CONCLUSION

TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF MANAGEMENT THINKING

To love an idea, is to love a little more than you should

Jean Rostand

What can finally be said about management?

It defines our daily work, the rhythm of our days and the methods by which we are assessed,
monitored and recognised.

In recent years, one of the major objectives has been to encourage change, our change.
Training courses are organised, audit firms are consulted. The talk is of developing
flexibility and employability.

But management cannot advocate for change if it does not change itself. It cannot obtain the
results it expects if it negates the principles it claims to uphold. How to achieve greater
creativity and diversity when processes are standardised? How to promote flexibility if we
multiply rules and procedures? How to encourage risk-taking if we do not tolerate errors and
experiments?

Leaders and managers play a key role in the daily definition of management. They can
incorporate complexity in management tools and managerial values.

But this challenge involves changing our own representations of management, the way we
work, think and behave.

For this, a multiplication of links with the environment is essential. The experience of
customers, suppliers, public institutions, the influence of universities, researchers and
competing thoughts enrich shared perceptions. Exchange with partners external to our
business, but familiar with complex situations, is an important source of inspiration and
action. Their modes of organisation, tools of operation and values can help to better identify
effective strategies in complex situations. They regenerate management practices and
capacity for action.

Encouraging dialogue and experimentation, managers allow individuals to confront other

realities and to transform their perception of what management is.

Complexity confounds managerial perceptions:

- Knowledge of people in the field outstrips that of the planners
- Qualitative methods become more relevant than quantitative processes
- Operational imperatives are overtaken by the need to explore
- Movement and change become more widespread
- Individuals come face to face with their human responsibilities
- The idea of a universal truth is relativised
- Management changes from a directive to a support role
1. From planners to activists

Complex situations highlight the capacity for action of managers and employees working in
the field.

In many sectors, the concentration of structures and the creation of national or regional
directorates tend to cut managers off from the operational base. Decision-making systems are
regulated by accounting and administrative criteria, foreign to specific issues.

Management of complex situations requires managers to remain “connected” with changes in

the environment and reduce the gap between the time of the changes and adaptation decisions.

What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

- Adopt strategies allowing you to stay in contact with the operational base: relationships
of trust with certain operators, attending meetings, regular visits, listening time, asking for
opinions, in-house “training” enabling individuals to understand each other’s jobs (e.g. for
three days I adopt my interlocutor’s role).
- Organise meetings with various stakeholders in your environment (suppliers, partners,
customers, public authorities) to understand precisely their views and create links allowing
you to be promptly informed of any problems
- Doubt the sustainability of actions and decisions, stay “in touch” to ensure that they are
still relevant

2. From quantitative surveys to qualitative studies

Companies are increasingly turning to internal studies and investigations.

Conventional methods use mainly quantitative and standardised tools. Questionnaires are
drawn up and submitted to the greatest number and analysed by internal groups or audit firms.
Results are presented as a percentage and broken down into objectives to be achieved (39% of
managers say... 67% of customers prefer...).

Qualitative surveys are much more suited to complex situations, with in-depth interviews
replacing questionnaires. The wealth of information focuses more on the components of
complex social interactions.

What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

Where quantitative surveys are conducted:

- Do not take important decisions based on the mere reading of the statistical results
- Ask about the methods of calculating the results
 - Do not hesitate to ask for a copy of the questionnaire
- Ask your employees close under what conditions they responded to the questionnaire

Prioritise qualitative studies:

- Have the results presented in the form of global interactions, systems, logical actors,
influential groups, paradoxes
- Conduct your own in-depth interviews

3 From exploitation to exploration

In a task-based approach, objectives and the means of achieving them are known and
understood. The operation enables the optimisation of proven methods and achieves the
desired results. In this context, choices and decisions are guided by the search for
improvement.

More complex situations are more suited to a discovery-based approach. Goals are defined
but the means to achieve them may change. They must be adaptable at any time according to
the vicissitudes of the environment. Adjustments require the constant exploration of new ways
and new methods. Objectives may change, opportunities may influence initial decisions.

What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

- Prefer chaotic actions and choices to lack of action

- Treat errors as invaluable sources of progress
- Do not be wait to be reassured in order to move forward
- Encourage those around you by daring to embark on new projects
- Cultivate solidarity in the face of difficulty and the unknown
- Do not judge things to be impossible if you have not tried them
- Do not engage in what you already know how to do

4 From stasis to movement

Complexity involves unpredictable, fast and unstable movement. Roundabout journeys,

bifurcations, variations of pace and direction are possible. A company witnesses explosive
growth, then is suddenly confounded by a new technology, competition is heightened, but its
position is maintained by a sudden and beneficial takeover.

In this context, managers must constantly evolve and transform themselves. Expectations are
not only related to technical and managerial skills but also to human and psychological
dimensions.
 What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

- Management is not just a productivity issue but also a human and psychological one.
- The issue is not individuals’ current skills levels, but their ability to evolve.
- Without the improvement of individual skills, a company cannot develop
- Improvement and development are only possible if individuals and companies risk
challenging their existing capabilities.
- Everything offers material for learning, even if its initial value is not visible

5 From dependence to responsibility

By accepting the basic principle of chance, complexity offers the individual the ability to
influence the surrounding environment. It offers managers a share of freedom and
responsibility by which they can act and decide the future of their environment. Complexity
therefore implies a certain responsibility, an ethical and moral questioning.

Management of complex situations involves accounting for routine work matters, without
which actions and decisions can lose their global meaning and purpose.

What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

- What are the psychological and social costs of actions taken?

- What are the key aims of the business, my daily activities?
- What values underlie my choices?
- What does being ethical mean in my business?
- Are we pursuing the same goals?
- What can I offer that is different?
- To what extent (however small) can I change my surroundings?
- Is it really risky to question the meaning of decisions?

6 From universal to complex truth

Beyond daily challenges, complexity raises many political, social and philosophical questions.
Recognition of its principles has an impact on the very definition of what is right and wrong,
of what may or may not be controlled, our views of the world and the individual’s place in it.

Universality Complexity

Truth An objective truth exists beyond The truth results from interactions
individual subjectivities. between cultures, the history of society
and individual psychology. It is multiple
The truth is by definition universal. and relative.
 The existence of a single truth is itself a
complex question, to which religions
and scientists alike can offer no certain
response.

The world The world can be explained. The world cannot be understood by
Each of its aspects can be isolated analysing its various elements.
and analysed. Interactions between various
components produce something greater
General principles and universal than their simple sum.
laws exist and govern the operation
of the planets, the economy and The world cannot be understood as a
human psychology. whole, the human mind cannot conceive
of it in its entirety.

People People depend on their Individuals are involved in the

environment. They are determined construction of the world around them.
by their living conditions. Although they are influenced by their
environment, they nevertheless have a
certain room for manoeuvre.

Their personality and subjectivity are

active.

Intelligence Intelligence depends on the ability Intelligence is the ability to devise

to link events, identify cause and original solutions based on specific
effect relationships, identify causes contexts.
so as to predict consequences and Intuition, experimentation, creativity,
obtain generalisable and reusable the ability to transform experience into
results. Reason guides intelligence. knowledge and the ability to create
common meaning despite the
complexity of situations, are essential
manifestations of intelligence.

Actions Actions must be directed by clearly Actions are never mandatory or certain.
defined goals. The possibilities of achieving the same
result are many. And some actions may
The search for simplicity and have identical opposite results.
clarity must enable actions to be
repeated in the most effective way Actions can never be completely
possible. mastered. Their consequences involve
an unexpected element.
When a goal is set, the actions
suggest themselves, the success of Situations cannot be generalised, they
the goal dictates that certain actions must be treated individually.
be implemented.

The future The future can be predicted and The future holds surprises that cannot be
anticipated by extrapolating anticipated. It has an element of chance
 sequences of events. and cannot be integrated and controlled.

What type of managerial thinking should be promoted?

Consider management tools with care:

- They cannot control the reality that surrounds them
- They are always partial and incomplete
- They cannot usually reflect paradoxes, ambiguities, uncertainties
- They rarely consider several possible solutions
- They are reassuring but sometimes blinding

Consider individuals as key players and builders of the environment:

- They possess infinite variety and richness
- Their psychological complexity is close to the complexity of the environment
- They possess under-utilised resources
- Confrontation may lead to innovative solutions
- Deadlocks can derail entire projects

7 From directiveness to support

Traditionally, the will of managers and their leaders dictate the overall managerial process.
Performance objectives are defined beforehand. The process itself is continually monitored and
improved, with regular feedback helping determine the effectiveness of the actions and
approach the target.

COMPANY
Feedback

LEAD

PLAN ORGANISE CONTROL PERFORMANCE

Management today involves more a capacity to support than a directive approach, the primary
performance criterion being the ability to grow and continually balance change and stability.

ENVIRONMENT
Permanent adjustment

SUPPORT

DEFINE SEIZE AND CREATE BUILD

OBJECTIVES CREATE MEANING AND AND SURVIVE
OPPORTUNITIES KNOWLEDGE

Overall, managerial approaches are readjusted. Neither top-down nor directive, they become
supportive, continually adjusting their own desires and the forces of the environment.

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