A common observation at business conferences is that the pace of change is dizzyingly fast. There is an alternative view: that it is agonizingly slow.
To be more specific: while innovation in information technology races ahead, business and economic reporting systems are still based primarily on the quarterly report – not much more sophisticated than Luca Paciola’s innovation of double-entry book-keeping in the 15th Century. Our politics is the 18th Century ‘left-right’ perspective, which is hopeless for addressing the challenges of weak governance and ecological degradation.
The clash between rapid technological development in IT, and conservatism in reporting, governance and politics, has resulted in some disastrous change programs in recent decades, as this recent blog in the Chartered Management Institute observes:
…not all innovation is effective. Some strategic errors in recent decades appeared to be modernisation at the time. Examples include the ‘business process re-engineering’ fad which ‘forgot the people’ and ignored the huge economic contribution of employee engagement. Another is securitisation in financial services, which was intended to reduce risk but sometimes has had the opposite effect.
A good starting point would be to implement, if not 21st Century management ideas; at least those from the 20th Century, which have emphasized the benefits of teamwork, strong leadership and interdependence. This excerpt from New Normal, Radical Shift observes:
Richard Kwiatkowski of Cranfield University has pointed out that many of the current principles of leadership were well established nearly a century ago, though often with different terminology. And a little while before this period, the remarkable speaker and author Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) demonstrated the importance of communication, intelligent leadership and harnessing informal networks within the complexity of the enterprise. What an historic tragedy that Milton Friedman, not Mary Parker Follett, has been the most influential figure on contemporary management practice in the past century!
Radical Shift 