PAGE Management Counsel Ltd.

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Management Counsel Newsletter: Issue 3
Management By Best Seller

A client remarked that he was troubled by leaders who jump from promoting one best selling author to the next. He felt that some leaders don't search for the best that each author might offer in order to blend it into the organization.

He saw leaders applying all of one author's theory, for a few months, then switching to another author's theory, and so on -- resulting in instability and lack of confidence in the leader's sense of direction. My client called this approach management by best seller.

Best sellers have a lot to offer leaders today. But, we agree with our client that care in application must be taken, seeking to blend with and supplement the existing organization culture and management approach. Only in the rare case will a fundamental shift be appropriate, perhaps in a crisis.

An amusing example (as one looks back -- it wasn't amusing for the client at the time) of best seller misapplication occurred quite a few years ago. We were working with a client to improve productivity. The GM was well respected, and open to new ideas. Perhaps too open as it turned out!

The GM had been reading a book that, he said, was a study of baboons. He thought his managers acted like the baboons in that book and that they could learn from reading the book. He told them so, and was shocked that they were upset at being called baboons! And, didn't see the value to be had.

The book the GM was reading was "In the Shadow of Man" by Jane Goodall -- a very good study of chimpanzees. Perhaps the managers would have been happier to be called chimps...

The GM was several years ahead of his time, as it turns out. Newt Gingrich recently recommended a book by Frans de Waal "Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes" to freshman Republicans. de Waal sees corporate life lessons to be learned from chimpanzees (which is what the GM was trying to tell his managers based on his reading):
- the top executive is always paranoid -- and with good reason
- being too aggressive results in a leader's downfall. Alienated subordinates exploit opportunity to be rid of the dictator
- loners are powerless, since they lack a coalition to back them in times of crisis
- meetings are a forum for testing the strength of coalitions. Watch whose jokes get laughed at and whose ideas are ignored.

The General Manager had a good idea -- too bad that he didn't think of a way to apply it in a way that would reach his managers. Of course, Mr. Gingrich has had a little trouble applying concepts too!

It is difficult to implement good ideas from best sellers, let alone implementing the entire best seller, or jumping from one to the next.