Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging Management

by Henry Mintzberg

In forty-two succinct, surprising essays, legendary scholar Henry Mintzberg brings management down from the clouds and onto solid ground.

If you're like most managers and things keep you up at night, now you can turn to a book that's designed especially for you! But you won't find talking rabbits or princesses here. (There is a cow, but it doesn't jump.) Henry Mintzberg has culled forty-two of the best posts from his widely read blog and turned them into a deceptively light, sneakily serious compendium of sometimes heretical reflections on management.

The moral here is managers need to leave their castles and find out what's actually going on in their kingdoms. And like real bedtime stories, these essays have metaphors galore. So prepare to grow strategies like weeds and organize like a cow. Discover the maestro myth of managing, find the soft underbelly of hard data, and learn why downsizing is bloodletting and your board should be a bee. Mintzberg writes, "Just try not to be outraged by anything you read, because some of my most outrageous ideas turn out to be my best. They just take a while to become obvious."

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2019

About the author

Professor Henry Mintzberg, OC , OQ , Ph.D. , D.h.c. , FRSC (born September 2, 1939) is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he has been teaching since 1968, after earning his Master's degree in Management and Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1965 and 1968 respectively.
Henry Mintzberg writes prolifically on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 140 articles and thirteen books to his name. His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, criticizes some of the practices of strategic planning today and is considered required reading for anyone who seriously wants to consider taking on a strategy-making role within their organization.

He recently published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs Managers Not MBAswhich outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today and, rather controversially, singles out prestigious graduate management schools like Harvard Business School and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania as examples of how obsession with numbers and an over-zealous attempt at making management into a science actually can damage the discipline of management. He also suggests that a new masters program, targeted at practicing managers (as opposed to younger students with little real world experience), and emphasizing practical issues, may be more suitable.

Ironically, although Professor Mintzberg is quite critical about the strategy consulting business, he has twice won the McKinsey Award for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review.

In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society.

Reviews

[Dayi Behrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

آخرین باری که کتابی در حوزه مدیریت و کسب‌و‌کار خونده بودم رو یادم نمیاد، ولی این کتاب محتوایی متفاوت با همه‌ی اون‌ها داشت. از نظر من محتوای کتاب درباره دو چیز بود، ناکارآمدی دوره‌های MBA و اهمیت اخلاقیات در حوزه کسب‌و‌کار. از نظر من جالب بود و توصیه می‌کنم بخونید، مخصوصا برای افرادی که دانشجو هستند یا به فکر راه‌اندازی کسب‌و‌کار خودشونند.

[Amir Arslan · Rating 4 out of 5]

به شدت توصیه میشه به خواندش برای شروع مدیریت بنظرم کتاب عالی هست کتاب واقعا از قید و بند دو دو تا چهارتا مدیریت خارج شد و همه اش تجربه ایی و حسی و آموزشی هست واقعا هر مدیری نیاز دار یه بار این کتابو بخوانند

[Duong Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. Lovely.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s another book that was on my summer reading list! Bedtime Stories for Managers isn’t a title you’d expect from a management book, so I was pretty curious about this one.

First up: this book isn’t exactly a collection of stories. I was imagining this to be satirical fairytales but this is more like approachable essays… which I guess are stories for managers? Anyway, here are the stories/lessons that I took away from Bedtime Stories for Managers:

- Managing: All managers are flawed and there is no manager that will be great in every situation. The difficulty lies in picking the right manager for the right team.
- Organising: Businesses should be a community, not just individual parts. Grounded engagement may make more sense than top-down management, and the web of organisation may make more sense than the regular org chart (which divides into top and middle management) or management circule. Also, company boards are necessary but problematic – they need to be unafraid to replace the CEO but not so enthusiastic that the CEO can’t do anything.
- Analysing: When we think of efficiency, we tend to look at measurable criteria without thinking about whether this is the criteria we need to focus on. Plus, how do you measure managers? Are you able to make a judgement while considering the team and the managing environment?
- Development: Apparently, MBA students don’t necessarily make good managers
Context: Let’s look at family businesses and the problem of succession – even if you can find someone suitable, what is your end goal? IPO isn’t the be-all and end-all.
- Responsibility: CSR shouldn’t be incidental
- Future: Growth is not everything (this chapter reminded me a lot of what Tim Jackson says in Post-Growth)

Although these are my main takeaways from the book, each chapter actually contains several mini-points, so if you are interested in any of these chapters you should definitely read the whole thing.

I really liked how approachable the writing style of this book was and although the first few chapters felt a bit random, everything made sense by the end of the book.

Even if you’re not a business student, I think this book is worth reading if you’re working and planning to get into a managerial position in the future.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Ronald J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Henry Mintzberg, and certainly enjoyed his books Managers, Not MBAs and The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. I disagree with his views on climate change (consensus isn’t science), pharmaceutical companies, campaign finance laws, his Corporate Social Responsibility 2.0, capitalism, and economics generally, but he’s thoughtful when it comes to managing business enterprise, and giving it soul. Some of my favorite lines in this short work:

• Do they measure like mad or serve with soul? Managing without soul has become an epidemic in society.

• The fable that leadership is separate from management has been bad for management and worse for leadership. Over managed and underled is now the opposite. All managers are flawed. Only two ways to know a person’s flaws: marry them or work for them.

• Managing is rooted in art and craft, not a science or a profession based on analysis. Managing change without managing continuity is anarchy. Big difference between a network and a community, as your Facebook friends to help paint your house. Networks connect; communities care.

• Strategies thus form by learning, not planning. Appreciate that it achieves its effectiveness by being inefficient. Without some slack, innovation dies.

He critiques John Kotter’s 8-steps to transformational change, and takes down the incredibly stupid axiom “what is not measured can’t be managed.” Whoever measured culture, leadership, or the potential for a new innovation? Has the performance of measurement itself been measured? The most important things in life cannot be measured, a point I try to make in my writings, especially, Measure What Matters to Customers. He also takes down efficiency, since it is a value-free concept (there’s no such thing as generic efficiency; it depends on your objectives and how much you’re willing to pay, which economists have taught for decades). Striving for efficiency makes us measure what’s most easily measured, which can be injurious to effectiveness (doing the right thing—a judgment).

Why do we do so much measuring? “What else can we do when we don’t know what’s going on?” One employee said: “With all this counting, we don’t count anymore. So why should we care?”

He also discusses the problems with teaching business with case studies (which I find completely useless) arguing that graduates are more comfortable analyzing evidence than learning from experience. Overall, a good, short, thought-provoking read.

[Vontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What looks like a simple book is the clarity of distilled wisdom from a lengthy career as a consultant & academic(McGill University). Forty two "vignettes" organized under seven topics.
Well worth reading more than once, especially when some of his observations & criticisms fly in the face of some "truths" espoused by other international consultants & academics. However, I do believe he offers useful suggestions, based on my own experiences of leadership & management.
Notes with resources listed at the end of the book, which is interspersed with illustrative photos.

[Babooka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Houd de discussie open door een openruimte te creeeiren waar alle verschillende managers en werknemers samen kunnen praten in plaats van alleen binnen hun eigen laag.
Als het bestuur verrot is in een management team word het lastig. Er moet namelijk een nieuwe leider dan worden uitgekozen en die kan alleen worden uitgekozen worden door bestuursleiders dus dan kiezen ze iemand die op hun zelf lijkt in manier van handelen waardoor het bedrijf stagneert omdat de leider zich slecht verhoud tot de werknemers die hij moet managen. Verder stond er nog in dit boek over de ronde tafel methode waarin je verschillende kringen om elkaar heen hebt met verschillende posities binnen het bedrijf. Elk persoon met een idee gaat voorin zitten dan kan de persoon daar achter zijn tegen argument geven hoe dat idee verbeterd kan worden zo draaien de stoelen constant tot dat er een briljant idee onstaat.

[Saba · Rating 3 out of 5]

اوایل خوندنش برام جذابیت بیشتری داشت
داستان های کوتاه و کاربردی رو که ممکنه تو مدیریت ازش چشم پوشی بشه رو سعی میکنه به طور جامع پوشش بده
یکی از چیزهایی که برام جالب بود تاکید به یادگیری در حین انجام کار و نه فقط برنامه ریزی صرف داشت.
مدیر بودن نشستن در جایی نیست که به آن عادت دارید مدیریت واقعی این است که شما هم تخم مرغ همزده خود را خورده باشید
خلق و توسعه استراتژی حاصل یادگیری است نه برنانه ریزی

[Saied · Rating 1 out of 5]

کتابی نیست که خوندنش رو به هیچ‌کس پیشنهاد کنم.
پر از تبلیغ دوره‌های خود نویسنده و مثال‌هایی که هیچ‌کدوم نه با فرهنگ ما نه با نیازهای ما همخون نیستن و طبیعتا در دسترس هم نیستن

[Fo · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب، توسط نویسنده‌ای مهم در حوزه مدیریت نوشته شده است، کتاب برای افرادی که مدیر هستند یا قصد دارند مدیر شوند مناسب است. ایده قصه‌ها قشنگ بود هرچند که در تمام کتاب هم رعایت نشده بود و البته صفحات آخر کتاب هم بیشتر جنبه تبلیغات داشت
عقاید نویسنده، خاص خودش است و شاید با نظرات رایج در حوزه مدیریت زاویه شدیدی داشته باشد

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short collection of 'stories', based on Mintzberg's blog. At the heart of each story is an anecdote or an aphorism intended to be thought-provoking. By its nature, the collection is a little haphazard, despite the author's effort to group similar stories by theme.

I found some of the stories, especially in the four parts, quite interesting (e.g. growing strategy like weeds, silos vs. slabs, and the pitfalls of chasing 'efficiency').

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not usually a business book reader but I really enjoyed this one. It’s short, not textbook like, and each ‘story’ is very well contained. Simple ideas but maybe also a little bit radical too. I also really liked the writing style so I may have to give his other books a whirl. Give it a go if you like!

[Ali Noroozian · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگرچه به نظر می‌رسد مخاطب این کتاب مدیران سازمانی می‌باشند، اما مطالعه‌ی آن برای تمام افراد شاغل، بالاخص علاقه‌مندان به مدیریت می‌تواند گزینه‌ای جذاب و آموزنده باشد

نویسنده، هنری مینتزبرگ، یکی از اساتید برجسته‌ی دانشکده‌ی کسب و کار دانشگاه مک‌گیل می‌باشد که در این کتاب بسیاری از نظریه‌های محبوب علم مدیریت ا�� جمله‌ نقل قول معروف پیتر دراکر "چیزی را که نتوان اندازه‌گیری کرد، نمی‌توان مدیریت کرد" را به چالش می‌کشد

برای شخص من که علاقه‌مند به ارزیابی‌های کمی می‌باشم، گفته‌های چالشی و انتقادی نویسنده برضد تفکرات تحلیل‌گرانه، آموخته‌های زیادی به همراه داشت

تمام کوشش منتزبرگ این است که به مخاطب بفهماند علاوه برجنبه‌ی علمی و آموزشی مدیریت، باید به جنبه‌ی هنری بودن آ ن که نشات گرفته از تجربیات و بینش مدیر است نیز توجه مبسوط نمود، حال آنکه چنین بینشی در کلاس درس‌‌های ام‌بی‌ای فراگرفته نشده و فارغ‌التحصیل این دست از رشته‌ها به ماشینی محاسباتی بدل گشته که گمان می‌برد با صرف کنترل هزینه می‌تواند به مدیری تاثیرگذار و اثر بخش بدل گردد

برای نقد چنین نگاهی او از دو مثال جالب بهره می‌گیرد. در یک تمثیل، از فارغ‌التحصیل رشته‌ی ام‌بی‌ای مثال می‌زند که رهبر یک ارکستر سمفونی گشته است. نگاه بهینه‌ی فارغ‌التحصیل در استفاده از منابع سبب می‌شود که اثر تولید شده هنری نبوده و نتیجه‌ای جز مزخرف به بار نداشته باشد.یا با ایراد به نظریات علوم اقتصادی، مدیری را به تصویر می‌کشد که با اخراج تمام کارکنان و نابودسازی کیفیت محصول، حاشیه‌ی سود خود را افزایش داده است حال آنکه پر واضح است اگرچه چنین مدیری با شاخصه‌های عملکردی سود، موفق عملکرد کرده اما در واقعیت تِر زده است

پس "رشد" به تنهایی غایت یک سازمان نبوده و مفهوم رشد باید در برگیرنده مسائل غیرقابل اندازه‌گیری نیز باشد چراکه رشدی که فقط با هدف رشد صورت پذیرد دقیقاً مشابه اتفاقی است که در سلول های سرطانی رخ می‌دهد

نویسنده با ذکر این نکته که " همه‌ی ما تجربه‌های زیادی داشته‌ایم اما معنای تجربیات را گم کرده‌ایم" گونه‌ای جدید از تدریس علم مدیریت را معرفی می‌نماید که در آن مدیران تجربیات و آموخته‌های خویش را در فضایی دوستانه و با در نظر گرفتن تفاوت‌های فرهنگی با یکدیگر به اشتراک می‌گذارند


پ.ن: مدیریت امری است حیاتی و تصمیمات مدیران تاثیر به سزایی بر سرنوشت سازمان‌ها خواهد گذاشت. با پذیرش این نکته می‌توان درک نمود که با راس امور بودن مشتی بیسواد بر مسند مدیریتی کشور چه آسیبی به ایران وارد گشته است. سازمان‌ها به مثابه جانوران گونه‌های متفاوت دارند، مدیری که در یک سازمان یا یک نوع صنعت خوب می‌درخشد، الزاماً نمی‌تواند در سازمانی دیگر با فرهنگی متفاوت عملکرد خوب داشته باشد. آخوند شش کلاسه‌ای که شاااااید بتواند یک هیئت سینه‌زنی را مدیریت کند الزاماً نمی‌تواند یک هیئت دولت را مدیریت کند. به قول مولانا گرچه باشد در نوشتن شیر، شیر

هنگامی که معیار سنجش، به جای تخصص، تقوا و عمل صالح باشد، وضع چنین است. چمران جمله‌ی جالبی دارد. وی یادآور می‌شود که گیریم تقوا هم گزینه‌ای مناسب برای احراز صلاحیت باشد، اما این را هم باید پذیرفت، کسی که تقوا نداشته باشد، مسئولیتی که توانایی آنرا ندارد به عهده نخواهد گرفت

[Bookandbriefcase · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book by #henrymintzberg is funny and full of bite-sized business morsels. He writes, “I dedicate this book to all those managers who eat the scrambled eggs to help their organisation work like a cow.”
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Personally I felt this reminded me of the book “under new management” which I may recommend over this one but I’m not exactly certain 🤔anyhow... read on!
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42 chapters of outrageous, thought provoking metaphors of what managing looks like today, and what it could be. Sharing 3 such ones here 👇🏻
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𝟛 𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕓𝕪𝕥𝕖𝕤 📚
📕Organise like a cow instead of a chart
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📗Don’t be too fixated on measurement. Hard data often arrives too late.
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📘Don’t just bust the silos in the workplace, bust the slabs!
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𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕀 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕕💎
Much of the book seemed to be written tongue-in-cheek (in a good way), and in a light hearted manner (because, bedtime). I’m guessing also because it’s meant to stretch the boundaries of what we assume is the norm of business management, and I think that’s great!
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ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕗𝕠𝕣:
Managers who need a bedtime read . My suggestion: read, ponder, and apply your situation to the scenarios; find anything interesting?

[Robert Kokai · Rating 5 out of 5]

We often see this metaphor in business life: you can easily relate to the role of a conductor who is responsible for the orchestration of different musical instruments, the full music program and the great sounding of the composer’s art. The concert hall is the office and the different types of instrument groups are the departments of a corporation. What business leadership and music orchestration do they have in common?
One of the recent readings Bedtime Stories For Managers from Henry Minzberg a veteran thought leader on management and leadership development from Canada really made me think. The book is structured from short stories, so you can really read them like bedtime stories. One of my favourite parts described a metaphor of leaders as conductors, comparing leadership to the work of an orchestra conductor.
I wrote on this topic on https://kokaibusinesscoach.com/leader...

[Luis Detlefsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Management is more of an art than a science. Some universities and organizations that profit on teaching management might disagree, but the author explains why MBA students constantly deliver poor results when they lack experience in the field. But MBA students can deliver good results when they have experience and years later start studying and improving their management style.

I liked the way he says "there are not so much good husbands and wives as good couples, likewise with good managers and their units". Of course there are people who should have never been in management, but most of the times being a good manager depends on being in the right company with the right team. That is, being with like-minded people.

[Manouane Beauchamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mintzberg est un chercheur universitaire incontournable dans le domaine de la gestion et du management. Ses théories sont bien bien connues et ont eu leur impact certain au coeur des entreprises et auprès de nombreux gestionnaires. Dans ce livre, qui est en fait un condensé révisé de certain de ses billets publiés dans un blogue, il expose ses opinions en s'appuyant à la fois sur des exemples concrets et sur ses théories. Ce livre va intéresser les gestionnaires ou les futurs gestionnaires, et est un très bon tremplin pour approfondir dans d'autres livres les théories fort intéressantes de Mintzberg.

[Adrian Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a 7 chapter collection of 150 blog stories about all facets of good and bad managers. Tough reading because of 150 styles of writing. Interesting though because I had never read a book like this before. I had to read it slow. Not like a novel with a story where you can’t wait for the next chapter. You had to read it, think about it.. and say. Yeah that makes sense. Or ....... wtf is he jabbering on about - that made absolutely no sense. Enjoyable reading none the less and but much out of my literary comfort zone.

[Rodrigo Pinillos Osnayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breve y concreto, se trata de textos cortos con la perspectiva del Prof. Mintzberg sobre distintos temas de dirección y gestión. Los primeros capítulos considero son los de mayor interés; notable su cuestionamiento a varias ideas preconcebidas y algunas prácticas extendidas (exceso de foco en indicadores y no en su interpretación; gestión del cambio desde arriba), así como a los modelos de formación directiva: crítica abierta a los límites del método del caso del típico MBA. Algunas metáforas son muy buenas y útiles para el aula de clases de administración.

[Martí Sala Perramon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lectura muy amena basado en algunos casos en historias reales y en otras en ficción que te hacen reflexionar sobre temas importantes en el mundo empresarial.
Algunos de los temas que tratan son los siguientes: organización empresarial, experiencia vs títulos universitarios, capacidad de analisis y reflexion.
Me ha gustado el hecho que plantea en muchos de sus cuentos la importancia de saber relacionarse y escuchar a todos los trabajadores independientemente de su posición jerarquica dentro de la empresa o organización.

[Shervin · Rating 4 out of 5]

مینتزبرگ بزرگ در این کتاب بسیاری از تفکرات مدیریتی که در دانشگاه ها آموزش داده می شود را تغییر می دهد. یک کتاب تابوشکنانه که تصور یک مدیر را از شیوه های مدیریتش جابه جا می کند.
بخشی از کتاب:
هرگز در زندگی به دنبال رقابت با ديگران نبوده ام، هیچوقت برای بهترین بودن برنامه‌ریزی نکرده ام، من فقط به دنبال آن بوده ام که خوب باشم؛ بهترین کار این است که هر کس با خودش رقابت کند، نه با دیگران و سعی کند بهترین خودش باشد.
پینوشت: به نظرم مترجمان در وفاداری به متن افراط کرده بودند و نتیجه کار ترجمه ای غیرروان و ضعیف بود.

[Faeze.nzi · Rating 1 out of 5]

به دلیل کامنتهای مثبت خواننده ها خوندمش ولی توصیه به خوندنش نمیکنم کل کتاب در ۱ صفحه میشد جمع شه.

-علم هم مانند عشق بخشی دارد که کار دل است، اگر به تکنیک محدود شود ناتوان خواهد شد.
-تمرکز بر موضوعات اقتصادی به تدریج ما رد به سمت نام اخلاق اقتصادی سوق می دهد که چیزی جز بی اخلاقی اجتماعی نیست؛ در این صورت زمانی که داریم به جای استفاده از غذای مناسب از غذای فوری استفاده میکنیم، کارایی رو بالاتر برده ایم. ولی این طور صحیح نیست.
و اینکه دوره MBA برای اینکه مدیر شوی لازم شاید باشه ولی ابدا کافی نیست‌.

[Wally Bock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got everything from this book I expected. Now I will set it aside and read one of his little essays every week. When I’m done with that, I may just start again. In the meantime, I’ll read his new blog posts.

See my full review at

https://www.threestarleadership.com/b...

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Short snippets that weigh heavily with the history and research of Professor Mintzberg’s other writings. Perhaps pointing the way to a more sustainable method of managing while simultaneously clearing the air of the opaque clouds of “strategy” and “leadership” that have been our corporate weather systems for the past decade or two.

[MR. Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

به نظز می رسه که نوشین ه قصد داره شمارو از یکسری اشکالات مدیریتی آگاه کنه، با شروع کتاب این نکته به ذهن شما متواتر میشه. ولی بعد از اینکه کمی جلو رفتید نویسنده مسائل پیش پا افتاده می را مطرح می کند.
خیلی از داستان ها واقعا فقط داستانه!

[Behzad Ezzati · Rating 4 out of 5]

نظریات جالبی بود از جناب مینتزبرگ
خوندن این کتاب در کنار کتابها و نظریاتی که متفاوت با ایشون فکر میکنند بسیار ارزشمنده
بله دقیقا منظورم اینه این جنس تفکرات به تنهایی و بدون قیاس با تفکرات دیگه اثربخش زیادی ندارند

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read that challenges traditional thinking

Highly recommend this book for all leaders/managers. Some great insights that will either build on what you’re already thinking or really challenge your assumptions.

[Fadl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mintzberg challenges the known management practices that are propagated by Harvard business school. He puts the term communityship instead of leadership.
The taken-for-granted management practices are no long.

[Mohamed Fahmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book explorers several business concepts and paradigms in short and easy stories. Read and reflect on your experience and environment...not everything can be valid all the times...most of them YES!

[Megha Sehgal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book presents an interesting perspective on management, but the writing style can be disjointed and difficult to follow at times. Mintzberg uses a combination of stories and anecdotes to illustrate his points, making the book enjoyable to read but also making it difficult to take the lessons away. Furthermore, the book's structure is somewhat inconsistent and the lack of research material makes it difficult to fully understand the concepts presented. Overall, "Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging Management" is a book that offers an interesting perspective on management, but fails to provide the depth and detail needed to truly understand the concepts presented.