At the beginning of 2022 I started writing a blog for Psychology Today, The Peter Drucker Files. It has been particularly meaningful to me given Drucker’s connection to the publication, especially during its early years in the 1960s.
I’ve approached the blog by writing about a variety of Drucker-related subjects in ways that I hope will appeal to people who are new to his work, as well as those with deeper Drucker knowledge. I’ve aimed for practical and actionable insights that will be valuable inside and outside the workplace.
Below are links to each of the posts published so far, along with their introductions.
Special thanks to PT contributor Rahul (Raj) Bhandari, for networking me in, and Editor at Large Hara Estroff Marano, for providing me the opportunity and for her editorial guidance!
Intro:
Music was an integral part of Peter Drucker’s life, beginning as a boy in early 20th century Vienna, Austria. In the first chapter of his 1978 memoir Adventures of a Bystander, Drucker notes that his grandmother had been a young pianist, a pupil of Clara Schumann, and “was asked by her several times to play for Johannes Brahms, which was Grandmother’s proudest memory.” She even played at a charity concert conducted by Gustav Mahler in 1896.
Intro:
The walls of Peter and Doris Drucker’s living room in Claremont, California, were lined with bookcases reaching nearly to the ceiling. Although Drucker maintained a demanding schedule, he made time to read for a variety of reasons: pleasure, information and knowledge, and research underpinning the writing, teaching, and consulting that made him so successful.
Peter Drucker: Discern the Future That Has Already Happened: Turn changes into opportunities.
Intro:
“The Future That Has Already Happened” was a crucial theme in the last 40 years of Peter Drucker’s career. He used this as an article title in 1997 for the 75th anniversary edition of Harvard Business Review, but the idea goes back well before that, to his 1964 book Managing for Results.
Summer Self-Development the Peter Drucker Way: Determine your opportunities for the coming year.
Intro:
Summer can be a valuable season for self-reflection, career/life planning, and self-development. For Peter Drucker, the father of modern management (1909-2005), this meant a combination of contemplation and planning, adhering to his belief that self-development arises from building on your strengths. Drucker also referred to core competencies, often thought of in terms of organizations, but which also apply to individuals. What can you do with a sense of excellence, and perhaps do better than most people? How can you build on that to improve, incrementally or otherwise?
Intro:
May is college graduation season, and, with their wide online availability, many commencement addresses have had significant impact beyond their in-person audience. Some have even morphed into books, such as J.K. Rowling’s Very Good Lives (Harvard), Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art (University of the Arts), and David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water (Kenyon College).
Peter Drucker on Living a Multidimensional Life: Strategies for the future of work.
Intro:
The world of work has changed immeasurably since the start of the pandemic two years ago. We are living in a period characterized by what’s become known as “The Great Resignation,” as well as a deluge of ideas about “the future of work,” and a search for the “new normal” or “next normal.” Besides resignations, there are also layoffs and firings. People will continue to be affected by organizations either going out of business or undergoing a merger, creating potential redundancies.
Intro:
Peter Drucker is primarily known as the father of modern management, who consulted for some of the world’s most important organizations and wrote management books that sold millions of copies.
However, teaching was one of Drucker’s most cherished activities. He loved it because it was one of the primary ways he learned and also because he wanted to help guide his students to have fulfilling, meaningful careers and to have a positive influence on society.
The Peter Drucker Approach to Change: Acceptance, awareness, and action.
Intro:
Because of the pandemic, we’ve received a never-asked-for crash course in change. Along with major societal changes, many people have been affected by one or more personal, individual changes, such as changing or losing jobs, interacting with new colleagues, or dealing with the departure of others. We’ve learned new procedures for accomplishing our work, and improved our video technology skills for remote working, participating in virtual conferences, and studying.
Intro:
Productivity and effectiveness are themes running throughout Peter Drucker’s management philosophy. He made it plain that neither could be achieved without properly managing your time. One of his most important and popular books, The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, expresses this in the chapter “Know Thy Time.” Time management becomes a fundamental building block to goal achievement, gaining meaningful results, and making decisions on how you can discover and act on the important things in life.
Opening the Peter Drucker Files: Applying the wisdom of Peter Drucker to self-development.
Intro:
The turbulent times we live in require new ways of thinking about and conceptualizing life and work. We need solid, dependable role models. As I begin “The Peter Drucker Files,” I propose that Drucker, the “father of modern management,” who died in 2005 at 95, is the perfect role model, based on how he approached his remarkable life.