The Little Book of BIG Management Theories – James McGrath & Bob Bates

Welcome to another of my book reviews.

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant more time at home* and more time for me to invest in my own personal learning – which is, incidentally, a great way to overcome the potential mental health challenges of being in lockdown. (And you don't feel the same guilt after a day of reading as you may after a day of Netflix boxsets!)

I am taking the opportunity to read books that I ordered on someone’s recommendation a while ago and got tucked away in my top drawer because I was really busy when they were delivered.

This book promises 89 key management theories, with a one page ‘how to use the theory’ guide, and on the whole, it doesn’t disappoint! It’s definitely a useful book for anyone taking their first steps into management, or for anyone who (like so many) has found themselves promoted into a management role (maybe many years ago) but never had any formal management training.

NB: I particularly liked the analogy of quality management being like sex – we all think we understand it, we all think we’re good at it, we all want more of it, and the problems are usually someone else’s fault! (The key of course, is that quality in real life is judged by the experience and perception of the other person, so listening to what they want and need is key!)

*no travelling has been a real change for me, as I used to use the hashtag #travellingtrainer on Twitter! I have since reinvented as an online trainer, and am starting to see bookings coming through from those companies positioning themselves to smash it when the recovery comes!

What did I learn?

Having done my Post Grad Diploma in HR Management and trained in the leadership and management space, it wasn’t a surprise that the vast majority of this book was familiar territory for me. All the ‘greats’ are there – Lewin, Herzberg, Handy, Ansoff, Porter, Drucker, Goleman, Hamel and Prahalad, Pareto, etc.

There were a couple of theories that were either new to me or forgotten – I now want to go and read more of Peters & Waterman’s work around both strategic management and quality management. It was also interesting to hear that Hackman and Oldham came to the same conclusions around motivation in 1970s and 1980s as Daniel Pink in his book Drive – although they called the key factors Responsibility, Feedback and Meaningful rather than Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

When I read a book, even if I only pick up one new thing, I consider it a worthwhile investment. In many ways, if all 89 of these theories had been new to me, I may have found the book overwhelming, but you don't have to read it all at once!

How would I improve this book?

Having never had a book published myself, it feels a little cheeky to pontificate about how I would improve any book! However, from a reader's perspective...

I would be interested to see future revisions of this book in light of some of the more modern writers (this book was published in 2013 and there has been lots of great stuff coming out in the last decade).

I’d love to see some of the stuff around understanding how people think (Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow or Prof Steve Peters The Chimp Paradox).

On the whole, the questions to help managers apply the theories in real life are pretty good and capture the essence of the theories really well.

Having said that, the chapter on Belbin in this book for me didn’t really capture the full nature and application of Belbin’s work. It felt like a ‘finger-pointing’ exercise where each person only fulfils one role and carries all the blame if something isn’t working. For me, Belbin is about understanding that everyone contributes in a different way, and some strengths bring ‘allowable weaknesses’ (because nobody is perfect) – and using this understanding to ensure everyone in the team is valued and recognised by everyone else in the team for the important part they play. Like all theories that put people in boxes, the fatal flaw is that people aren’t box shaped and real life is much more complex!

Why would I recommend this book?

Most managers are time poor in their everyday life, and this book provides a high level, accessible overview of a multitude of management theories.

The authors recognise that not all theories will be (or feel) relevant to every manager in every team and encourage the read to ask questions to work things out for themselves.

Even if you only find one or two theories that resonate and help you to become a better manager, it’s well worth the investment of your time to read this book.

Disclaimer: I write book reviews of books I have read and found useful in some way. I do not get paid for endorsing any author/service/product, because I believe that would impact on my ability to be completely objective.

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