First
of all, there’s a vast difference between feelgood inspirational books and genuine
insight. The feelgood stuff tells you to think positively, without having much to say
about how to turn positive thinking into something tangible. It’s empty calories. The
insight stuff, on the other hand, really focuses on the heart of a problem, and offers a
real solution. It not only tells you can do something – it tells you what to do. It
adds useful perspective, and gets you thinking in fresh directions.
BEYOND KNOWING, by three of the most effective, most experienced, and most thoughtful consultants to professional firms around, offers the best of all insight, and the best of all solutions.
The subject is management – that elusive art form that seems to defy definition and instructions. Napoleon, on the subject of management, demanded victory of his generals. When they attributed the victories of their enemies to luck, Napoleon said, “OK, then get me lucky generals.” Peter Drucker, the brilliant management consultant, noted that the shortage of talented leaders and managers was so acute that he tried to break down the elements that made the best ones successful, and then tried to inoculate the less talented with those techniques.
In BEYOND KNOWING, the authors choose some 40 key points that are critical to effective management, particularly of professional firms, and offer a path to penetrating them with thoughtful and searching questions.
Typical -- the chapter on breaking old habits and breaking new ground asks the question, “Are you asking the right questions?”. It’s a brief and to-the-point discussion of why successful management resides not in knowing the answers, but in knowing the right questions to ask.
The chapter headed “Don’t mess with your success and soon enough some competitor will” asks the question, “What things that made us successful in the past do we need to forget, unlearn, or discard to be successful now and into the future?” and urges the manager to reexamine the assumptions of the past upon which the firm’s strategy is still predicated. In today’s evolving and mercurial environment, not to ask this question is to court disaster. Try asking it. The results are astonishing.
And so on. A passionate exhortation to managing partners and firm leaders to examine the firm’s strategies and culture in the light of changing times. Clear, simple, and focused direction on how to lead a firm so that it’s relevant to the needs of the marketplace in the next decade.
This is a brilliant effort, and succeeds because it’s rooted not in theory, but in the knowledge and experience of the three authors. These are three exceptional men who do not reside in clichés, or in empty words or thoughts. Nor are they abstract academic theorists. They write about what they know and have lived through, and they know more than most.
Not to be overlooked is the distinctive need for this kind of work, which complements, by the way, their earlier and excellent HERDING CATS. For generations, prior to the Bates decision in 1977, law firms were run by managing partners as fiefdoms. The hierarchy of the partnership was sacrosanct, and beyond question. Management skills, in the professional firm of the past, were really an oxymoron. Firms succeeded in a non-competitive environment solely on a mythical reputation, a culture that precluded questioning by the public served by the firms, and at the whim of he who had the most units.
But with the advent of Bates, and competition, the need for skilled management burgeoned. Unlike corporations, however, in which people rose to the executive suite following years of training within the ranks, and a knowledge of all forms of management, there is nothing in the training or experience of the professional to prepare him (and now her) to manage a firm that is in reality a business that must not only serve its clientele, but must also function as a business.
Ultimately, if slowly and begrudgingly, this lack has been recognized in the professions. Law and accounting firms now have managers who are not necessarily accountants or lawyers, but are skilled and experienced managers. Under antiquated rules, they can’t be partners, nor share in a firm’s revenues. But they can be and are well paid, and often given authority formerly reserved for managing partners.
But for accountants or lawyers who must run a business for which they have no training (they don’t teach management in law or accounting schools, nor marketing, nor personnel relations), a book like BEYOND KNOWLEDGE is a blessing.
It’s short, and sweet, and beautifully written. But most significantly, it’s on point.