Precepts and Percepts of Middle Way Management

Part Two: Percepts

The percepts of Middle Way Management™ are the assumptions and presumptions many of us make and carry around in our heads regarding an approach to leading and managing people that emphasizes compassion over the bottom line. Typically, assumptions like these are created from incomplete or inaccurate information about what it takes to manage people in an organization.


Percept #1: Middle Way Management is a soft approach to leading and managing people in organizations
American-style organizations have long operated under the assumption that people are nothing more than resources to be exploited with the singular goal of increasing shareholder value. The roots of this attitude lie in Chicago School/Friedmanian economic theories that consider humans rational beings (we generally are not) to be manipulated in ways designed solely to increase productive output. This largely discounts stakeholder theories that emphasize common ground and the sharing of success and failure across a broader spectrum of interested parties, including shareholders/owners, managers (as representatives of the shareholders/owners), employees, partners, suppliers, and even competitors. Middle Way Management emphasizes personal accountability at all organizational levels, leaving no "wiggle room" for lapses in ethics or responsibility. Because of this, Middle Way Management is not "soft" on people in organizations; it holds them to the highest possible standards.


Percept #2: Some (most?) managers will not accept or adopt Middle Way Management
The temptation here is to use the old sales adage, "Some will, some won't, so what, who's next?" I understand that not everyone will ken to my presentation of Middle Way Management and I'm fine with that. As I explained to a colleague who presented this idea to me, if everyone went along with my concepts, I would be able to change water to wine and then walk on it! I fully expect many, if not most, American-style managers to discount the ideas here because they have been steeped in the points I make in Percept #1. My primary goal is to present the concepts and let the seeds germinate and take root where they will. If I can help even one manager reach a new awareness about his or her role, I've accomplished something wonderful.


Percept #3: Middle Way Management is nothing new
As another old saying goes, "There is nothing new under the sun." So it also goes for Middle Way Management. A major task when one undertakes knowledge creation is to synthesize and evaluate both disparate and similar ideas, to show them in a new light. As I frame management in new ways, I am presenting new possibilities that some managers may never before have considered or, if they have considered them, did not possess the practice tools to make them a reality. The fundamental concepts of Middle Way Management are not new, which is why I truly believe it will succeed as a new way of leading and managing people in organizations.


Percept #4: Middle Way Management is a Buddhist apologetic
Middle Way Management does, by virtue of its name, share much with Buddhism. The attention to mindfulness, compassion, daily review(s) of behaviors, and an emphasis on right thought that leads to right speech and right action are all Buddhist concepts. Yet, they are also concepts that can be found in other leadership and management approaches, as well as other philosophies and ideologies. Middle Way Management is not an apologetic because it is not focused on recruiting anyone to the Buddhist religion/way of life nor is it intended to be used as a rationalization for adoption of Buddhist philosophy. As you will see, Middle Way Management is a way to lead and manage people in organizations that is more than all of these.


Percept #5: Middle Way Management is a New Age approach
The intent of Middle Way Management is to encourage a leadership/management sensibility of compassion that generates a more positive and creative organizational environment. Because of the language I use, some will see it as a New Age approach when, in fact, it is closer to Buddhism, which has a 2,500-year history of success. As with anything I write, the conclusions people come to will be entirely their own. I can only offer my ideas for consumption and then see how people embrace and apply them. This should prove to be an interesting journey, indeed.

Stay tuned for more - I've completed the articles I was committed to writing and now have more time to develop and present Middle Way Management for your comments.

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.