A self-management odyssey – Part 2

In 1997, after seven  years in California, I moved to Florence, Italy. I’d had my habitual frames of reference blown open by the intensity of living in a Fourth Way ‘monastery’ – and now I was keen to take these new ways of being and different ways of doing into ‘real’ life. I wanted to see how new ways of organisation, communication, and collaboration could bring positive change. I was optimistic, perhaps a touch romantic, and naive.

Why Italy? I wanted to live somewhere beautiful and moving to new countries was encouraged by the Gurdjieff/Ouspensky school that I’d become part of (from 1986 – 2008). When I arrived in Italy I didn’t know the language and so the only job open to me was teaching English (and I’d done a bit of preparation for that). My aim was to work as a consultant once my language skills were sufficiently developed. However, I had a pleasant surprise that teaching English opened access to senior executives at the large businesses (national and international), so I got an inside look at what I would describe as Italy’s power culture. The formality and rigidity of the hierarchy was much stronger than what I’d experienced in the UK. It was as far removed from new ways of working as it could possibly be. Trying to navigate this new culture was eye-opening but not in the way I’d hoped (although I have to say that outside of the business world there are so many wonderful aspects of lifestyle and culture). The net result was confusion and frustration on my part and, after five years in Italy, I concluded that my next step was to do an Executive MBA. I wanted to integrate these diverse experiences and equip myself with the knowledge and tools to influence a new approach to being and doing – to make the corporate world a force for good.

In 2002, I moved back to England and set myself up in Berkhamsted so that I would be close to Ashridge Business School. Choosing a business school (apart from the huge cost/investment) is quite a statement of values and priorities. I wanted to study at Ashridge because the programme had a human focus. So, as well as studying classic MBA subjects like Strategy, Finance, Operations and IT, equal weight and importance was placed on People (HR), Leadership, Coaching, Organisational Behaviour, Organisational Design, Learning and Development.

It was also very practical programme as you had to deliver a live consultancy project as part of the course. So it was experiential as well as academic; you had to deliver business value for a paying client and your consultancy report was a ‘live’ dissertation. My client was Barclays plc.

During the MBA four management thinkers had a profound influence; their work signalled what would later become known as the practices that underpin self-management and progressive ways of working. I’ve listed the four below and alongside each person the first book I read. I think this material is still of value today and of course each of them has produced further ground-breaking publications.

• Jeffrey Pfeffer – The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People (1998).

• Gary Hamel – Competing for the Future (1994)

• Rosabeth Moss Kanter: When Giants Learn to Dance (1989)

• Henry Mintzberg: Strategy Safari (1998)

1. Distributing power to frontline staff

2. Self-managed teams

3. Open strategy and harnessing the intelligence of the organisation

4. Emergent strategy

5. Salary transparency

6. Real investment in people – training and  development

7. Employment security

8. Radical honesty.

Earlier this year Gary Hamel was interviewed in the context of revisiting his first book – Competing for the Future. It’s also worth noting that it was Gary Hamel’s 2007 book, The Future of Management, that caught the attention of Zhang Ruimin the founder of Haier Group. And Rumin engaged Gary Hamel as a transformation consultant to help create the Haier organisation/RenDanHeYi model we know today.