The Daily Drucker: January 16 – The Function of Management Is to Produce Results

Above all management is responsible for producing results.

Management has to give direction to the institution it manages.  It has to think through the institution’s mission, has to set its objectives, and has to organize resources for the results the institution has to contribute.  Management is, indeed, J.B. Say’s “entrepreneur” and responsible for directing vision and resources toward greatest results and contributions.

     In performing these essential functions, management everywhere faces the same problems.  It has to organize work for the productivity; it has to lead the worker toward productivity and achievement.  It is responsible for the social impact of its enterprise.  Above all, it is responsible for producing the results – whether economic performance, student learning, or patient care – for the sake of which each institution exists.

ACTION POINT:  Is your organization delivering the results it should?  If not, articulate your mission.

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 16 , Page 18                                                                                             

The Daily Drucker: January 15 – The Spirit of an Organization

“It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.”

Two saying sum up the “spirit of an organization.” One is the inscription on Andrew Carnegie’s tombstone:

Here lies a man

Who knew how to enlist

In his service

Better men than himself

The other slogan is of the drive to find jobs for the physically handicapped: “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.”  A good example was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II, Harry Hopkins.  A dying, almost dead man for whom every step was torment, he could only work a few hours every other day or so.  This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters.  He did not lose effectiveness thereby; on the contrary, he became as Churchill called him once, “Lord Heart of the Matter” and accomplish more than anyone else in the wartime Washington.  Roosevelt broke every rule in the book to enable the dying Harry Hopkins to make his unique contribution.

ACTION POINT: Figure out what each of your employees’ or colleagues strengths are and develop these strengths to help people perform better.

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 14 , Page 16                                                                              

The Daily Drucker: January 14 – The Managerial Attitude

The demands for a “managerial attitude” on the part of the even the lowliest worker is an innovation.

No part of the productive resources of the industry operates at a lower efficiency than the human resources.  The few enterprises that have been able to tap this unused reservoir of the human ability and attitude have achieved spectacular increases in productivity and output.  In the better use of human resources lies the major opportunity for increasing productivity in the great majority of enterprises – so that the management of the people should be first and foremost concern of operating managements, rather than the management of things and techniques, on which attention has been focused so far.

                We also know what makes for the efficiency and productivity of the human resources of production.  It is not primarily skill or pay; it is, first or foremost, an attitude – the one we call the “managerial attitude.”  By this we mean an attitude that makes the individual see his job, his work, and his product the way a manager sees them, that is, in relation to the group and the product as a whole.

ACTION POINT: What action can you take now to impart a sense of managerial responsibility into your workforce?

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 14 , Page 16  

The Daily Drucker: January 13 – Management and the Liberal Arts

Management is a liberal art.

Management is what tradition used to call a liberal art – “liberal” because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; “art” because it deals with practice and application.  Managers draw upon all of the knowledges and insights of the humanities and social sciences – on psychology and philosophy, on economics and history, on the physical sciences and ethics.  But they have to focus this knowledge on the effectiveness and results – on healing a sick patient, teaching a student, building a bridge, designing and selling a “user-friendly” software program.

ACTION POINT: What is your plan to develop yourself in the humanities and the social sciences? Develop such a plan today.

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 13 , Page 15  

The Daily Drucker: January 12 – Practice Comes First

Decision makers need to factor into their present decisions “the future that has already happened.”

Decision makers- in government, in the universities, in business, in the labour unions, in churches – need to factor into their present decisions the future that has already happened. For this they need to know what events have already occurred that do not fit into their present-day assumptions, and thereby create new realities.

    Intellectuals and scholars tend to believe that ideas come first, which then lead to new political, social, economic, psychological realities.  This does happen, but it is the exception.  As a rule, theory does not precede practice.  Its role is to structure and codify already proven practice.  Its role is to convert the isolated and “atypical” from exception to “rule” and “system,” and therefore into something that can be learned and taught and above all, into something that can be generally applied.

ACTION POINT: Are the premises that you base your decisions on obsolete?  Do you need a new intellectual framework to win in the market, as it exists today?

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 12 , Page 14 

The Daily Drucker: January 11 – Management and Theology

Management always deals with the nature of Man, and with Good and Evil.

Management always lives, works and practices in and for an institution, which is a human community held together by a bond: the work bond.  And precisely because the object of management is a human community held together by the work bond for a common purpose, management always deals with the nature of man and (as all of us with any practical experience have learned) with Good and Evil, as well.  I have learned theology as a practicing management consultant than when I taught religion.

ACTION POINT: Do you have any colleagues who are truly evil?  Is there anything you can do about it?

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, January 11 , Page 13