The Stoos movement is off to a great start. More than 850 people have joined the Stoos Network on LinkedIn since January and the Stoos Stampede in Amsterdam is scheduled for July 6-7, 2012. Still, as with any movement, the enthusiasm felt by many isn’t shared by all. In fact, it appears that the work of Stoos enthusiasts might be ruffling some feathers.
In my opinion, this is undoubtedly unintentional, because every person I’ve met associated with this movement is passionate about fixing the dysfunctions in our organizations today. So what is it about the Stoos message that might not resonate with some people?
I’ve been mulling the message over in search of an answer. In my posts, as well as those written by Jurgen Appelo, Steve Denning and others, the message has been about transforming management. But are we talking about transforming the discipline of management or transforming organizations through better management?
Check out Peter Stevens’ related blog post on this topic: Agile is the Vanguard of the Transformation of Management.
Perhaps, upon reflection and with introspection, we can say that great management is timeless. Isn’t it that we uncover the immutable principles of great management slightly differently in each age? After all, there is nothing in the agile management movement not previously covered and espoused by Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming and Taiichi Ohno.
Should we be talking about transforming management, or should we be aiming to implement timeless best practices in our organizations using the best methods of our age? We can use videoconferencing to achieve real-time collaboration when not collocated. We can implement “commander’s intent” through self-organized teams.
Is great management timeless or not? Do we really keep reinventing management or do we just uncover different ways to manifest principles of great management? What do you think?
