Management In A Changing World

CHAPTER 12CONCLUSION

“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.”

—Octavia Butler, American science fiction author

“Balance is not a passive resting place—it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the putting in.”

—Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

In Chapter 1, we told you that management is a balance. At times, striking that balance is unimaginably stressful—like being on a high wire 50 feet off the ground with no net. In our rapidly changing world, this is more often the case than ever. But change helps us grow. The act of balancing strengthens our muscles and improves our coordination.

We also said that management is a duty. We have a duty to put in the work—to manage for greater equity, sustainability, and results. And sometimes this takes less work than we might think. When we talk to people about how they wish their managers would behave, those wishes are often heartbreakingly simple. They want clarity and consistency about expectations and clear communication. They want to have agency in their work and to understand how their efforts connect to a broader purpose. They want to feel like they're part of a team and that their perspectives and experiences matter. They want to feel valued and respected.

We wrote this book because management is too rarely thought of as a skill that can be taught, practiced, ...