I delivered the day 2 keynote address at Avectra’s AUDC conference last week. It was the first time I delivered this particular keynote–I’ve integrated some of the more recent research on social business into the points I have been making about Humanize over the last year, and I go deeper with some examples from clients I’ve worked with as well (slides should be embedded below, or click here).

Following the keynote, Maddie and I did a “fishbowl” session for about 30 people on the leadership implications of social business. It was an open conversation, and I was really impressed with the quality of the discussion.

At one point, one of the participants pushed back a bit against what I had said in the keynote. I’m paraphrasing here, but he basically suggested that he sees some value in the mechanical approach to leadership in management that I was criticizing in the keynote, and that shifting everything to a more human approach might not necessarily work.

He’s totally right. The reason I emphasize a more decentralized, organic, human-centered, transparent, and generative approach to leadership and management is NOT because those aspects are universally awesome and work in every context and at all times. I emphasize them (and strongly) because they have been woefully undervalued over the last century. I emphasize them because I don’t think many of us see how overly focused we’ve been on the mechanical. It’s so deeply embedded in our approach that we often don’t literally see it. I try to be provocative about the human approach because sometimes we need to be jolted out of our complacency.

But I’m not asking us to replace the mechanical approach with the human approach entirely. I am simply asking us to make a significant shift in that direction. Of course there will be times where you need consistency or repeatability, and the mechanical approach is going to be awesome. I joke that when you’re building a bridge, I’m actually okay with best practices (in the book, we literally say they are evil). I don’t want that bridge being organic and shifting and experimental. In management, there are times where consistent procedures and linear work flows are critical to success.

As in most of life, the secret is in integration and balance. Yin and yang. Pushing the edge of the envelope, and then adjusting course if you go too far. I think we’ve been stuck in the machine rut when it comes to leadership and management, which is why I have such passion about moving away from that approach. But I do follow my own advice–I’m okay with difference. I value the machine approach. I value that tradition and I appreciate the tremendous productivity that has resulted. I just want us to continue to grow and improve, and I argue that the organizations who learn how to integrate the human with the mechanical will be leading the way.