Not a popular profession
I’ve always been a ‘managerialist’- a dirty word, I know.
But I’ve been a managerialist because I am fascinated by good management.
Bad management is just annoying, if not disgusting, in the way we always find cultural incompetence dispiriting – dirtying. Yuck.
So I don’t necessarily love managers. In the way, I don’t necessarily love cricketers but I appreciate a well played game that entertains us.
I just like watching managers. I like figuring out what they do. And I like it when we can spot how to simplify operations.
- It’s fun to figure out some back-room system that makes life for people on the front line a lot easier.
- It’s fun to figure out a set of shelves that cut out 15 minutes of daily rummaging in filing cabinets and operate simultaneously as a kanban system, alerting us to when we need to reorder.
- It’s fun to automate a clerical system so something repetitive can be dispensed in with 1% of the work.
- It’s fun to throw out a computer system and use a simple diary to record what we do because that is easier.
But our fun should always result in ways that let people do their jobs more easily and more effectively.
An indecipherable profession
Of course, people don’t always say thank you. They might not have a strong sense of how a little order in the background cuts down a lot of day to day irritation.
Yet, it is fun to watch them perform more smoothly and more elegantly as a result.
Who has written on the selling of management consultancy?
I don’t recall reading anything about the relationship between people who sell management ideas and the people they sell them too.
Anyone? Or is this just one particular case of selling services?
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