[MUSIC] Welcome to week five of Managing the Company of the Future. In this first segment, we're going to be looking at the transition from the firm, the company, to the individual. And the changes in role of individual managers as we look at companies experimenting with new ways of working becoming better at working. And this transition actually mirrors my own personal develop my own personal voyage because I've written two books in this area. The first is called, Reinventing Management. And really the first four modules of this, of this course, have really all been about that book, Reinventing Management. In this first, last module, we're going to be talking about my more recent book, which is called, Becoming a Better Boss. And it's all about reinventing the role of the individual manager within the system on the basis that management both re, refers to the system as a whole as well as, if you like, to the actions of the individual. Let's start with a little thought experiment to, to make this real. Think back the last time you as an individual, were fully engaged and highly motivated in your work, and that could be a group project at university, it could be some sort of some sort of piece of work you were doing in the place where you work. It could be anything. Where you were really engaged and motivated, what were the key features of that activity? Pause to think about that. Perhaps even put this video on a hold, just for, for 90 seconds, while you jot down a few things. When I ask this question to groups of people senior executives, junior managers, front line workers. I get a very, very consistent set of responses. People say, I'm engaged and motivated when, when I get challenging work to do. When I'm given a lot of freedom to do it my own way. When it seems to be somehow important to the organization. When I've got good colleagues, people never talk about when I'm well paid, people, you know they don't really talk about the kind of technical aspects of it. What they talk about is those, essentially those intrinsic drivers of motivation that we spent a lot of time on during week three of the course. So very simple little thought experiment, that's part one of the experiment. Part two of the thought experiment is the following. Imagine that your own employees, the people who work for you, have just done that little activity. And they've said this is what makes me engaged and committed and excited about my work. And, and, and imagine that a, a, a useful definition of management is enabling your employees to do their best work. Now we, we obviously had a different definition of management earlier on in this course. But it is not unreasonable to say that one of the ways of defining management is about enabling our employees to do the best work. To, to give that discretionary effort that makes them go the extra mile. So, put your manager's hat on, and ask yourself, if that, if those are the sorts of things that my employees get excited about, what is my job? What is my job as a manager if I want my employees to be engaged and motivated? Again, perhaps put a pause on the video tape right now, and just note down a few thoughts. When I do this exercise with people, these are the sorts of answers I get. My job as a manager is really very simple, it boils down to three or four basic things. It is about giving people a sense of direction. It's giving them some sort of purpose, some sort of reason to do the project, to do the activity. It's about giving them enormous space. It's about giving them freedom to do, to do things the way that they choose to do them, rather than me standing over them all the time, micromanaging them, telling them every last part of the story. Third, it's about providing support when needed. When I say support, I mean things like advice. I mean things like providing access to resources when there are things that they need, they need help with. It's things of that ilk. And then finally when a piece of work is done, giving people the recognition and praise that comes with it. Now before you think well that's a very soft approach to management, let me be very clear. If you have motivated people, if you have people who want to be in work, actually your job is not to use some sort of stick or carrot, your job is simply to give them the space to do it. This is what we always call this theory Y model of management. Of course, there are times where we have to to, to oversee a little bit to make sure people are not taking advantage of us. But, you know, the vast majority of your time as a manager, particularly when you've got intrinsically motivated people, is to do these things. So, that is the thought experiment about what good management looks like.
