Historically, every new step in the evolution of management has been a reflection of the science and technology that formed the trends in society at that particular time. That has taken us on an historical journey, from traditional management with its formula for success built on centralised control, via goal-oriented delegation, to continuous improvement and a more humanistic approach to management.

These formulas for success were well suited to handle yesterday’s challenges, but in today’s world, the dominating management models are out of sync with modern science. Today’s leadership is confronted by new evolutionary challenges such as globalisation, hyper competition and fast moving changes. Those who succeed will be those who realise that new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing things and new kinds of intelligences are essential for moving forward.

The successful management of today understands that traditional management work must be complemented by an infrastructure for communication, strategy work and horizontal collaboration. In short, they work towards a company culture characterised by collaboration and a thoroughly integrated organisation.

We are now in the middle of this paradigm shift. The dominating management model has passed its best-by-date and is out of sync with the way society is going, science and the needs of modern people. However, this doesn’t mean that everything about our present way of leading is bad. We need to make sure that we integrate that which we are doing well with a model that is also capable of handling a world of high complexity and rapid change.

Would you like to know more about what differentiates today’s management methods from yesterday’s? Read our books.