When the practice of management became widespread during the industrial revolution, companies got bigger than they had ever been before. There was a sudden need for managers to monitor employees to make sure everything was going smoothly and according to plan.
This worked well during the industrial age when we needed to make more widgets at a lower cost, but the new economy requires a different skill-set.
The companies that are thriving in the twenty first century are creative and entrepreneurial.
This requires a different kind of organization. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, says that if you need more than two pizzas to feed a team, the team is too big. The future isn’t being built in huge factories any more. The future is full of small teams empowered to make their own decisions inspired by a visionary leader. This is how Bezos runs Amazon, and how technology icons like Mark Zuckerburg and Elon Musk are creating the future.
Facebook’s motto for a while was “move fast and break stuff.” Following this mantra requires leaders to set a vision and give people the room to fulfill it. There are millions of people that would love a secure, high-paying job where all you have to do is follow the rules set by management.
What’s valuable today are people willing to lead change and thrive in an era of uncertainty.