Victus Spiritus

Our typical view of micromanagement is in the way Tom Preston describes it.  I would suggest that this typical view is a linear way of seeing what people do to each other, rather than with each other.  This creates a direct linear relationship between distrust and management.

I would like to suggest that it is possible to explore a dynamic relationship where micromanagement is redefined into something completely different, but that relationship is between management and leadership.  I love the metaphor of DNA so that is what I would like to attempt to utilize this morning.

Just like the metaphor of DNA, I would like to split management and leadership into four constituent parts viz:

Micromanagement
Macromanagement
Microleadership
Macroleadership

Then I would like to add two steps.  The first is to define management as a practice within us, while leadership is where aspects such as trust come into play.   The second is to think about junk.

Management as a practice is articulated well both by Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg, and management as “a practice within”, is where the first two parts of the DNA become micromanagement and macromanagement i.e. our mental body and the physical body.

If we think of our body as this amazing gift, how we see management should be linked to the core of life management, which is that we are all living species of practice – how we feed ourselves (the macro), how we think (the micro), means that management becomes a very concrete thing.  In turn once we realize management is very much that which is within us, and therefore it should be articulated in the work place, and in our homes as well – as a practice.

Leadership as trust makes infinite sense because the act of leadership takes us into the space of our creative being.  Management is not a shared experience, leadership is.  The practice of management is essential, and the application of leadership is vital.  That is why the final two parts of this DNA should be viewed as the external relationship between microleadership – leadership that touches directly and macroleadership, leadership which flows further afield.

This way of thinking makes a lot of sense as I formulate these thoughts.  Perhaps once I have hit the send button, I will look at it more differently – reminding myself that I am thinking and typing in the moment.  What seems self-evident to me is that this has to be far more than rethinking “micromanagement” into a practical context (rather than a toxic one), but that the real question for me is how we deal with what can be akin to junk DNA.

For scientists junk DNA gets its name, because science does not know what it does.  It is the uncertain and mysterious aspect of actual DNA.  Likewise, a dynamic view of management and leadership should IMHO contain this unknown glue, which in the words of a local media friend represents “surprise” and “delight”.

IMHO if we focus on toxic explanation we remain in the sludge of what we do against each other, whereas I prefer to redefine the universe for my own learning purposes – and that means I take the liberty of playing with ideas, which I consider to be a part of the soul of innovation itself – and that the more I focus on the creative reconstruction, the less it becomes creative destruction. 

What we don’t want to destroy is human spirit and if it is helpful to look at management and leadership as micromanagement, macromanagement, microleadership and macroleadership, then I think it should be in the best sense of those words – and in so doing – we might achieve what it is we focus on.  In other words, by focusing on what goes right, we have a much better handle on what goes wrong.

The beauty of all of this is the junk DNA, because obviously in nature it plays a role that has not revealed itself to us – so that means together with redefining terms into their positive nature – there is the humility of all that we don’t know and will never know – but there lies the real beauty, to trust ourselves and the process of life making rather than life taking processes.  Then our I think our headspace is in an entirely different sphere.

For me that joy is called learning because it is this type of learning, that has made civilization possible.  When we avoid the reality of our junk DNA we try to fill the void with superstition and a void can only suck us into a dark place, but true trust for me is that junk DNA contains the essential aspects of our collective humanity. 

IMHO civilization only takes us to the borders of humanity, it is we who have to trust to make the leap into humanity itself, and as such things like sorrow and sadness are merely markers on the journey of walking towards our humanity.

Start from the goodness of our thoughts and thanks to the notion that there is junk DNA, who am I to say what makes a greater life journey, other than exploring it as I have done here and noticing the goodness.

Yours Thoughtfully,
M.

I absolute agree that being micromanaged is absolutely awful, it is a waste of human capability, a surrender of human potential and a destruction of discretion.  The way I have used micromanagement in the above write up this morning is as emergence.  That is also exactly why I like putting on my “Emeri Gent” hat on, like I am doing right now, for it enables me to think of all human thoughts that flow in regard to the supernal and the complex.  

There are some terrific writers in the field of complexity science such as
Stewart Kauffman who talk of “tiny differences”.  I found a great PDF written by Linda Laidlaw who speaks of how tiny details impact her educational life :

“On the Importance of Little Details . . .” by Linda Laidlaw
http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v09n01/pdfs/laidlaw.pdf

I would never open the door for anything that I am not personally ready
for in my own journey, but in my head space, I don’t want memory space
that links the word “micromanagement” to past hurts or terrible or inhuman experiences.  Instead, like a person who decides that code should be rewritten viz. the old program may not be relevant, or it does not work etc etc, I will keep the word “micromanagement” but overwrite the old hurtful associations with new life expanding associations.  

What needs to heal in my life will heal over time, but I will aim to change
the triggers that open the door to painful reminders, while understanding that coming to terms is an intensely personal process which is unique to each individual.  The word “micromanagement” should be discarded if it carries far more emotional baggage.  Learning to let go is a slow process because the more we become human, the irony is the more capable we become of seeing the inhuman.

The way I looked at these terms this morning was through the lens of finding new life codes, that can replace the coding that has led to make me who I am today.  In that regard the micro becomes atomic and the macro becomes cosmos – the little details matter, but they are not the only “stuff of life” – there is big details of an entire universe. 

The question for me is whether those little details (the micromanagement of my own life code) are capable of overwriting not the malware – but the “mal-aware”.  The “mal-aware” are those people who just don’t see life like you and I do, and they consequently micromanage people, without any interest in improving quality of life.

The compass direction of thinking through the gold of “Emeri Gent”, helps me to look at my life through a particular context.  It is not meant to make me an expert in complexity science, but hopefully a more rounded and self-aware individual – but that depends not on how much I read, nor how much I understand – but how I integrate that understanding.  

When I talk of management, it is free of the memory of what awful managers and even more awful theorists have done to the term, and when I talk of leadership, I refer to the capacity of my own state of leadership, the micro therefore being convergent and the macro being divergent (i.e. the ability to zoom in and zoom out in relationship to the big picture of life). 

Yet I am very good at flying high in the air, and as I have said before, my journey requires me to become more grounded – and that is the domain of “management”.  

In terms of complexity itself there is a nice PDF by Michael Holbrook which serves as a great intro in the subject, but as I have said, my online journey isn’t about convincing others of argument, selling a certain expertise or changing others.  I am a work-in-progress and there is plenty of damaged life coding in my own existence for me to rewrite and renew.  

Adventures in Complexity by Michael Holbrook
http://www.amsreview.org/articles/holbrook06-2003.pdf

The important thing for me is that we both appreciate that we are on a journey and that to me is something we understand, but my own experiences have informed me, it isn’t necessarily a thing that many other people might be clued in about or even care to know. 

Work-in-progress requires me to improve in my own life management and life leadership – and so long as I don’t get caught up in the knots of my own inquiry and learning – I am a free bird exploring and finding ways of utilizing this worked freedom to touch upon and discovery what it really means to live intelligently.

Take good care my friend and as always, my best to you.

[Em]

Ah, 2epub.com filled the bill.

Heard a good one recently, Mark.

Micromanagement: Failing to see the wood for the trees.