The Empty Raincoat

Charles Handy 1932-2024

The Irish business, management and leadership philosopher Professor Charles Handy died yesterday at 92 years old. Here are some personal reflections about the wonderful contribution that he made to the world of business, management, leadership, and to my life.

I first encountered Charles' work as a student at The Open University when I read his book "Understanding Organisations". It is a work that is prescient to this day in so many ways, not least the current structural difficulties we experience as a network of tiny islands trying to co-operate to face the need to undo Brexit and Rejoin the EU. The bigger islands in the network behave like machine bureaucracies with all the problems that ossify progress and crush talent. They would do well to read Handy's work in this area. Handy's career had involved working in Royal Dutch Shell at a time when they led the world in management thinking and practice, and, later on, at London Business School.

Subsequently, I met Charles several times at events organised by the University at MBA alumni events we led. I recall we put on a masterclass based on his work on portfolio careers, inaccurately titled "The Dirty Raincoat" !! This required three of us to dress up in cheap green 'flasher macs' from the local charity shop in Newport Pagnell!! However, I can assure you that the content of our seminar was hugely respectful to the content of Handy's book "The Empty Raincoat".

Handy should also be credited as the inventor of the term 'management wisdom'. Wisdom requires reflection on events and 2nd order learning rather than just repeating our mistakes. It is needed even more in an age where time for thinking is at a premium. Together with Peter Senge, Chris Argyris and Tom Peters, Handy was a leading figure in raising people's consciousness in the need for organisations to learn, not just to avoid repeating mistakes, but at a fundamental level, to question their purpose and reasons for existence.

At the time of my departure from a well paid career working in life saving pharmaceuticals and teaching MBAs, eventually I decided that I would write a book. I sent Charles a copy and asked for his advice on my 'fried egg' model. To my surprise, he wrote back, saying that he had considered using it himself in The Empty Raincoat but opted for something less unusual. Out of the blue he also sent me one of Elizabeth's postcards with a reference about the book on it. This was the hallmark of a man that took time to respond to others.

Handy shone the light on organisation cultures that promote creativity on more than one occasion, most notably in "Gods of Management". This theme pervades his other works at the personal level, such as "The New Alchemists", "The Hungry Spirit" and "The Elephant and the Flea". He also introduced me to the parable of the boiled frog, a metaphor which we are currently living with our utterly stupid decision to leave the European Union. A few remaining Brexit zealots still tell me that "the water is cool around them", although the people of Britain are now close to unconsciousness, at around 70 degrees centigrade.

I last met Charles at an RSA event in 2015 on Reinventing Society where we discussed modernising Education for an age where the input output model of examinations is increasingly inconsistent for the age of intelligence. We badly need "The Second Curve". Will we listen now that he's gone?

Charles Handy 1932 - 2024