The Chairman of the Party
I keep a bust of Mao Zedong in my office, perched atop a copy of his Little Red Book. It sends an appropriately ambiguous workplace message while also acting as an antidote to overwrought corporate gobbledygook and groupthink.
Many of Mao’s quotations in the LRB can be read as his solutions to practical management problems, and while (in hindsight) they’re not necessarily sustainable ideas -- or even good ideas -- they were, at one point at least, reasonably effective.
The fact that they also come with creepy historical baggage counts as a bonus — in one of my previous jobs, I enjoyed noting the eerie parallels between the memos sent out by our CEO and passages from the Quotations of Chairman Mao. Needless to say, the CEO did not find this amusing.
Some off-the-cuff examples of Management Mao...
One the importance of proper employee training:
”Cadres are a decisive factor, once the political line is determined. Therefore, it is our task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way."
-- "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II
On teamwork and meeting established goals:
”Place problems on the table. This should be done not only by the "squad leader" but by the committee members too. Do not talk behind people's backs. Whenever problems arise, call a meeting, place the problems on the table for discussion, take some decisions and the problems will be solved. If problems exist and are not placed on the table, they will remain unsolved for a long time and even drag on for years. The "squad leader" and the committee members should show understanding in their relations with each other. Nothing is more important than mutual understanding, support and friendship between the secretary and the committee members, between the Central Committee and its regional bureaus and between the regional bureaus and the area Party committees.”
-- "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 377.
On our anticipated quarterly results and the need for future cost-cutting:
"To win country-wide victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand li.... The Chinese revolution is great, but the road after the revolution will be longer, the work greater and more arduous. This must be made clear now in the Party. The comrades must be helped to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness in their style of work. The comrades must be helped to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle."
-- "Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (March 5, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV
On employee empowerment and bottom-up leadership:
”Ask your subordinates about matters you don't understand or don't know, and do not lightly express your approval or disapproval.... We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should "not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below" and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lower levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders.... What the cadres at the lower levels say may or may not be correct, after hearing it, we must analyse it. We must heed the correct views and act upon them.... Listen also to the mistaken views from below, it is wrong not to listen to them at all. Such views, however, are not to be acted upon but to be criticized.”
-- "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV
The Chairman of the Party
I keep a bust of Mao Zedong in my office, perched atop a copy of his Little Red Book. It sends an appropriately ambiguous workplace message while also acting as an antidote to overwrought corporate gobbledygook and groupthink.
Many of Mao’s quotations in the LRB can be read as his solutions to practical management problems, and while (in hindsight) they’re not necessarily sustainable ideas -- or even good ideas -- they were, at one point at least, reasonably effective.
The fact that they also come with creepy historical baggage counts as a bonus — in one of my previous jobs, I enjoyed noting the eerie parallels between the memos sent out by our CEO and passages from the Quotations of Chairman Mao. Needless to say, the CEO did not find this amusing.
Some off-the-cuff examples of Management Mao...
One the importance of proper employee training:
”Cadres are a decisive factor, once the political line is determined. Therefore, it is our task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way."
-- "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II
On teamwork and meeting established goals:
”Place problems on the table. This should be done not only by the "squad leader" but by the committee members too. Do not talk behind people's backs. Whenever problems arise, call a meeting, place the problems on the table for discussion, take some decisions and the problems will be solved. If problems exist and are not placed on the table, they will remain unsolved for a long time and even drag on for years. The "squad leader" and the committee members should show understanding in their relations with each other. Nothing is more important than mutual understanding, support and friendship between the secretary and the committee members, between the Central Committee and its regional bureaus and between the regional bureaus and the area Party committees.”
-- "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 377.
On our anticipated quarterly results and the need for future cost-cutting:
"To win country-wide victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand li.... The Chinese revolution is great, but the road after the revolution will be longer, the work greater and more arduous. This must be made clear now in the Party. The comrades must be helped to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness in their style of work. The comrades must be helped to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle."
-- "Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (March 5, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV
On employee empowerment and bottom-up leadership:
”Ask your subordinates about matters you don't understand or don't know, and do not lightly express your approval or disapproval.... We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should "not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below" and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lower levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders.... What the cadres at the lower levels say may or may not be correct, after hearing it, we must analyse it. We must heed the correct views and act upon them.... Listen also to the mistaken views from below, it is wrong not to listen to them at all. Such views, however, are not to be acted upon but to be criticized.”
-- "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV