2009 lessons that people managers cannot ignore

PETER Drucker (1909 to 2005), the famous American management guru was vocal about the distinction between efficiency and effectiveness when he told us that “efficiency is doing the job right, effectiveness is doing the right job.”

To illustrate this principle more strongly at the local level, I’d like to review what I’ve written in the past year and summarize some basic lessons that managers cannot afford to disregard. Here’s the list preceded here by its applicable buzzwords:

• Agency Theory: Management is ignorant of what’s happening around.
• Alladin Factor: You can’t receive anything unless you ask for it.
• Amortality: Pay peanuts and get dumb monkey managers.
• Buckyborgs: Downsizing could be made painlessly possible.
• Centrality: Bottlenecks are supposed to be limited only to bottles.
• Crealogical: We are blinded by proximity to our problems.
• Decoupling: It’s possible to grow without damaging the environment.
• Demassing: Solve the problem from another perspective.
• Ecological Intelligence: Business is using “green” for wrong reasons.
• Equity Theory: It’s possible to motivate people without paying big money.
• Future Search: People can cooperate even in the most complex situation.
• Giffen Goods: Man consumes more even as its price rises.
• Green HR: An organization needs thousands of employee ideas.
• Hawthorne Effect: Behave as if you’re being watched.
• Heijunka: Keep production batch size small to save on costs.
• Matthew Effect: Think of ways to make the government irrelevant.
• Minnovating: Eat, sleep, and breathe simple ideas but implement it.
• Monozukuri: Excellence starts with time management.
• Multiple Intelligence: Use your brain, not the taxpayer’s money.
• Open Space Technology: Allow divergent views to solve complex problems.
• Performance Engineering: Demand excellent job from the humble workers.
• Peter Principle: If you are in a hole, stop digging.
• Proactive Downsizing: Hit management where it matters the most.
• Satisfice: Don’t accept something as good enough.
• Scenario Planning: Challenge conventional way of thinking.
• Sisyphean Challenge: Do it again but with enough passion this time.
• Slow Food: Eat responsibly, live healthy, respect the environment.
• Social Loafing: Man performs low in a group than working alone.
• Vector Principle: Lawyers and engineers become fools in government.
• Zero Defect: Prevent defects rather than finding and solving them.

Writing these pieces for the past year was more than enjoyable for me. It became doubly pleasant when I summarize them as a year-ender. And I quickly learned that if I wanted to know what was going on in many organizations, it was best to talk to the people who really knew the secret to effective management.

I’m referring, of course, to the janitors, the messengers, the receptionists, the company drivers, and the security guards. Truly, it was important to identify these people and to be on the right side with them at the place where it matters the most—at the workplace—so that we can better understand what the buzzwords are all about.

May you have an efficient and effective management work in 2010! –REYLITO A.H. ELBO, Manila Times

Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Feedback may be sent to < kairoshq@info.com.ph This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >