They call him “the Boss,” and, not so long ago, rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen contemplated his career and reminisced that:
“We have the only job in the world where the people you went to high school [with] … you’re still with those people…..You live your life with them. You see them grow up. ….. You see them get older. You see their hair go gray. And you’re in the room when they die, you know?”[1][…]
As we consider the concept of knowledge work today, we are faced with several challenges. How do we motivate increasingly independent workers to be part of an organization or a team? How do we measure and evaluate knowledge worker productivity? How do knowledge workers face the ever-changing landscape of AI and associated technologies? Although he has been gone for almost 20 years, Peter Drucker identified the shift towards knowledge work, and left us some very sound advice for navigating the rough waters we now confront.[…]
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1994:
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure! Great to see you! Come in, have a seat. Coffee?”
2024:
“Just a quick question…”
” Sorry, no time! Can you email me about it…?”
What happened? In his Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Peter Drucker noted that a key accomplishment of the 20th century was a fiftyfold increase in the productivity of manual labor. He predicted that the critical contribution of management in the 21st century would be to similarly enhance the productivity of knowledge work. Two decades into the 21st century, however, we are far from realizing this vision.[…]
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As every year, the international management community will meet in Vienna at the Drucker Forum in November to debate the urgent issues of our time. This time, however, the event feels more like a bracket round Drucker Forum topics of recent years – “ecosystems”, “leadership” and “the human dimension”, for example.
All of them can be grouped under the common label of the “Next Management”. A management “next” has long been a necessity, if not a “beyond” that may be more appropriate for multi-disruption – more on that later. In any case, whether continuing linearly or disruptively shaken, management as we know it is creaking under pressure from drivers including technology (AI), new business logics (platform economy, ecosystems) or from a VUCA world that is becoming brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible – BANI. This is the “why?” of change.[…]
In the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), computational power isn’t enough. What we need is Artificial Integrity—a new paradigm that ensures AI systems operate in alignment with human values, prioritizing Integrity over Intelligence, however the latter is used.
AI is like the engine of a car, providing the computational power needed to achieve efficiency and speed in executing tasks. However, just as a car needs steering and braking systems to ensure safety and adherence to the rules of the road, AI requires something more than raw intelligence—it needs the capacity to demonstrate a form of integrity.[…]
Employee engagement has been the buzzword in HR departments and boardrooms worldwide for over two decades. The idea is simple: if we can get employees to feel more engaged at work, they’ll be more productive, more loyal, and more satisfied. Though excellent in theory, we’re no further than we started.
If Peter Drucker were still with us, he might ask whether employee engagement has become a “zombie management” practice—one of those well-intentioned but ultimately counterproductive ideas that should be dead by now yet somehow keeps springing back to life.[…]
The promise of AI for enterprise is that the tools help to simplify manual work and run large scale data analysis. It frees up time for leaders to focus on what matters. How will this change the role of leaders in our organizations?Â
Lei Wang, the first Asian woman to climb the Seven Summits and complete the Explorers Grand Slam, frequently faces tough terrain, wild weather and fear of failure while trying to conquer the world’s highest peaks. In these tricky situations, does she use AI tools to help her make the right decisions in split seconds? She believes even though AI could, it’s important to trust your judgment, rely on your team, and use your training and experience to make quick, smart decisions.[…]
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At the close of the 15th Annual Global Drucker Forum in Vienna, last November, Forum President Richard Straub announced the launch of “The Next Management,” emphasizing the new mindsets and practices required for improved performance in a fast-changing world, and why today’s leaders demand courage and humility to ask “What’s emerging, enduring and eroding for leadership in a post-AI world?”[…]
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