This is the backstory to the book Management Mysterium.
Management Mysterium is a follow-on to The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management (2018) and Irrational Institutions (2020). It adds to this body of work by examining invisible aspects of leadership and management practice: the intangible spiritual, sacred, and the sometimes mysterious and mythical aspects of leading and managing organizations. Together, these books carefully examine the question of why most leaders resist or reject Lean management and other forms of progressive personal and organizational change.
Few people think about the secular spiritual aspects of management and leadership. Yet, it has a powerful influence on how leaders and managers think and what they do or do not do. Management Mysterium will substantially deepen your understanding of why top business leaders have little or no enthusiasm for Lean management — and why they instead prefer to maintain the status quo and continue to favor archaic classical management.
Writing this book was a different challenge. It crosses many boundaries and examines a delicate subject, spirituality and its transformation from Christianity to the secular world of business through the field of economics, and into the secular world of management which continuously intersects with the practice of leadership.
Management Mysterium shows how remnants from the Middle Ages remain with us today, hundreds of years later, and how these remnants still hold great power and influence in the domains of economics and classical management. It further shows how classical management is no longer right for the times we live in. Its archaic preconceptions hold back the progress of individuals, organizations, and society — including the advancement of leadership and management practice.
My goal in producing The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management, Irrational Institutions, and Management Mysterium is to help those who promote, practice, train, or educate people on Lean management to clearly understand what they are up against. It is bigger than anyone ever imagined. So much effort has been expended in the last 30-plus years for too little result. You can continue reading the popular Lean books and try your best to make improvements. But at some point, you will realize that you are missing an essential body of knowledge — one that you will wish you explored much sooner.
If you are committed to Lean management and creating a better future state, then you must also be committed to fully understanding the current state, classical management, and the many ways that top leaders act to obstruct progress. You might not be happy to learn the truth, but it could motivate you find new ways to overcome the many unseen obstacles that Lean management faces.