How to get management knowledge from books to practice
I read an interesting blog today talking about the problem with management books and how they don't do a good job transferring knowledge from paper to practice.
Authors fail to place their book (or their trademarked strategy they hope turns into a movement/fad) in the appropriate context. Most books just take a few good ideas from decades old practices add a new name and leave off all references to the deep meaning that originally was there.
Are management books over-rated? Are they relevant to the practising manager?
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Mike,
I think the author of the blog dies make some valid points. Many management books don't offer anything new (altough that's not necessarily a bad thing if the author believes the ideas are still valid and wants to present them in a way which will be relevant and accessible to managers today). Some do offer 'quick fixes' which turn out not to be magic bullets when people try to apply them - maybe because they don't follow the recipe blindly without taking a broader view of what is involved or maybe because the ideas need to be adapted to the specific circumstances.
The aim of CMI's Management Book of the Year competition is to identify books which really do help managers in their work and personal development. I(See http://www.managementbookoftheyear.org.uk ) I've just been reading 'Managing' by Henry Mintzberg which won last year's competition. The author's aim was to look at what managers actually do and it's based on a study of a day in the working life of 29 managers from a range of sectors, countries and management levels. There's a strong emphasis in the book on the importance of context - he argues that the recent focus on the heroic leader puts too much emphasis on the individual and not enough on the organisational context. He's also very clear about not being able to offer an answer in five easy steps as to how the managers he studied were able to "create or sustain healthy organizational families" but offers instead a framework for considering it.
It would be interesting to hear from managers who've read the books whether they found it helpful - CMI members can borrow copies from the CMI library - just ring 01536 207315 or email bookloans@managers.org.uk .
It would also be great to hear which other books they really have found helpful in their work - this would help us in selecting the right books to buy for the CMI library..
Greetings
Mintzbergs book Managers not MBA's identified the refelctive/interactive process as a key element. I suspect most of us know the value of it but at work often there is no 'venue/time' for an individual to bounce ideas (possibly from books) and to develop or hear of others' attempts/efforts - possibly the role for external mentors here?. Yes context is significant
I suspect some are activist in personality and willing to try whereas reflective/theorist types like me find it harder to jump in and risk experimenting.
In terms of personal benefit I found David Allen's Getting Things Done an imensely practical book. Also the diary planner pattern in Covey's 7 habits resonated with me.
Paul
You make a good point Paul. Many management books seem to focus very much on cultural issues, or at least issues that take a degree of seniority to implement. If a company doesn't have a culture whereby good ideas arrive from anywhere within that company then it would appear very difficult for someone lower down the hiearachy to make any difference.