It’s been said that the basis of good management is prediction. If something cannot be predicted then it cannot be managed, only its consequences can. That leaves organisations fire-fighting and wrestling to regain control.
It can all feel a bit like herding cats.
But in order to predict anything it’s necessary to first have a theory. That is, we need to have a view of how we think the world works in order to predict what we think will happen next.
So…
- if the basis of good management is prediction; and
- the basis of prediction is theory;
Then it stands to reason that…
- the better our theory (i.e. the better our understanding of how things work), the better we can manage.
Greater control of performance through a greater understanding of how things work. Obvious really.
Generating an ever-better understanding of how things work is not so tough but it requires us to test what we currently believe against reality.
To put this another way, if we want to establish and maintain control of performance then it is necessary to:
- Make our current beliefs about how things work explicit; then
- To scrutinise and improve these beliefs in light of what happens when we take action.
When organisations work this way, the gap between the results they get and the results they want (or predict) closes. This means better performance and greater control.
If you're ready to make your own beliefs explicit and test them through action then try working through the simple learning cycle below; Predict>Test>Learn.
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