The Monthly “100 Digital Pitfalls” Book Tuning: Linear Management Pitfalls Aug. 2019

Traditional management approaches based on command and control style and overly rigid hierarchy have some critical defects for leading organizations up to the next level of business maturity. 

Digital makes a significant impact on how we think, live, and work. There is a mix of old and new, physical and virtual, order and chaos. We are in a time of tremendous change, the dawn of the digital age, the path to the next level of digital maturity, also in the era of confusion and information overload. Therefore, it’s critical to identify, understand, and avoid pitfalls, discover strategic and predictive pathways to change, increase confidence, position a brand and leverage resources to make the digital paradigm shift effortlessly. Slideshare Presentation

                  Linear Management Pitfalls 

The Pitfalls of Linear Thinking and Traditional Management Linear thinking is viewed by many as being simply the opposite of closed-loop thinking (thinking in a straight line rather than circularly). As linearity often implies cause and effect with no feedback. in the industrial setting, business management often practices linear thinking with a set of linear skills; it perhaps works in the considerably static and silo business environment. However, in today’s dynamic digital business environment with hyperconnectivity and interdependence, the traditional management based on linear thinking and reductionist logic is outdated, causes silo or frictions, and decelerates business speed.

How to Avoid these “Mismanagement” Pitfalls The digital business dynamic is full of uncertainty, velocity, complexity, ambiguity, fierce competitions, and continuous disruptions. Digital organizations keep evolving with the increasing speed of change, the exponential growth of information and the rapid integration of business across the globe. Traditional management approaches based on command and control style and overly rigid hierarchy have some critical defects for leading organizations up to the next level of business maturity. Practicing digital management is about taking a holistic view and applying interdisciplinary management approach to planning and executing business strategy. How to avoid the following mismanagement pitfalls and make the digital paradigm shift smoothly?

Reinvent Digital Organization with Necessary Breakdowns Organizations large or small across the industrial sectors are on the journey of digital transformation. It means that companies need to infuse digital into every aspect of the business. It is the paradigm shift from static to flow, silo to holistic, and mechanical to organic. In the rapidly evolving businesses and dynamic digital economic systems, making disruptive change is critical but challenging for the company’s long term surviving and thriving. How to make some necessary breakdowns and overcome barriers on the way to reinvent a digital organization?

Bureaucracy as a Business Management Pitfall The root of the word "bureaucracy" is: bureau(fr) = desk and kratos(gr) = rules/ power. Generally speaking, bureaucracy is a system based on a hierarchy of authority and division of workforce functioning in a routine manner. Though organizational bureaucracy inherited from the traditional management discipline brings a certain level of business efficiency. It is criticized by the lack of system perspective, with characteristics such as inflexibility, inefficiency, silo, stagnation, unresponsiveness, or lack of creativity, etc. Bureaucracy is correlated with a mechanistic view of the organization and reductionistic management discipline. It is the opposite of systems thinking and one of the big digital management pitfalls.

Three Causes of Business Vulnerability Digital organizations are organic, complex, informative and hyperconnected. Closer to reality is that change is continuously happening in such a dynamic environment of a company. The inevitable range, breadth, depth, and pace of uncontrollable factors acting on any organizations mean identifying business vulnerability and constant fine-tuning is essential to improve business adaptability, performance, and maturity.

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