Recently I was flummoxed during a discussion of current trends in management. Several core beliefs guide my thinking about the best ways to manage projects. They are so deeply held that I rarely stop to think about them explicitly. In the discussion, I rashly took it for granted that other people held similar underlying beliefs, resulting in a disjointed and confused dialog.
Reflecting on that experience, I took time to summarize some of my core beliefs about management. They were forged in the peculiar world of high technology research and development, followed by more years consulting to management in a wide range of industries. Here are five of them.
- Be a pragmatist, not a purist.
- Just enough is often best.
- Plan (enough). Flex (a lot).
- People and relationships trump methodology and tools.
- Micro-management is self-defeating.