Aloha! What's in a name?

This is a quickly typed response to Rosa’s comments on my comments about the ChangeThis manifesto which accompanies her book ‘Managing with Aloha’. In my comments I might have accidentally kinda sorta let slip that I didn’t like her title. Actually, I think close to half of my comments were either ‘I haven’t read it all’ or ‘I don’t like the title’. Oh, and then I went on to talk about me and what I think... Oops :-)

From what I’ve read ‘Managing with Aloha’ sounds like a great way to manage. There is nothing I don’t like about it yet (Mind you I still haven’t finished reading even the ChangeThis manifesto. And don’t yet own the book.). I think if a manager learns its lessons and genuinely adopts the principles they will become a better manager - simply because the principles represent a better way to manage. I hope the book is very successful (perhaps it already is).

So what don’t I like about the title? Fact is, I don’t dislike the title quite as much now I’ve (almost) read the manifesto. And the reasons are touched on about a third of the way through the manifesto. I didn’t know the real meaning of ‘aloha’. So when I read the title of the book I think I subconsciously read it as ‘Managing with jolly and mindless enthusiasm’. Now I’m all for enthusiasm; but when I read the title it sounded like another quick fix. So I’m glad I read further because it’s made me realise something.

What it made me realise is that there is a place for quality management books for people who genuinely want to be better managers. Books for people who aren’t just interested in being ‘more successful’ managers. What I realised is that I probably under-estimate the number of people who genuinely want to become better managers just for the love of management - and that’s unfair of me. I tend to be very hard on managers (though some would say I’m a little ‘soft’ on people who actually report to me - unless they are managers).

My focus in my research for my book (and the way I tend to read organisations) is only partially about looking at what managers are individually doing. Like I said in the original post about the Aloha manifesto, my thinking is part technology, part economics, and part values. So when I think of a management model I think of not only of what individual managers are doing but also what mechanisms (or ‘institutions’) exist in the organisation to ensure that the best management behaviours are the ones that are rewarded and encouraged. In other words, my definition of management actually touches on governance - that is, what managers the managers?

When I read the title ‘Managing with Aloha’ I immediately thought it was going to be a shallow effort with little to offer management science. Something similar the Fish! philosophy (sorry Pike Place Market). That is, harmless enough but adding little to the science of management or the theory of what makes organisations effective. But the content in 'Aloha' doesn’t appear to be like that. ‘Managing with Aloha’ really does sound like the mentor-in-a-book it claims to be - directed at people who have decided to personally become better managers. And why not stop there? My problem is that I want to change the world - and I’m sure Rosa does too. I’d hate to see a poor manager faking the ‘Managing with Aloha’ messages. Hopefully I can contribute in a way that means managers who are ‘Managing with Aloha’, 'Managing Without Them', and similarly-styled managers are the ones that get the resources.

So perhaps I would have been more interested in the book if it was called ‘Managing with unconditional love’. I at least would have understood the book more intuitively from that title. But I probably still wouldn’t have bought it! Or at least I would have had to buy it with a copy of ‘Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way’ just to keep my street credibility (And this is me talking. The only Australia who doesn’t love sport and who owns two Jewel albums).

Lastly, I don’t think I’m the only one who has misread the title. Take a look at the first comment at the bottom of Slacker Manager Bren’s post on the manifesto:

Updated: I have the manifesto open in front of me now and would also like to say I agree entirely that the ‘premature and faulty condescension’ Rosa sights around the whole leadership versus management issue is disturbing. For the same reasons but also a different one. I agree that we need both leaders and managers and they are different skills. However, this is also related to the expanded scope I apply to ‘management’. I say ‘What’s so special about leadership?’ as we are still left with the same problem: What mechanisms decide who are the genuine leaders? Without the right levels of transparency within the organisation the criteria isn’t always effectiveness...