Better Management for a Better Future
Every day, we witness the consequences of unmanaged organizations and failed leadership—some with minor inefficiencies, others with catastrophic results. Beneath the surface lies a chicken-and-egg dilemma: poor leadership weakens management, leading to cultural decay, stagnation, and ultimately, failure.
So where do we start?
We recognize that ‘unmanaged’ (not managed—akin to mismanaged) is a harsh reality, not just an anomaly. Many organizations muddle through, surviving rather than thriving. Good management is rare, outdated, and underutilized. While replacing ineffective leaders is a straightforward responsibility for boards, fixing management requires deeper, more strategic work.
What Does 'Unmanaged' Mean?
Traditional management structures, rooted in control, hierarchy, and efficiency, are failing in today’s volatile business landscape. Unmanaged is not about abandoning management but evolving it into a system that is adaptive, fluid, and focused on creating value. It means moving from rigid, bureaucratic structures to mastery in management—a model that is diagnostic, systemic, human, holistic, regenerative, integrated, distributed, unique, and interactive. These nine attributes define what it means to move beyond outdated leadership paradigms toward a future of sustainable, high-performing organizations.
Organization Twins: The Tool for Mastery
Mastery in management requires tools that enable assessment, adaptation, and evolution. Organization Twins serve as the key tool in this transformation.
These AI-driven digital replicas of an organization’s management structure provide a mirror image of its capabilities, decision-making, and effectiveness. By analyzing data from 500 organizations and leveraging 25 years of research, Organization Twins help leaders:
- Diagnose inefficiencies by comparing management performance.
- Simulate new management models before implementation.
- Visualize how structural and cultural changes impact performance.
- Benchmark management innovation beyond traditional comparisons.
Unlike static benchmarking, Organization Twins offer real-time feedback and predictive analytics, transforming management innovation into an iterative, measurable process.
The Nine Attributes of Mastery in Management
1. Diagnostic: Management as a Continuous Learning Process
Organizations must diagnose their management effectiveness continuously, much like doctors assess a patient’s health. This requires real-time data, deep self-reflection, and the ability to act on insights. Tools like Organization Twins provide this level of assessment, ensuring organizations identify gaps before they become failures.
2. Systemic: Seeing the Organization as an Interconnected Whole
A fragmented approach to management leads to inefficiencies and misalignment. Mastery demands a systemic view—understanding that performance emerges from the interplay between strategy, culture, leadership, and processes. Systems thinking, championed by Peter Senge, is a core principle in designing organizations that thrive in complexity.
3. Human: Prioritizing People Over Processes
Unlike traditional management that prioritizes control, a human-centric approach fosters trust, collaboration, and empowerment. Neuroscience confirms that organizations with psychologically safe environments perform better. Leaders must shift from directing to enabling, allowing teams to take ownership and innovate.
4. Holistic: Integrating Diverse Perspectives
Mastery in management means breaking down silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration. A holistic approach ensures that diverse expertise is integrated into decision-making, leading to more resilient strategies and adaptable business models.
5. Regenerative: Building Sustainable and Self-Sustaining Organizations
Organizations that extract more than they replenish—whether resources, talent, or energy—will fail over time. A regenerative management model focuses on long-term sustainability, ensuring that organizations continuously renew their leadership capacity, culture, and competitive advantage.
6. Integrated: Embedding Management as an Organizational Capability
Management should not be a separate function but an integrated part of how work gets done. Decision-making must be embedded at all levels, enabling faster, more adaptive responses. Organization Twins help organizations map out these integration points, ensuring coherence and alignment.
7. Distributed: Decentralizing Control for Greater Agility
Rigid, hierarchical decision-making slows organizations down. Distributed management shifts decision-making closer to where the work happens. Agile organizations empower frontline employees with the autonomy to respond to challenges in real time, fostering adaptability and resilience.
8. Unique: Customizing Management to Fit the Organization
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to management. Unique organizations tailor their management models to their industry, workforce, and culture. Organization Twins help leaders identify what works for them, rather than copying external best practices that may not fit their context.
9. Interactive: Enabling Feedback Loops and Continuous Adaptation
In traditional organizations, decision-making is linear and slow. Mastery in management requires interactive, real-time feedback mechanisms that ensure constant learning and course correction. By leveraging cybernetic principles—self-regulating systems that adjust dynamically—organizations can remain agile in an ever-changing world.
Applying the Nine Attributes in the Discovery Journey
Mastery is not an overnight achievement; it is a journey. Organizations transition through five key stages:
1. Assessment: Measuring Where You Stand
Using Organization Twins, leaders assess management effectiveness across the nine attributes, identifying where gaps exist.
2. Adoption: Experimenting with New Approaches
Organizations begin testing new ways of working, piloting management innovations based on real-time feedback and analytics.
3. Adaptation: Customizing and Scaling What Works
Rather than copying best practices, organizations adapt management models to fit their unique environment, ensuring flexibility and sustainability.
4. Evolution: Embedding Continuous Learning
Management mastery is achieved when organizations create self-regulating systems that learn and evolve in response to internal and external changes.
5. Perfection: Creating a Self-Sustaining System
Organizations that integrate all nine attributes into their management DNA reach a state of perpetual innovation and high performance.
The Future of Management is Mastery
Traditional management, built on control and efficiency, is no longer enough. The future of management lies in mastery—where leadership is distributed, learning is continuous, and organizations operate as living, adaptive systems. Organization Twins provide the essential toolset to navigate this transformation, enabling organizations to benchmark, experiment, and evolve in real time.
These principles will redefine how leaders perceive management. The question is not whether leadership can get its hands on deck but to quickly adopt management and organization based on data to secure long-term success.
For those ready to take this leap, Unmanaged is not just a theory—it’s the pathway to a better, more sustainable future for management.
Since 2002, we create Organization Twins with the AI-based Management Innovation Toolkit.
Contact Lukas Michel, Author, Founder and Owner of Management Insights for more information.
Experience the free ORGANIZATION TWIN.
Our latest book: Unmanaged: How Mastery in Management Replaces Muddling Through, LID Publishing, London, November 2025
