Well said, by Steve Denning:
“There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don’t have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things–human resources, human capital, social capital–which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn’t under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
The first stream is dying. Its day is done.
The second stream is the future.”
Excellent point!
We must continue to engage people of other nations where they are, and ‘inspire’ them to take control of their own destinies. A good place to start would be the Horn of Africa…before it is too late.
Even treating workers as capital would be a big improvement over the status quo. At least they’d be treated as an asset instead of just an expense. As it is now, the dominant model of management accounting in corporate America treats labor as the only direct/variable cost to be economized on, whereas capital expenditures and administrative costs just go to general overhead. For the MBAs to recognize that the skills, tacit knowledge and relationships of their workforce are something of value, and that that value can be destroyed by downsizing with long-term costs to productivity that dwarf the apparent short-term savings, would be a huge step in the right direction.