The fact remains that in modern society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, and especially of business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will. Government is no longer capable, as political theories still have it, of being the “sovereign” and the “guardian of the common good” in a pluralist society of organizations (Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, p. 325).
Management and Society
Jul 19, ’11
10:46 PM
Ten Organizations
Aug 24, ’10
4:52 PM
Had my first day of class today. What an unusual experience to be sitting in class again after a long hiatus. The title of the class is “Design in Management” and the structure and content (from a glance at the syllabus) is similar to the DMOC class at CMU. Parts of the class include “The Art of Management” and, of course, “The Nature of Design.”
The question I want to address in today’s post is personal and it’s an exercise to see how relevant the idea of organizations is. How much do organizations impact my life? It stems from something that was addressed in passing during today’s class (that all of those in the room could probably jot down and discuss at least 10 orgs in our lives) along with this article I came across the other day. Drucker called management “the most important innovation of the 20th century,” and I am certainly – to an extent – a product of the 20th century. So the question – what are 10 organizations that are relevant to me?
- Institution of family (wife, mama, papa, brother, in-laws)
- Local church (also an institution and probably better described as an organism rather than an organization), other churches from my past, other Christians
- My friends
- My physical environment (the greater Cleveland area, Ohio)
- My country & trans-national country (Korean America/Korean diaspora, America, political association)
- My education (various universities)
- My work (Marriott International, past jobs and professional networks)
- My life brands (Apple, Whole Foods, JCrew, PNCBank, Coca-Cola Company, Moleskin, etc)
- My digital environment (Facebook, WordPress, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc)
- My interests & hobbies (music, design, food, etc)
What’s striking is that one could easily write a college essay saying that the accumulation of these 10 organizations makes up what is called my identity. However, I’d like to think that my identity transcends the wrapping of these organizations. I’ve also noticed that the resulting list is different from what I intended to do – I thought the exercise would yield the top 10 brands in my life but it ended up as a list of major groupings rather than individual brands. I suppose this framework reflects the way I want to view organizations since individual brands are constantly changing in my life. This makes this list more stable (i.e. individual friends may change but friends as a group will always be a vital organization). I also wonder why I separated the digital from the “real” physical environment. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two categories merged in the years ahead.
A Painting of a Dying _____
Mar 10, ’08
1:16 AM
Today, I heard a story. A group of church elders commissioned an artist to paint pictures of a dying church. I suppose they wanted to move their congregation members by showing what they don’t ever want to be. However, when the artist produced a set of paintings, they were shocked to see a nice cathedral with towering steeples, expensive chandeliers in the auditorium, an extravagant “fellowship hall,” recreation room, and everything fanciful. The paintings even had groups of people all dressed up nicely coming in and out of the building.
When asked why he didn’t have an image of a run-down building with weeds and broken windows, the image they had had in mind, he responded that the type of death for a church is not such a deterioration, but a spiritual decaying. A church may have it’s people, activities, and nice facilities, but if the spirit is lost, all is lost.
I think about how this relates to the enterprise of design and what some in the design world call “4th order” design, that is, the design of organizations and ideas/thoughts. George Nelson, the renown designer, believed that organizations were the greatest design products of the 20th century. As much as designers create “posters” (graphic design) and “toasters” (industrial design), these products are made possible by organizations and corporations. Can we drive around our Toyota Camrys without the colossal organization (whatever organization means) that “builds” it?
Like the image of a dying church, have many organizations have already lost their soul, their essence? Is there a need for change, and can designers play a role in such change?
Thoughts to consider:
- Managing Design : companies have been doing this for quite some time, managing the various creative departments of their organization.
- Designing Management : Oooo. Sounds so much more interesting, doesn’t it? I’ll post more on this later …