Category: 10th Global Peter Drucker Forum

Make Space for Humans
by Esther Clark

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As schools explore how to educate students and prepare them for a future that we can only imagine, organizations have similar questions. How do we create a product or service to address the needs of markets that don’t exist yet and how can we develop the skills required to do this? The focus of most organizations is on developing skills and know-how to address different scenarios. Rote memorization of facts or of the latest management theory is useless if it is not combined with the skills and empathy needed to adapt to new or uncertain circumstances. As humans, we need to think, discern, and curate rather than just memorize and consume. It’s what makes us […]

The Role of a Manager Has to Change in 5 Key Ways
by Joseph Pistrui & Dimo Dimov

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“First, let’s fire all the managers” said Gary Hamel almost seven years ago in Harvard Business Review. “Think of the countless hours that team leaders, department heads, and vice presidents devote to supervising the work of others.” Today, we believe that the problem in most organizations isn’t simply that management is inefficient, it’s that the role and purpose of a “manager” haven’t kept pace with what’s needed. For almost 100 years, management has been associated with the five basic functions outlined by management theorist Henri Fayol: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. These have become the default dimensions of a manager. But they relate to pursuing a fixed target in a stable landscape. Take away […]

Beyond Budgeting at Equinor: how to become more adaptive and more human
by Bjarte Bogsnes

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Equinor (formerly Statoil) is Scandinavia’s largest company. We have always tried to be a values-based and human-centric organisation, ever since we hit the ground running in 1972 when oil and gas were discovered in Norway. During these great pioneer years, young people just in the door (including myself) were given huge responsibilities. Autonomy, empowerment, collaboration and trust were not necessarily conscious strategies. There was no choice if we wanted to catch up with the international giants that were already on the scene. During years of rapid growth, traditional management processes were also introduced. Brick by brick, this led to increased bureaucracy and rigidity. The gap widened between what we preached about values and leadership and what […]

Before we talk about the human dimension, we need to talk about management itself
by Raymond Hofmann

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In his introduction to the 10th Global Peter Drucker Forum, focussing on the human dimension of management, Richard Straub asks “What place do we give the human in organisations?” and, leaning on Aristotle’s phronesis, argues that “reasserting the human dimension means above all asking the why questions that enable us to ponder deeply who we are, what we do and where we should be going”. He concludes with a strong call to action: “Bearing direct responsibility for confronting these issues in the workplace, management can light the fire – and must do it now, before it is too late.” Worthwhile questions I have no doubt that the Forum, which again brings together the brightest minds […]

Delineating the Human Dimension at Work
by Renuka Abraham

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Management – The Human Dimension – a very valid topic of discussion in the face of businesses scrambling to automate, robotize, and optimize. Remember the days when the human dimension was the only dimension! How did we get to the point that we are debating about this? I asked a couple of colleagues what ‘the human dimension’ meant to them and I got surprisingly different interpretations and perspectives. Was this dispersed knowledge or the so-called Rashomon Effect? Either way, it was quite an eye-opener. Coffee Corner and Watercooler Moments ‘Empathy at the workplace’ was the most common (and obvious) interpretation of the human dimension in management. Often viewed as an antonym of professionalism, empathy has […]

Shifting from Whom to Believe to How to Believe
by Dave Ulrich

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Sometimes deciding whom to believe even when two sides offer differing views of the same event is relatively easy. When a situation involves clear and concrete corroborative evidence, a pattern of behaviors, or compelling witnesses, whom to believe is relatively simple. But frequently, two sides offer differing views about the same event, each with valid reasons for their perspectives. A leader’s intended comments may not represent what followers hear. A customer may experience a product or service in a way the company didn’t intend. A person accused of mistreating another may deny or not acknowledge the charges of the person claiming mistreatment. Two parties to an event may have vastly different memories, understandings, or interpretations […]

When Machines Drive Human Justice!
Arun Nikam

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Even as the main applications of artificial intelligence are currently centered around planning, machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and robotics – a huge potential lies in the areas of reasoning and decision making. Imagine the impact of something like this in the field of law – where everything depends upon analyzing facts, situations, and circumstances in a rational and impartial manner. Imagine that you can process legal data and take it further to the next level – managing law! Imagine, for example, in 2030 if machines start managing law (ML, artificial intelligence) and formulating legal laws? Can machines do it and are we ready to accept it? Imagine, for example in the year […]

Why Machines Make Human Skills More Important, Not Less
by Mark Esposito

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Lately, we have received quite a number of requests asking us to explain further why artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are unlikely to put humans out of work soon. It may be a contrarian position, but we are definitely optimistic about the future, believing that the displacement of labor won’t turn out to be as gloomy as many are speculating. Despite the endless talk on the threat of machines to human jobs, the truth is that, while we have lost jobs in some areas, we have gained them in others. For instance, the invention of automatic teller machines (ATMs), introduced in the 1960s, ought to have eliminated the need for many bank employees in the […]