Innovation is not a top down exercise. You don’t innovate by creating structured documents full of pretty flow charts that don’t really describe the problem. You don’t innovate by spending three weeks on the world’s greatest specification document. You innovate by getting your hands dirty and diving in. You get things done by occasionally throwing out the rulebook and just doing.
Management discourages all of this by its very nature. Management is maintained by rules and structure. Anyone who thinks of themselves as a “manager” is missing the point and has stopped doing the work that leads to breakthroughs.
A group led by a manager develops a brand and style. They eventually adopt a single way of thinking (usually as dictated by the person at the top) which leads to groupthink, self-supported flawed thinking, and nothing unique.
If you come across pointless management for the sake of management take this opportunity to blow it up. Play Devil’s Advocate for three weeks and keep them all on the run. Don’t let them be comfortable with their comfortable structure and status quo. Don’t let them keep you from doing.
Blow all that management away so that freedom to think can live again.
1 thought on “Management is dead. Long live innovation.”