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Management Thinkers – A Retrospective

Nearly 200 Great Management Minds

For over three years now, we’ve been running an extended series of articles about some of the finest management thinkers (and doers). Over 150 articles representing very nearly 200 great minds. I used to think our 18 month Pocket Correspondence Course series was a big project!

But all things must end. I’ve decided to wrap up this particular series. It isn’t that there are no more management thinkers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs of note.There are plenty. But it’s time to move on.

I may return to this theme for occasional one-offs, but from October, we’ll start something new.

Choosing Favourites

So, before we do, I’d like to highlight a few of my favourites. There’s no rhyme or reason to this list. They aren’t the best thinkers, nor the best articles.

I’ve chosen:

  • some because they taught me something new,
  • some because I liked the ideas,
  • some because I’m proud of the article, and
  • some because reading them again made me smile.

But preparing this was a deep pleasure. I indulged myself in re-reading a lot of content: between 125,000 and 150,00 words. That’s about half the length of Game of Thrones!

Winning the Game

The First Thing I noticed…

Was how many women made it onto my long-list of 30. There were 14, yet in the series overall around 33 percent of the people featured were women. Indeed, with the single thinkers, I set out to maintain a one-in-three ratio throughout.

So here are my selections of my very favourites…

and my reasoning:

Amy Cuddy and Teresa Amabile – because in doing both of these, I found that the work that most interested me of theirs is not the work they are famous for.

Marshall McLuhan because I finally got to learn more than just a slogan, and the Woody Allen clip still makes me smile like it did when I saw Annie Hall in the cinema.

Henri Fayol, Lotte Bailyn, Edgar Schein, Rensis Likert, and Mary Parker Follett, because I knew nothing of their work before I researched them, and what I found blew me away.

Brené Brown and Susan Cain, because they are redefining what it means to be a leader and an innovator in the modern world.

Robert Cialdini, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Philip Tetlock, Nancy Duarte, and Robert Greenleaf, because their work has taught me a whole lot over the years, and I find myself constantly referring to it.

Julia Galef, Amy Edmondson, and Liz Wiseman, because their ideas grabbed me.

That’s 17. Not a magic number, and I’m sorry to have left out 13 from my long-list.

But it’s more than enough.

Between now and next week, read a couple each day, and 7 over the weekend.

Next week, I have my favourites among the managers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs who innovated and led with astonishing insight and efficacy.

Who would you pick?

Take a look at the full list of our Management Thinkers and Doers.

Who would you pick as your favourites, and why?

And who did we miss?

I’ll respond to every comment, and maybe do an article on any suggestions that I like.

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