Diet Book Report: The Definitive Drucker.
The greatest hits from the Peter Drucker un-biography.
I am a born-again disciple of Peter Drucker.
In a very millennial fashion, I have become fascinated by him without reading a single page of any of his 39 books. Each time I came across a management principle or philosophy on the internet that resonated with me, it almost always came from Peter Drucker.
I needed to know more about him but the deeper I dug, the more paralyzed I became on where to begin.
So naturally, rather than selecting one of his 39 books, I chose a book by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim.
Instead of writing a biography on the man, Edersheim wrote The Definitive Drucker as a biography of his management principles and how they apply in the modern world.
The book was published in January, 2007. The world has changed quite a bit since then but it holds up pretty well.
Description from Amazon:
For sixteen months before his death, Elizabeth Haas Edersheim was given unprecedented access to Peter Drucker, widely regarded as the father of modern management. At Drucker’s request, Edersheim, a respected management thinker in her own right, spoke with him about the development of modern business throughout his life-and how it continues to grow and change at an ever-increasing rate.
The value of Peter Drucker isn’t that he had the answers to every question but that he always knew to ask the right questions to help you discover the answer for yourself.
There is some criticism of Drucker’s principles as being too broad or not applicable in the real world. I think that stems from it not being a step-by-step playbook. It takes a lot of work and commitment from an organization to successfully implement.
Peter Drucker’s greatest hits of memorable quotes are well-represented on the internet. Below are some of my favorites from this book. Some of these are from him and some are from people influenced by him but all were in The Definitive Drucker.
1. If you weren’t in this business today, would you invest resources to enter it?
This distills down to the essence of evaluating your core business, programs, products and later in the book is applied to your own career by asking, “If I weren’t in this career today, would I have gotten into it? If no, what am I going to do about it?”
Tough questions of yourself and your organization can provide clarity and produce actionable answers if you’re committed to it.
2. Most organizations staff their problems and starve their opportunities.
There is a finite amount of resources in any organization.
Drucker suggests a common mistake in management is often spending time and resources looking backwards to fix a failing business [that maybe they don’t realize is failing], at the expense of investing in new business opportunities and innovation. This can not only limit growth potential but could even kill a company if you invest too heavily in failing business.
There are a bunch of real world examples that I wanted to share but I returned the book to the library and I can’t remember them off the top of my head.
Try to imagine them.
4. Don’t confuse motion with progress.
Meetings. Meetings about meetings. Meetings before meetings. Meetings after meetings. Subcommittees, task forces and working groups.
The best plan is only good intentions until it is effectively put into action with the right resources.
This is the challenge. Once you know what you need to do you have to figure out how to execute it.
5. The right questions don’t change as often as the answers do.
Classic Drucker.
Always making you think when you just want him to tell you what to do.
6. When you are making a decision, write down the results you expect to happen and check on them in six months.
I am excited to do this exercise. We are having a planning meeting this week and I will be forcing all of my colleagues to participate in this.
7. [On the balance of innovation vs. status quo] You can’t throw everything out or you’ll have anarchy. You can’t hold onto everything or you’ll die.
Many organizations say innovation is important but they don’t take the time to commit to it.
Google famously has their 20% rule that encourages all of their employees to dedicate 20% of their time to projects that interest them. This practice has produced AdSense, Gmail and Google News among others.
The challenge is balance and discipline on which projects to pursue. Even organizations that are committed to innovation can get tripped up here.
Enlightened management appreciates the need for disciplined controls focused on opportunity, not profitability. This is where so many corporate innovation efforts derail. They can’t find the balance between nurturing a new project and applying reasonable controls to them.
How do you know what the balance is?
I have no idea. Maybe his critics are right about it not being applicable in the real world. 🤔
8. [On hiring and promoting people into new roles] You must match strengths with opportunity.
As I mentioned, I returned the book to the library so I had to comb the internet to remember the details of this wisdom.
Failure to think through the assignment, Drucker observed, was the number-one reason for staffing failures. Put differently, executives making staffing decisions must “match strengths to opportunity.”
Putting the best people on the most promising projects seems quite straightforward. Yet, in reality, this doesn’t always work because of the failure to systematically match strengths with the assignment.
Further, many times when thinking through the assignment, the necessity for reorganizing the existing organization becomes apparent. The nature of the assignment requires multiple knowledges and a variety of skills impossible to find in one person. — Picking People: Systematically Matching Strengths with Opportunities, Process Excellence Network
Being in a role for a while doesn’t necessarily qualify you to be promoted. Everything depends on your strengths and the skill set required for the position.
This can also be applied when supervising someone who is underperforming.
You have to ask yourself, “Do I understand this persons strengths vs. weaknesses?” And have you set them up to succeed?
Maybe they are in the wrong role or you need to pair them with someone who excels where they are struggling.
Who is this book for?
Anyone looking for clarity with their current business or their personal career. It helps you ask the right questions of your organization and yourself to determine the right direction to paddle the proverbial boat.
I would definitely recommend this. I look forward to checking out something actually written by Peter at some point.
Bonus recommendation.
Quick shout out for the public library. They just give you everything for free.
Terrible business model, great service.
