My favourite Drucker quote ...

... seems appropriate to bring out and dust off given the current conversations around Enterprise 2.0:

In a knowledge economy there are no such things as conscripts - there are only volunteers. The trouble is we have trained our managers to manage conscripts

I was lucky enough to hear Drucker say this in person many years ago when I was staring out as Head Of Knwoledge Management at the BBC and I have to say I reckon it stood me in good stead.

My other two constant companion quotes both came from Dave Snowden:

You can't manage knowledge but you can create a knowledge ecology

and

The only way to manage a complex environment is to apply simple rules. If you apply complex rules to a complex environment you end up with a mess.

Comments

[Adriana]

Love the Drucker quote, I just wish it could shut up the corporate control freaks as effectively as it inspires us.

The Snowden's quote is brilliant too, reminds me of the 'paradox of complexity'. I touched upon it here (apologies for the URL, not sure comments html enabled): http://mediainfluencer.co.uk/media_influencer/2007/03/the_social_impa.html I find it increasingly relevant to mention as more people (and businesses) are becoming aware of the web's complexity and want to impose ever greater control over it.

[Euan Semple]

Good post and sorry I missed the gig.

I am ploughing my way through The Wealth Of Networks at the moment and though not an easy read he is very interesting on the various flavours of democracy and how they might be affected by what is happening on the web at the moment.

[Michael Walsh]

Great management book - Myself and Other More Important Matters

Reviewed here by Simon Caulkin, The Observer's Management Editor.

Quote: "In the same way, what we need now is, he says, not a new theory of organisations but the wisdom to observe the hidden verities beneath the fads and techno-floss. The central message of all his books, he notes, is that 'organisations are not machines ... They are living communities of individuals.'"

[Lee Bryant]

nice - all very pertinent!

[Euan Semple]

Forgive the name dropping Michael but I have been lucky enough to meet Charles Handy a couple of times now and have enjoyed reading the rest of his books. He very much gets the web 2.0 sort of world and in fact at the last meeting I was at with him he made people half his age look like old fuddy duddies!

[Michael Walsh]

I'm impressed Euan! He reads wonderfully!

In the same vein - Management F-Laws

Again, reviewed by Simon Caulkin.

Quote: "... 'The less managers understand about their business, the more variables they require to explain it'. Yes, that figures. But the deeper point is that it explains why companies are unable to act: not understanding what's relevant, managers demand all the information they can get, and a massive oversupply of irrelevant information becomes a much worse management problem than a shortage of the relevant.

In turn, this serves as illustration to f-Law 73, addressing the difference between wisdom, understanding, knowledge, information and data: 'To managers an ounce of wisdom is worth a pound of understanding'. Unfortunately, managers pay far more attention to knowledge, information and data - the least important content of their minds - because they are 'hard facts', and almost none to wisdom - the most important."

[Owen]

Great quote. Must frame that one up!

[Nigel Parkes]

"Head Of Knwoledge Management" LOL Euan!!I've just finished Benkler - took me 8 months because I could only read 4 or 5 pages at a time before I had to put it down and think!However, I wonder if 'democracy' is the right term to describe what's emerging - digitocracy anyone?

[Adriana]

Yeah, I downloaded Benkler's book a few months ago and it's sitting on my hard drive. By Jove, it's hard to read and I say this as someone who has had to plough through a fair share of academic verbiage. But well worth it I wager. I guess, we have grown lazy on the crop of many bloggers who can also write. :)

[Nigel Parkes]

Yes, full credit to Benkler for putting his mouth where his money is and making the book available to download for free.Shame about his website design, I wonder how many people haven't realised that you need to click on the book icon to find the wiki?

[Euan Semple]

True but having found the book hard to read while able to lug it around with me in physical form the thought of trying to read it on a computer screen fills me with dread!

[Nigel Parkes]

It's a new selling point! a full cardiovascular workout with every copy!!