Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results

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Unlearning Management

You manage things; you lead people.—Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

CEOs, executives, and managers who hold onto legacy thinking and outmoded methods such as command and control—telling people what to do and exactly how do it— are not only micromanaging through control systems designed by themselves and for themselves, they are also limiting the potential of the entire organization. This kills innovation and strips all human creativity, ingenuity, and expression from others’ work. Followers gradually become robots simply focused on executing work—not thinking, not questioning, not believing they have any control over what they do. People are squeezed to reduce costs and deliver more output sooner. They forget what it is to ...