Myself and Other More Important Matters

Absolutely fascinating. Charles Handy, often called the "Peter Drucker of the United Kingdom," (though he's much more than that) has penned a page-turner autobiography. If you're over 50, it's must-reading. In between his short, crisp management meanderings, he dispenses wisdom on the "portfolio" life--why your middle and later years might be better invested on your own versus at the whims of an organization. (Attention all wanna-be consultants!) Under 50? Then I'd suggest it's required reading. You'll be shocked--and educated--when you discover that Britain had no books on management in the 1950s (none). And no business schools until he co-founded the London Business School in 1967 (after a year at MIT's Sloan). "Business...was long seen by the British as a lower status occupation, definitely inferior to the armed services." His thoughts about America, flavored with his peculiar "cultural Christian" insights (his father was a Church of Ireland minister) will intrigue you. While paradigm-changing concepts like the shamrock organization, the sigmoid curve, "doughnuts," and the "portfolio worker" elevated him to management guru status, his humility is remarkable. He said that Drucker "once quipped that journalists only came up with the word [guru] because `charlatan' was too long for a headline." Handy's written 14 books, including his classics Understanding Organizations, The Future of Work, Gods of Management, and The Age of Unreason. While this book is autobiographical, his professor/consultant bent pops out on every page. His early employer, Shell, became big fans of Douglas McGregor's 1960 book, The Human Side of Enterprise. Of McGregor's two styles of leadership, Theory X (people need to be told what to do) and Theory Y (people can act responsibly on their own initiative), Shell decreed that "they would be a Theory Y organization, unaware, presumably, of the confusion they caused by using Theory X to implement Theory Y. Old habits die hard." That's just one anecdote in a feast of memorable management stories, with wisdom and dry wit thrown in at no extra charge. I can't resist adding one more. Later in life, he limited his speaking engagements to five per year for fees and five for expenses only (never in the summer). Handy's wife, Elizabeth, handled his bookings. When asked to speak in Calcutta for the British Council, the proposed fee was minimal. "Pay him nothing," Elizabeth suggested. "But you must have all the right connections, so could you arrange for us to have an hour alone with each of the four most interesting people in Calcutta?" The result? "So it was that we met privately and personally with the chief minister, who turned out to be a jovial Marxist, with Mother Teresa, surrounded by her nuns, the vice-chancellor of the university and a prominent local artist. Money can't buy that kind of experience."

I recently read this book on a weekend retreat at the Canoe Bay Resort in northern Wisconsin. The library there featured "Myself and Other More Important Matters". I picked the book and found that it was easy to digest over a weekend and I recommend it. It is full of rich perspective and inspiring stories and relates well to the times we are in. Charles Handy's messages are relevant to architects and designers as well as their clients. I am giving this book to several friends. James P. Cramer

Where other gurus offer glib answers and seem overly ego-driven, Handy has always specialised in helping us question what our organizations are for; how best to structure them; how work fits into life and what our driving purpose is. Handy is the author of The Empty Raincoat, The Elephant and The Flea, The Age of Paradox, 21 Ideas For Managers, and other books that help us stop, think and analyze exactly what it is we are doing at work and what we are for. Myself and Other Important Matters is Handy's autobiography so far. It is a pleasure to read, and you learn about leadership, work, management, life, parenting, yourself, while you are enjoying reading it. There is a growing consensus now that, after decades of process improvements, what people are looking for in the organizations they work for, invest in, lead and buy from is organizations that act more like people and less like machines. It is time for the more human organization to emerge. Handy has been teaching us this for years. My own area of interest is business leadership. This book is full of insights into organizations, their culture and how to lead, such as "Great leaders seem to live with a mix of humility and confidence, which includes the ability to admit on occasion they were wrong." From McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y to Aristotle's definition of happiness or 'eudaimonia' meaning to flourish and be fulfilled - challenging the prevailing assumption in the west that hedonism is happiness - to how Johari windows work, the learning you pick up almost in passing from Handy is rich and deep and enjoyable.

Charles Handy has had a most interesting professional life. His roles have included global executive with an oil company; academic administrator who developed a framework for business education for Britain; head of a think tank based in one of the Queen's official residences, a commentator on life for the BBC Radio, and a best selling author. This is a man worth getting to know. The book's title is accurate. While the basic framework is Handy's life story, it really is a platform for his much broader discussion about capitalism and where it is going. To cite one concrete example, Charles Handy coined the term "Shamrock Organization" to refer to the structure of the corporation of post industrial Capitalism. One leaf of the Shamrock is a core of full time employees. The other leaves are interim employees brought in for project assignments (think temporary retail employees brought in around Christmas) and specialists brought in to solve complex problems beyond the time/competence of the full time team. This Shamrock Organization has three leaves. I think most of us would recognize that there is actually a fourth leaf in the Shamrock: suppliers who so readily integrate themselves into the company, it is hard to distinguish them from the core employee group. Think of the people who sell mobile phones at Staples or Costco. They are not part of the organization and yet they are part of it. Handy pointed out the Shamrock organization yeas ago and gave it a name. He said that within the Shamrock, who lives on what leaf of the Shamrock is terribly important. But the customer only sees the entire Shamrock and doesn't care about the individual leaves. The implication about Handy's acute observations are still not effectively dealt with by corporations. Most talent management policies focus only on the full time employee group while ignoring the others components. If indeed the customer only sees the entire Shamrock, who should be invited to the company picnic? Who should be eligible for bonuses? Another Handy gem for Board consideration is to ask, "If this product or service did not exist, would we invent it today?" I find that a simple and powerful question. Let me quote the following paragraph about the use of cliché's to drive business: "The language organizations have invented for themselves is pretentious, unrelated to what actually happens on the ground. Every organization claims that they care deeply for its customer, although you might be dubious if you are still trying to get to their helpline after forty minutes. Every organization proclaims that their employees are their most previous asset, even while making swathes of them redundant. Every business is committed to excellence and to aiming for world-class even though research suggests that only a tiny few achieve it. Then there are the pseudo-technical terms that make the obvious seem clever: core competencies, JIT, 360 Feedback, CRM. " I could go on and on and on. You

Charles Handy's autobiography is a beautifully written retrospective on a fascinating life. By sharing some of his experiences you get a wonderful perspective on what he thinks is important in life; family, friends and doing things you are passionate about. It was a thoroughly engaging read.