Let the Means Take Care of the Ends: An Interview with Tom Johnson and Elaine Johnson
by Kali Saposnick

from Leverage Points Issue 41

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A few years ago, quality management professor H. Thomas Johnson wrote the award-winning book, Profit Beyond Measure: Extraordinary Results Through Attention to Work and People (The Free Press, 2000), in which he describes a revolutionary concept at play in stable, profitable companies—what he calls "management by means" (MBM). Since the book's publication, Tom has been integrating a strong ecological awareness into MBM practice in his work with local Portland, Oregon, businesses. Educator Elaine Johnson has been introducing MBM to educational institutions, using a pathway to academic excellence that she developed and describes in her books Contextual Teaching and Learning (Corwin Press, 2002) and The Dismantling of American Public Education and How to Stop It (Scarecrow Press, forthcoming).

In their keynote address at the upcoming Pegasus Conference, Tom and Elaine will draw on theory and concrete cases to show the vast discrepancy, in both short- and long-term results, between organizations that focus on achieving arbitrarily set quantitative targets and those that strive to conduct all work in accord with patterns observed in natural systems. They will discuss how schools and companies everywhere can achieve better outcomes by nurturing the means by which results are achieved. The following is a preview of how they're applying these ideas to their work.

"The key problem in the American business world today is that we've lost sight of what business is all about," says Portland State University professor Tom Johnson. "We think it's about accumulating financial wealth and shareholder value, but the fundamental purpose of business, going back thousands of years in human experience, is to meet human economic needs by cultivating creative human talent."

In other words, he asserts, organizations should be set up to develop people's capabilities to meet customers' requirements. Businesses that deviate from this purpose and instead design structures to maximize shareholder wealth at the expense of employees, suppliers, and customers end up generating enormous amounts of waste that appears primarily in two forms: excessive operating costs in the short run and excessive instability in the long run. Often, such businesses destroy the very systems that support them, for example, by polluting the rivers and air of their communities or by closing factories and leaving thousands of people unemployed.

According to Tom, in companies where work corresponds to principles observed in natural systems—companies that manage by means rather than by objectives—the financial results will take care of themselves. Managing by means particularly involves nurturing relationships among employees, customers, suppliers, and the community, as well as attending to the company's relationship to Earth. Companies that manage by means—whether explicitly or not—recognize the importance of financial well-being, but they believe it is best achieved by attending to factors such as quality assurance, employee development, and environmental responsibility. "For example, Toyota has been managing by means for years," Tom says, "and every year since 1988 has amassed a market value rivaling—or sometimes surpassing—the American 'Big Three' automakers combined. Southwest Airlines also seems to employ MBM, although they would probably not use this term to describe what they do."

Three Universal Principles
Johnson's Management by Means framework reflects extensive research into biology, physics—especially quantum physics and evolutionary cosmology—and chemistry. Scientists working in these areas over the past 80 years have made discoveries that strongly suggest the existence of three principles that influence everything in the universe, including all living systems on Earth: self-organization, interdependence, and diversity.

• Self-organization refers to the capability of all living entities to define and sustain their own unique identity, even as they constantly adjust and adapt themselves in response to feedback from their environment. This self-organizing power implies the potential to grow limitlessly.
• Interdependence refers to the principle by which unlimited growth is prevented. It says that everything in nature is inextricably connected to everything else, and any entity seeking to use all the energy in the universe for its own purposes is bound to bump up against, and be challenged by, other entities.
• Diversity is the consequence of the interactions among self-organizing entities—the endless generation of new things and, in terms of human entities, new thinking.

To apply these principles to any organization—be it a business, nonprofit organization, or educational institution—is to manage by means. In practice, managers who adopt MBM take the time to master the intricacies of the actual work being done at every level of the organization—and pay close attention to the people who do that work. They give employees opportunities to make independent decisions, collaborate, recognize and solve problems, and develop new approaches to accomplish tasks. Out of this process naturally come innovations that help the entire organization and its community thrive.

Tom believes that for people to embrace MBM, we have to recognize that we depend on Earth as our primary support system, and we must come to appreciate, respect, and honor its constraints. Tom's deep knowledge of environmental issues and his immersion in MBM have led him to his present study of economic activity at the local level. "My MBA students and leaders of local business are collaborating to design ways for community-held and private businesses to satisfy local needs using local resources, as much as possible," he explains. "Their aim is to do business without damaging Earth's capacity to sustain all life. Among the most successful outcomes of this effort so far are community-supported agricultural businesses that supply goods to local groceries and restaurateurs and build a base of jobs and employment in the local region."

Embracing a Living Systems View
"If modern scientists are right, and if three incontrovertible principles influence every living system on Earth, then surely human beings would be wise to act in concert with these principles," says educator Elaine Johnson. Yet she acknowledges how difficult it is to persuade people to run organizations in ways that emulate living systems.

When she talks with school administrators and faculty about embracing these principles, Elaine understands how deeply she is challenging their convictions. "They first have to believe we can extrapolate these three principles from science," she explains. "Then they have to believe that the principles apply to their school and to their lives. At rock bottom, they also have to be willing to believe in people, to believe that people want to do well, want to succeed in their work, want to be respected, and want to be generous to their colleagues."

As they begin engaging with the living systems worldview, Elaine notes, educators realize that it actually supports conclusions borne of long experience. For example, interdependence reminds them that they have been right all along to emphasize relationship-building as the way to create a rich learning environment. She explains, "Educators who value interdependence naturally make efforts to know each student, to collaborate with colleagues, to form partnerships with the community, and to cooperate in developing a shared understanding of what is meant by 'quality education.'"

Self-organization, with its stress on each person's latent potential, has powerful implications for specific leadership and classroom practices. School administrators mindful of this principle respect and draw forth everyone's full promise as members of the academic community, and teachers design student-centered, self-directed assignments, such as problem-based work and service learning. In such schools, the standardized achievement test becomes just one among many possible indicators of how students are doing. Finally, educators who work in harmony with the diversity principle invite young people to create, imagine, and experiment; they also recognize and accommodate different learning styles.

Learning from MBM at Home
If you're still not convinced that MBM is vital to our organizations and our schools, consider how it plays out in our personal lives. If you've ever raised a child, you know that most parents work to cultivate strong relationships with their children—that is, they focus on the means—rather than set arbitrary goals by telling them, "I want you to become X." Similarly, if we have to write a paper, we usually have a general sense of where we're headed, but we're not entirely certain what the end result will be as we shape individual sentences. The bottom line? If we apply the principles of interdependence, self-organization, and diversity to the systems in which we live and work, through the process, we'll create the outcomes we desire.

Kali Saposnick is publications editor at Pegasus Communications.