followed his espoused theories there would not have been a flap. Tom takes Bill to task for that and proposes we hold ourselves and our leaders to the same standards.
I really like Tom's finish,
"Business books are a small but emblematic artifact of this powerful culture. They give us small doses of insight and inspiration when done right. While many titles today are cynical, inauthentic, and unoriginal, the best of the batch provide leverage, guidance. When we accept leadership lies, we become complicit in a greater fib. So let’s demand that Swanson do more than shrug off his actions."
Tom's call for change is timely and well-argued. His writing is a joy to read. Treat yourself to it today.
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July 19th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Extremely interesting post. I liked the irony when talking about business books.
PM can indeed influence “real management” (which actually IS project management) a good deal.
I wrote a post on my blog about how PM-oriented organizations can look better to employees, in order to attract and retain the best talents. Here´s the link: http://itaddict.blogspot.com/2006/07/towards-project-management_115332136490454026.html#links