Not MBO but WTFO- Working Together For Objectives

The Management by Objectives (MBO) approach to organizational efficiency provided a new way of channelising the human resource of an organization: the key-word in such an approach is “focus” and the basic assumption is that all activities in an organization are purposive and oriented towards the attainment of goals. What you need to do is to define the objectives clearly, prioritise them if necessary, and then focus the entire energy of the organization on their attainment.

Pursuing clearly defined objectives is a sound strategy for cutting down human-effort waste. But, to me the word “management” has always sounded a discordant note. It holds negative connotations that travel from the use of this expression in sentences like

- The thief managed to escape.

- The situation was tricky but he managed it well.   

 - Don’t worry, I’ll manage.

These connotations bring two implications prominently to the mind: first, a situation that needs to be “managed” has in it an element of something gone awry; second, the manager is not just a smart guy but at times somewhat crafty.  These implications create an inherent dichotomy of the managed and the manager, and in the worse manifestations, the lethargic and the extractor, the oppressed and the bully --- the dichotomy becomes more and more severe as you move from one end of the spectrum of organizations to the other.

The word “management” sounds less odd when I hear them in the context of conflict-management, crisis-management, disaster-management etc. But used for the routine work of day-to-day, it seems to introduce a negative element which can be avoided by describing the day-to-day activities of an organization as “working together” and distinguishing these from the trickier situations that need “management” of some sort. Of course, a distinction of this sort would run the risk of emphasizing the trickiness of a tricky situation by labeling it by a different name, but then tricky situations are rarer in a good organization and removing the negative complexion from the normal functioning is a better bargain.

If normal functioning is working together, then how do you define the hierarchy? How do you distinguish the employee-to-employee working-together from that which involves a superior-subordinate relationship? Obviously, the Working-together Approach must do away with words like “management” and “manager” which imply that one person is managing others. Terms like “Coordinator”, “Guide”,  “Hub”, “Node” etc would carry a clearer definition of the role without negative connotation. In the Working Together For Objectives, hierarchy would assume a different meaning. The Coordinator would be like the Server in a computer network, connected to the terminals, distributing work among them, monitoring the progress, providing communication among them and, whenever necessary conducting simultaneous interaction --- what we generally call “a meeting”. If the Server-Coordinator detected a virus in one of the terminals or found that it had been tampered, it would assume a Manager-Control role: it would temporarily disconnect the terminal, study the problem, set it right and then bring the terminal back into the network. This analogy seems to me to be the best to re-define the roles in the changing organizational environment.

My point is: if expressions like “management strategies”, “management styles” etc are replaced with “working-together strategies” and “working-together styles” they will indicate a change of approach which will have a positive impact on the organizational culture. Employees would be enthused to work together with their Coordinator rather than be managed by their Manager. The Coordinator would be seen as the hub or the Server of a network which does not manage them, but inter-connects them.

The Working-together Approach will automatically lead to the Modular Approach that I have been vigorously preaching these days. If Working Together is the process, the Modular Approach is its accretion. If Working Together is the motion of the electrons, the Modular Approach is the electric charge and the magnetic field that it generates.