Manifesto

Why this blog?

When I studied management in Ukraine, I had great professors and wonderful books. My go-to book was the 6th edition of Management by Richard Daft which contained the most recent business cases and the most up-to-date ideas in management for MBA students. It was a mesmerizing world of people knowing exactly what they were doing.

“These ideas don’t work here,” I was told. “They work in the USA or Europe but not in Ukraine, our managers don’t know them so they don’t use them. Whatever you are learning now is not applied and often not even applicable. Maybe one day but not now.”

Soviet heritage. Ugh.

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I went to Europe. I wanted to be a part of the world where those ideas did work. I saw many of them applied but needed more. I wanted to go to the source and see the managers from the said books who were so busy making decisions, navigating ambiguity, and making change in the fast-paced environment. I wanted to meet people from my case study and one day work for McKinsey because that’s where all the great professionals went in their afterlife.

Or did they?..

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I came to the US.

“Here is an analytical dashboard that you requested. It shows you at a glance where you have the pain points filling positions, where the requisitions have been posted for too long, and how we are doing overall with hiring to plan. What do you think?”

“Thanks, Iryna. Pretty colors.”

I saw a chaotic startup getting up on its feet and making a leap into leading the industry. I saw it becoming a part of a global organization and going through the growing pains to become more mature. A Big Three (although not McKinsey) came to help with the said maturing. I was a part of one of the sprints with incredibly smart people and a great collaborative framework.

I became a manager from my books. I was living in the case study. This was my very personal American dream come true.

Or was it?

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I finally lived in the world where the management ideas originated from. Yet so many of those ideas still struggled to get implemented or even secure a buy-in on practice.

Instead, short-term objectives and cease-fires were often prioritized over complex steps towards maturity.

But to build an organization that lasts requires complex steps:

• to build capabilities
• to invest in competence
• to do a thorough analysis
• to learn from mistakes.
• to develop talent.

To build an organization that lasts is a complex idea.

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Have you noticed how the most popular posts on LinkedIn are the same dumbed-down ideas that keep being regurgitated over and over by the so-called leaders of opinions?

Every week or so I stumble upon the same post about a boss who was asked to give a day off to his employee and stopped them before they started explaining why that day off was needed. All employees deserve great leaders like this one. Do you agree?

Seeing the posts like this again and again makes us think that it is all that is to be a good manager. Treat employees well, be a good human, listen, and give time off.

Yes, this is all very important but what about the process and structure? What about the chain of command, strategic framework, reporting systems, organizational design?

Over-simplified posts and articles create the false impression that to be actionable everything needs to be simple. Then they equate simple to easy and run away from complexity.

5 easy steps to a fit body

13 easy techniques to sleep better (supported by science – duh)

23 quotes that will inspire you to wake up in the morning
after you had insomnia
because you feel burned out
and you don’t know what is this all for anyway
(#5 will change your life!)

We walk through these easy posts, we hit like and repost, and our brain gets a boost of calmness for a few hours because we learned something new and the day will come for us to apply these 5-13-23 techniques consistently because why else would we waste 30 seconds reading it through.

But to build an organization that lasts requires consistency.

It requires deliberation, learning, ethics, dare I say, courage, and quite a lot of competence. It requires a strong sense of purpose and dedication which goes beyond stakeholder engagement or creating shareholder value. It requires intent and knowledge.

It requires nuance.

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So this is why I started this blog.

I want to explore the world in its complexity. I want to experience the diversity of thought without a false premise that good ideas should be easy.

They never are. Nothing is. So why should we hide from it?

I want to dive into complex ideas.

I want to see how they can be put into action.

I want to know what it would look like if a business was smart and considered the actual tough decisions.

I am inviting you on my journey.

Come with me.

For the world is complex and beautiful.

And a great deal of people know what they are doing and are willing to share it.

So what say you?