10 Takeaways From A Day of Drucker

The Global Peter Drucker Forum, in Vienna, Austria (Drucker’s birthplace), produced an extraordinary virtual event on June 30, A Day of Drucker: Tackling Today’s Challenges with “the Father of Management.” It honored the life and work of Peter Drucker, with excellent panelists and presenters from throughout the world, and was preceded by a special day of workshops on June 29.

I was a panelist for the final, ‘Post Scriptum’ session on June 30. The entire event was like a super-concentrated MBA, where participants could learn from some of the best teachers. I’ve distilled my impressions into the following 10 takeaways:

1. Define Your Terminology

Many buzzwords in management and leadership have multiple meanings. An unspoken theme of the day was that it’s up to each of us to be clear about what we mean when we use common terms like productivity, passion, measurement, success, happiness and retirement.

For instance, in the panel ‘Taking Ideas Forward: Next Generation Managers,’ Rahaf Harfoush, author of Hustle and Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work, made the point that what many companies and managers think of as ‘productivity,’ is actually counterproductive.

2. Seek Out Newly Coveted Professional Skills

The pandemic has put a focus on skills many people didn’t know they would need, such as the ability to moderate a panel session, especially virtually. The A Day of Drucker moderators were superb at keeping their sessions flowing, drawing out insights from panelists, monitoring chat remarks and remaining unflappable under time pressure and the inevitable technological glitches. They did all of that on top of weeks of preparation and coordination leading up to the event.

Kudos also to the Global Peter Drucker Forum’s two hosts for the event, Katharina Moser and Christine Jama, for their calm and poised presence online before, in between and after the sessions.

3. Plan For Your 50-Year Career

Peter Drucker’s career spanned more than 70 years, and he advised people to start planning for the second half of live far ahead of time.

Few of us are likely to have a 70 year-career. But as pointed out by presenter Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, founder/CEO of 20-first, we are increasingly likely to have 50-year careers.

What does that mean for our individual life planning, and what are the implications for managers?

4. Happiness Revisited

As noted above, happiness is a term each of needs to define for ourselves, and work toward accordingly. Tal Ben-Shahar, a pioneer in happiness studies, remarked that (1) while many people think that success brings happiness, it’s actually the other way around; and (2) people aren’t always great at predicting what will make them happy or unhappy.

He also related how Drucker’s ideas were foundational, especially in his early work on the subject, when he taught a wildly popular course on happiness at Harvard.

Managers should be mindful about how they treat people and how people treat each other. A company or organization full of unhappy people is a miserable place to be.

5. Tap Into Creativity and the Arts

Many panelists made mention of Drucker’s contention that management was a liberal art. The sessions often referenced creativity in its various forms, and also Drucker’s personal appreciation of and knowledge about art, literature and music.

One of the ‘Breakout Room’ sessions, ‘Music and Leadership,’ featured the commentary of Bernhard Kerres, a former opera singer and Silicon Valley executive, and the exquisite music of cellist Christine J. Lee.

6. The Future Is Multi-Generational

We are in good hands if the confident young panelists/presenters in ‘Taking Ideas Forward: Next Generation Managers’ are any indication. It was one of the liveliest, most electrifying sessions of the day, featuring the above-mentioned Rahaf Harfoush (Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture), Eric Kohlmann (Associate, Kohlmann & Co AG), Mathis Bitton (student of philosophy and political theory, Yale University), and moderated by Karen Woodin-Rodriguez (executive coach, entrepreneur, and Drucker Challenge essayist). There was a recorded presentation before the panel from Prosper Yole, a student, writer and project manager based in Nigeria.

7.  Persuasion Through Storytelling

Much of A Day of Drucker was a masterclass in how to tell a story to hold an audience’s attention. This was especially on display in the ‘Inspired Leaders: Putting Drucker’s Ideas Into Action’ session of CEO/Chairman-level executives led by Drucker School professor Bernie Jaworski, with powerful career/organizational stories from the likes of Sara Mathew, Chair of the Board of Freddie Mac and former CEO of Dun & Bradstreet.

One of my fellow ‘Post Scriptum’ panelists, Steve Denning, author of The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, is one of the pioneers of organizational storytelling.

8. Stand Out Through Unpredictability

As pointed out in her welcoming remarks, Angelica Kohlmann, Chairman of Kohlmann & Co AG and a member of the Drucker family, you couldn’t necessarily predict what Peter Drucker would say in any given situation. That can be an effective strategy to differentiate yourself in life and in the workplace.

Drucker could often be an iconoclast, a quality displayed in ‘The Path to High Performance’ panel by The Economist columnist Adrian Wooldridge, when discussing the ideas in his new book The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World.

9. The Power of Perseverance

Combining the virtues of storytelling, as noted above, and sheer determination, José Salibi Neto, the co-founder of HSM Group, in Brazil, related how for years he did not take Peter Drucker’s ‘no’ for an answer to be a featured speaker at the management conferences he produced in Latin America. But he finally prevailed and worked with Drucker worldwide for 14 years.

10. The Need for Kindness, Humility and Civility

In his recorded presentation, social philosopher Charles Handy advised us to ‘be kind,’ and to live a good life. In another recorded presentation, Good to Great author Jim Collins, one of the most astute observers of Drucker’s life and work, remarked how kind and considerate Drucker was to him when he was relatively unknown, at their first meeting at Drucker’s home many years ago.

In her panelist tribute to Drucker’s longtime colleague and collaborator Joseph A. Maciariello, who passed away last year, Drucker School Professor Emeritus Jean Lipman Blumen noted Maciariello’s consistent kindness and approachability. Their offices were next door to each other, and his door was never closed.

Peter Drucker consistently attracted deep thinkers and high achievers into his orbit. He learned from them, and vice versa. A Day of Drucker demonstrated what happens when you (virtually) bring these types of people together. Although I was aware of the work of many of the panelists and presenters, a number were new to me. I remain highly impressed by their knowledge, experience and continued contributions, inside and outside of the workplace.