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‘Management’ is political campaigning inside. Leadership is winning campaigns

 March 9, 2016 |  Activism, Change, Leadership and Society, Employee Engagement, Grassroots, HR management, Language, Models and frames, Strategy |  Get Daily Thoughts by Email |  Email This!
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Warning: This statement will be dismissed

But, before you do that, I’d ask you to consider the differences between ‘organizational-business management’ and ‘political campaigning’. I will try to avoid a value judgment. Just invite you to consider the differences, and your mind may do the rest.

Warning 2: my ‘political campaigning’ is modelled on Obama’s

Warning 3: what follows is inevitable caricature and extreme; if you play lots of ‘yes but’, you’ll get bored soon.

  1. Business management, largely, has one message for all: an homogenous mission, vision and directions. Political campaigning is highly segmented; a 60 year old retiring does not get the same message as a 23 year old seeking employment.
  2. Business management tends to be quite obsessed with ‘alignment’ Political campaigning is comfortable with hosting many motivations.
  3. Business management talks a lot. Political campaigning talks a lot as well, but acts more. Their people are called act-ivists for a reason.
  4. Political campaigning is very time limited. Business management is a piece of string.
  5. Political campaigning understands and masters (social) influence. Business management has a narrow view of influence, largely hierarchical ( and when it does accept that there are other types of influence in the organization, it does not know quite well what to do with them)
  6. Business management thrives in formal structures. Political campaigning focuses on grassroots
  7. Business management emphasises ‘people engagement’. Political campaigning emphasises ‘people mobilization’
  8. Business management is vertical (communications, command). Political campaigning is horizontal, transversal, peer-to-peer, tribal.
  9. Business management goes to Harvard. Political campaigning goes to campaign headquarters.
  10. In business management, bad management is not meeting targets. In political campaigning, the opposite of winning is being defeated.

I’ll let you cook this.

For me, the title of this Daily Thought shows my cards. But you don’t have to agree.

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