After many years in business, most of them as a consultant, ranging from Architecture, Construction Management, Contract Management, Risk Management to many other areas of Management, the latest 15 years in telecom, I want to share my experiences and my thoughts of business, management and other subjects gained from years of national and international work as an expert (and teacher) in the wast field of management, contract management, project management, risk management, claims management, troubleshooting, and other areas. As this is a “Blog page” it may pop up comments and thoughts about food, about golf and other things making the life pleasant and also about politics and happenings which perhaps make life less pleasant.
The professional part – management – can always, and shall always be, discussed and questioned. I welcome and encourage all to comment, to criticize, propose and be creative with new ideas and thoughts. Looking forward, we don’t know the speed of change, but we know change is an essential and unavoidable part of life as well as of management. Does, for instance, our managers (and politicians) understand what the information technology has brought and still will bring about? They can use Twitter and Facebook but do they really understand the power of it?
For instance, how many of you believe the 19th-century authoritative management will survive in the future? No one I hope, as it represents a time, very different from the present, with human beings having to offer their physical power and skills in working for the few, believing their brain power made them superior.
This will of course not survive and we will very soon experience a gigantic shift in the attitude to work, employment, remuneration and all things seen as the norm today. Very few are lifting their eyes to really see what is going on. This is why we still remain in the society of Adam Smith and his followers. Old economic science may still be relevant as it is based on human thinking, but we shall be very happy that very few elements in this area are static. Human beings, at least a few of them, want to develop, want to look at something ahead of what is prevailing and these creative and brave minds are the ones taking us into the future.
In the training of managers, I often ask the question; how do you think about your work and what is most important?
“Try your best to never do anything wrong” or “Try your best to do things right”
Consider this a while before you read my view.
If you follow the first, how to do? The easiest way is to use all experience from the past and follow the manuals. I.e. do only what you and the generations before you know is right and nothing will go wrong, the manual is your leading star and nobody can blame you for anything. Safe, secure and no risk?
If you follow the second, how to do? By using your experience? Yes. By using the manuals? Yes. But what’s more – You must use your creativity, to look around and see the world around you now, what can be expected, what is changing, what possibilities is or can be available, what may the future bring about, what can be done better, what will benefit mankind now and tomorrow!
Think out of the box!
We should not have computers or internet today, not even the wheel, if nobody had been brave enough to go outside the “manuals”, used their creativity and taken risks in trying to see around the corner!
What has “management” to do with this?
Take a quick look at project management, risk management, contract management, and other management ideas, you will see that the focus is on tools methods and preservation and too little on creativity, thinking out of the box, risk taking etc. I mean that the tools and methods may be maximum 30% of management, creative thinking and looking ahead is 70%. And the solid base for all this is your own personality and your way of approaching matters! Many years ago, I recommended a book by Briner, Geddes, and Hasting about “Successful Project Management” to students in project management as it was moving focus from tools to a creative process, at least as I read the book.
Your management and my management may be different, but we both learn from each other as long as we don’t fall into the trap and try to adapt to something which is not supported by our own personality. Anyone more than me who think that there is only one “Quest (means business)” and others trying to imitate are only boring?