ITLP Kotter Presentation

In 1977, management theory was all about scientific management, time-motion studies. And a guy named Abraham Zaleznik wrote a paper pointing out that this was only half to story. The human side - vision, inspiration and human motivation. Leadership is different from management.

Thirteen years later, John Kotter pointed out that these two systems were complementary - both were necessary and the same person can do both. And he dissected the three things required in running organizations - deciding what needs to be done, organizing people to do them, and ensuring they get done - and described the differences in approach...

- Planning and budgeting vs Setting direction;
- Organizing and staffing vs Aligning people ;
- Controlling activities and solving problems vs motivating and inspiring.

How does this play out? The common theme is that management is about creating order and stability, leaders promote change.

We all wear our comfortable managerial hats - these skills have served us well and may even be ingrained and routine. We plan and budget, we organize our staff under those plans and budgets, and then we monitor all the activity and help people solve problems.

It's not enough. Because it's all about methodically doing the same thing as before.

When we plan and budget, are the objections that we plan for the same as before? Is the previous direction still the right one? How do you examine that? Where do the new ideas come from? And how does the organization move toward them?