Is radical management just a new form of corporatism?

One reader wrote to me about my forthcoming book, The Leader's Guide to Radical Management, and asked:

What is the frame for the ideas in this book? It seems to support corporatism, today's dominant ideology, which squelches opposition to its interests by controlling elected officials through lobbying and by using propaganda and rhetoric to obscure facts and deter communication among citizens.

I broadly agree with the thesis that left-brain rationalist analytic thinking is driving corporations and corporations are driving the world. The question is: what do we do?

My book puts goal-driven people-centered thinking at the center of corporations. I am suggesting a new goal for corporations that is ethically sound as well as superior in business terms: delight clients.

Because it is superior in business terms, economics will drive its success.

Because it is superior in ethical terms, society will support it.

Organizations that are run in this way will provide citizens with a good life--emotionally, psychologically and socially satisfying.

This is a business book about organizations and I am targeting organizations, because organizations have such a large role in determining what happens in the world. But throughout the book, I give many non-business examples. So this is not just about business. This is not just about running companies. This is about what we want to do with our lives.

Radical management reflects a worldview that enables positive, growth enhancing links between customers and suppliers who share it.

At the same time, when we are all under pressure in the current climate it is very easy for people to default to management 101, rather than invest time in the original thinking and reflection that enables radical management to blossom.

Radical management is more than a process. It’s more than a system. It’s more than a methodology. It’s more than a way of organizing. It’s an invitation into another world where things happen differently. It’s a set of values, principles and practices that spark the passion, the excitement, and the insights of the people who work there. It ignites delight in those for whom the work is done. It also happens to be much more productive than traditional management. It means having serious fun.

Other aspects of what the book is about include:

• Paradigm Shift: It is a paradigm shift in the way organizations are managed. The phrase has been over-used, but in this case, it is a real paradigm shift.
• The Science of Delight: The book is about systematically studying what’s involved in delighting clients, time after time.
• Not Just Another Day at the Office: This is not just another quick fix to “business as usual.”  This is about changing everything. Everything is different—and better.
• The Thrill of Continuous Innovation: Doing something new is at the heart of doing something interesting. When the innovation is focused on pleasing others, you have a virtuous circle of worker satisfaction, high productivity and client delight.
• Breaking the Black Box: This is a book about a radically different way of managing. It’s about pulling apart the black box of traditional management and putting the pieces together in a way that creates continuous innovation and client delight. It involves a wholly different way of thinking, speaking and acting at work. It leads to workplaces that are more productive and more fun. These workplaces feel different.
• The Completely Obvious and Seldom Used Strategies for Continuous Innovation: None of the seven principles is new—all have a long history. What is new is putting them together in an integrated, interlocking fashion.
• Reinventing the workplace from first principles: By itself, “re-inventing the workplace” doesn't seem to have a purpose. Most management changes have made jobs worse. This is about inventing a workplace that has a clear purpose—delighting clients.
• The Joy of Innovating: At one point, we considered this as a subtitle. It is reasonably apt since the book is about generating serious fun in the workplace. It is intuitively comprehensible. It clearly puts the book "in the innovation bucket". It is active. It is short--only four words. It draws an analogy to the books, The Joy of Cooking and The Joy of Sex, two classic books what were very practical and sold well. Alas, it didn’t appeal to business types.
  
• It’s the Journey Not the Destination: The title on the map is not the territory that will be explored. It’s the content that's important. It’s the organizational journey not the destination on the map that matters. This is about enticing exploration.
• The Courage To Be: The book is about having the courage to live a meaningful life, being given responsibility and accepting responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions—at once thrilling and frightening.

To learn more about radical management, go here:

http://www.stevedenning.com/Books/radical-management.aspx

Comments

[Health News]

yeah truly a great site.I really enjoyed my visit.