Why have there been advances in virtually every technology invented in the last 100 years, yet management is woefully out of date? At the 2009 World Business Forum, where ExecuNet exclusively reported, strategist and innovator Gary Hamel asked the delegates, "Could technology management change in this century the way it changed in the last century? Almost all organizations are running on 19th century management systems."

Management was created, the author and co-founder of the Management Innovation Lab at the London Business School said, to "get people to show up every day and do the same job over and over again like robots."

"Management innovation," he continued, "is anything that changes the way work gets done in a dramatic way. We need a revolution in management. The challenge is a radical alternative to the status quo."

"The hierarchy is still intact; big leaders appoint little leaders; resources are allocated from the top. The technology of management varies very little from firm to firm. That's why executives can easily go from company to company."

"The world is becoming more turbulent faster than organizations are becoming more resilient," he said, and these new challenges will determine who wins and who loses in the years ahead. In the short period between 2001 and 2007 alone, there were dramatic increases in the world's population, energy consumption and usage of Internet addresses, which all affect the future of business.

The cost of staying the same has not yet outweighed the cost to do things differently, because, Hamel pointed out, "Right now, the way we change is too expensive; it's infrequent, inflated and convulsive."

So, how do you break ingrained systems and deconstruct processes without losing efficiency? To begin, look to the skills that stimulate engagement, create value and demand that we change management principles. "No more than 20 percent of employees are fully engaged in their work," said Hamel, equating the statistic to 80 percent of students not learning and 80 percent of patients dying.

There are three unique capabilities, initiative, passion and creativity, "that [one] cannot be commanded to bring to work every day. Our job is to build a work climate and sense of purpose that will elicit passion, creativity and initiative. Managers make sure people do what they need to do, but we need to create organizations that bring out the best, challenges them and encourages them to bring those amazing qualities to work."

Breaking down barriers and eliminating positional power will grant employees the freedom to bring their best strengths into the workplace, emulating the management innovation that organically emerged on the Internet and enabled people to gain power by adding value.

The future of management has no hierarchy, no titles but plenty of leaders, and is a place where commitments are voluntary. It is where:

• Everyone gets heard
• Power is granted from below
• Capability counts more than credentials
• Individuals are richly empowered with information
• Authority is fluid and contingent on value added
• Resources are free to follow opportunities
• Ideas compete on an equal footing
• Communities are self-defining

"You won't make change by benchmarking the Fortune 500," Hamel said. "You have to challenge dogma, explore the fringe and experiment."

Hamel challenged: "It's your responsibility to put together the management process. What will it look like? How would the management model you come up with compare to the organization you work with now?"

Tell us how you envision a new management model. What are some examples of management innovation that you've seen work well?

Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, the leading business network for senior executives, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content strategy across ExecuNet's online and offline publications and webinar programming. She also writes and produces the company's widely cited and highly recognized research project, the annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report.

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