[原创]On Collaborative Management (无为而治)

One of my friends write in Chinese an interesting article in his blog on “无为而治” and he shared it with me. Unfortunately, I can’t publish this blog here or provide any link to his blog because we have an unspoken agreement that we can’t simply tell each other’s blog, what we need do is to search on the website until our blogs appear on each other’s radar screen. However, below are some of my comments on his blog. It may serve as an introduction.

The Chinese word "管理" is quite interesting: "管" basically means "control" and "理" “put in order: or "guidance" and "delegation". When the two is combined together, ""管理" or management is better depicted by a guru (whose name is slipped out of my mind at present) "management is a practice where experience, science and art meet".
The management guru Peter Drucker is an advocate of "management by example". But he is against executives' doing everything by themselves. Instead, he claims that executives prioritize "what needs to be done" or identify "the right things", then just focus on one or two things among the top priorities that they are really good at. For the rest, they delegate. This is leadership. It holds water especially in a learning organization where the majority of staff is knowledge workers.
" 无为而治" or collaborative management (the best translation I can think of so far) is actually the cream of management. The basic idea is to encourage members of an organization to take initiative to make continuous improvements and keep doing so until it becomes part of the blood of the organization, namely, its DNA, its corporate culture. Only when an organization has become an organic organization can the company smartly respond to ever changing customer requirments.
According to Jack Welch, the former GE CEO, he just picked up the right people and give them opportunities to spread their wings, then put compensation behind it as a carrier. Once this was done, he almost didn't need to manage them at all. This is another way to help us understand " 无为而治" or collaborative management.
As for the story of General WuQi (吴起), what I can say that there are few Wu Qi nowadays. As an old Chinese saying goes, gentlemen are willing to die for those who values their talents and ladies are preserving their beauties for those who appreciate them. It’s still true in this ever changing world.