{"id":1082,"date":"2019-07-04T13:49:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T13:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1082"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"much-of-what-we-call-management-today-consists-of-making-it-difficult-for-people-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/much-of-what-we-call-management-today-consists-of-making-it-difficult-for-people-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMuch of what we call management today consists of making it difficult for people to work.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Hamel is a management expert and author who talks extensively about the need to update our management systems.\u00a0 He points out that most of the management systems in place today were \u201cinvented\u201d over a hundred years ago at the dawn of the industrial revolution when 90% of the population was still involved in agriculture and the average manufacturing company employed fewer than four people.\u00a0 But as that began to change . . . as factories became larger and as mass production came into play . . . we needed a way to organize untrained farmers and craftsmen into efficient, effective, and productive teams.\u00a0 Hence, management systems were born to handle the new demands of the Industrial Age . . . to make our output consistent and predictable.\u00a0 But between those early management beginnings and now, the world has changed.\u00a0 We now have a highly educated workforce and technologies at our disposal that those early management pioneers could not have even imagined.\u00a0 Yet we\u2019re still using the same management systems and concepts that were developed over 100 years ago.\u00a0 Hamel urges us to look at how we\u2019re managing people with an eye toward bringing our management systems into line with the realities of the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 For more on this, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of what we call management today consists of making it difficult for people to work.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~ Peter Drucker<\/em><\/p>\n

Many of the things that distinguish modern business from its predecessors are so-called \u201cmodern miracles\u201d . . . the internet, computers, air travel, television, and the like.\u00a0 But an even bigger difference is in the workforce we have today vs. the workforce of the 1890s.\u00a0 Back then, illiteracy was a significant problem.\u00a0 As recently as 1940, less than half of Americans over the age of 25 held high school diplomas. Today, 90% of the over 25 age group hold high school diplomas.\u00a0 Yet the way we manage people today is more consistent with an illiterate workforce than a highly educated one.\u00a0 Our people still need effective leaders, but they don\u2019t necessarily need to be managed as much as they once did.<\/p>\n

If you want to preside over a management system that\u2019s appropriate for the workforce of the 21st<\/sup> century, here are some management practices you should consider adopting:<\/p>\n