Welcome to the Unmanaging Revolution
In the bustling landscape of contemporary workplaces, where knowledge work and talented teams reign supreme, the traditional management playbook appears as outdated as dial-up internet. Enter the groundbreaking concept: “unmanaging.” This innovative approach, as championed by industry visionary Jack Skeels, has become the anthem of high-performance organizations, orchestrating a symphony of increased productivity, elevated quality, and heightened engagement.
The Symphony of Unmanaging
At the heart of this revolution is the abandonment of the antiquated “manager-knows-all” model that harks back to the Industrial Era. Skeels’s call for “unmanaging” is a paradigm shift, a departure from rigid conformity toward an environment that values the insights and creativity of every team member. This departure from the old ways is not just a suggestion — it’s a necessity, a realization that the old managerial ways are like fax machines in a world of instant messaging.
The legacy of over a century of management practices is a paradox: the more we try to manage in the traditional sense, the less productive we become in the fast-paced, dynamic environments of today’s businesses.
Overcoming the Over-Managing Dilemma
Today’s workplaces grapple with an over-managing dilemma. Managers, with echoes of the factory floor still ringing in their ears, often believe they hold the reins to productivity. However, the reality is quite the opposite — productivity is inversely related to the level of managerial activity. It’s a revelation that echoes through the corridors of traditional management philosophies like a clap of thunder in a silent library.
The old factory model, with its empirically verified metrics and clear production lines, offered a framework for effective management. However, in the highly variable landscape of knowledge work, no such metrics exist. How do you guess the time it takes to write a groundbreaking report or develop something that’s never before been built? The answer is elusive, and managers are left relying on estimates that often fall short in busy knowledge work environments.
The lack of objective metrics eliminates a crucial constraint on managerial behavior. Over-managing becomes a slippery slope, intertwined with the errors in poor estimates and the occasional underperformance of workers. It’s a managerial dance where the steps are uncertain, and the consequences are often unforeseeable.
The Agile Revelation: It Taught us that Less is More
Enter the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, a set of techniques initially designed for large-scale software projects but with broader implications for effective management. While the last decade hasn’t been the kindest to Agile methods, the overarching lesson stands strong: less managing equates to more productivity. Software Agile proved that projects and knowledgework organizations get (much) better when managers’ interaction with teams is minimized, emphasizing key moments for sharing understanding, providing feedback, and mentoring.
This core principle sets the stage for “unmanaging,” asserting that today’s workers are not just capable but tremendously so of self-management. Skeels introduces the “Four Key Managerial Moments” a framework that guides this approach:
- The Why Moment: Often neglected but crucial, this moment invites a meeting of minds to address the human instinct to question “why.” It fosters ownership and requires managerial patience, enabling the subsequent “What Moment.”
- The What Moment: In contrast to legacy factory-managing notions, this moment focuses on scope and recognizes that managers need not know more than the workers. It encourages collaboration and understanding for successful delivery.
- The Go Moment: Productivity happens when managers lean back and unmanage during the windows of productivity that workers need. This shift of control to the worker is a powerful motivator, contingent on well-managed Why and What Moments.
- The Grow Moment: Directing actions toward opportunities, inclusion, learning, measurement, reflection, and mentoring, the Grow Moment is often neglected in favor of overmanaging the Go Moment. Balancing these moments is essential for sustained productivity.
The New Metrics of Unmanagement
In the unmanaging revolution, workers become the ultimate barometer of managerial effectiveness. Their intrinsic desire to excel surpasses any managerial metrics. Deloitte’s internal research affirms this, identifying optimal worker enablement (as judged by themselves, not managers) as the strongest factor in success. Unmanaging becomes an art — a synchronization of managerial actions with the needs of workers, unleashing their natural capabilities while sidestepping productivity-killing behaviors.
In his new book, UNMANAGED, Jack Skeels, a former think-tank researcher, decodes the counter-intuitive magic of “Unmanaging”, offering practical and powerful techniques battle-tested in over 200 high-performance organizations. It’s a guide, a compass for leaders and managers navigating the complexities of today’s workplaces, offering a simpler and more powerful way of managing.
Embracing Unmanagement for a Better, Faster, Happier Tomorrow
Unmanaging is more than a just a new management style — it’s a cultural shift. It’s an opportunity to drive massive improvements in quality and success rates, creating not just a productive workplace but a better, more inclusive, and engaged culture.
