Dansk
A particular experience at this year's Roskilde Festival reminded me that strategy and management are not the answer to all problems.
I admit it. This column is written with mixed feelings. Because it is not based on scientific data or verified facts, but solely on a personal experience from this year's Roskilde Festival.
I'm writing it anyway because the experience put my daily work with strategy and management into perspective. I'll come back to that. First to the experience itself.
This year I was a first-time volunteer at Roskilde Festival. As a team leader in a food stall, I was responsible for a team of 15-20 young people from Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece and other countries.
The deal was clear: Everyone got free admission to the festival because they volunteered at the booth. It's a great concept that I think draws on our Danish tradition of cooperation, association life and community.
In the beginning, the atmosphere was great, even though the tasks were many - and not always exciting: chopping vegetables, mixing dressings, wiping tables, taking away rubbish, cleaning up the kitchen and doing the dishes - so the next team didn't have to take over a bomb crater. All while the paying guests enjoyed the freedom, music and life.
However, I quickly realized that there was a difference between my volunteers. Many of the Danish young people simply didn't want to do what they had signed up for. At first, things were done with the left hand. Later, they weren't done at all. And finally, they just said no when I asked them to.
The opposite was true for their Southern European colleagues. They took the tasks with a smile, felt responsible for what they left behind - and sometimes looked with disbelief at their Danish colleagues who shamelessly jumped through hoops. That is, if they bothered to jump at all.
As my astonishment and irritation grew, an inner echo also grew louder. The echo of my own strategy and management philosophy:
It's not the employees who are at fault. It's the management that has failed to create meaningful work. A clearer framework and inclusive approach would have solved the problem. I could also hear top management experts saying that if only management stopped overselling business values (people washing), employees would be more motivated.
It's probably all true. And yes - I was possibly the worst team leader in Roskilde at that food stall.
But at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, privilege-blind and aggrieved, the experience has also given me the heretical thought that maybe not all problems stem from strategic ambiguity or incompetent management.
Sometimes the problem is simply a certain type of employee.
- Those who are constantly trying to let go.
- Those who don't bother if it gets "boring".
- The ones who always prefer working from home to coworking.
- Those who believe that meaningfulness is something you get - not something you have to give.
- Those who are basically closest to themselves.
Can you expect ultimate self-sacrifice in a food stall at Roskilde Festival? No - of course not. Have I jumped over the cliff myself? Yes - of course you have.
But this time it wasn't the fault of strategy or management.
This column is published in Jyllands-Posten Finance and in Jyllands-Posten Business, July 24, 2023.
Now we can spend our time on strategy content instead of models
Allan Pedersen
Owner &CEO
K.J. Climate Technology A/S