There is no management silver bullet

Over on my personal blog, I have been trying to pull together some of my current concerns about management thinking. For those who are interested see:

• Saturday Morning Musings - the first five fallacies in modern management
• Fashion and the first five fallacies in modern management - a note

I will add other posts as I complete them.

From a professional services management viewpoint, the thing that I would add is that there is no such thing as a management silver bullet, a single solution that will solve your firm's management and business problems.

I know that this will sound self-evident. However, you would be surprised how often I have found clients expecting me to provide a simple universal solution to their problems, or help them implement one that they have decided upon for themselves.

Management is a practical art form, not a science. Further, it is an art form that has to be carried out within the very particular cultures of firms and sectors.

Business improvement comes from a constant focus on improvement and is best achieved by continuous incremental steps. It is far easier in practice to achieve 100 one per cent improvements than one 100 per cent improvement.

I used to do a fair bit of hiking. On a long road carrying a heavy pack, the only way to go is one step at a time. Further, you need regular pauses to regain your breath.

Management is no different.