Henry Mintzberg EMBA

Once again, this year, during the Analytic Mindset module, the EMBA McGill-HEC Montreal participants had the chance to meet and to learn from a legend in the field of management and organizations: Professor Henry Mintzberg.

A hallmark of Professor Mintzberg’s teaching is the intense interaction he insists on with the class, and his emphasis on the class learning from each other.  It’s not a lecture, but rather, it’s an interactive exploration of ideas about management.  Yesterday’s focus was organizations.  Professor Mintzberg’s classification of organizations is based on their nature: machine, professional, adhoc or entrepreneurial.  Every organization has a dominant structure, and each comes with its pros and cons. Understanding the dominant structure opens up a whole new understanding of why organizations behave the way they do.

Next topic:  silos and slabs in organizations structures. Silos most have heard about, but slabs are just as significant. Those are the walls that can occur between layers of the organization – the front line can’t get through to middle management, or top management never connects with the level below. Professor  Mintzberg and the class worked together to identify some ways out of silos and slabs such as the creation of cross-silo or cross-slab teams, the organization of socialization events between employees of different silos or slabs, or even, the location of random location of offices, so that people are not seated by ‘silo’.   It’s not necessarily a matter of abolishing silos, because there may be a good reason for them, but to ensure that there is communication across them.

The reflections of the class the morning after Professor Mintzberg’s underlined the usefulness of these concepts. Going forward, they’ll not only be looking at the strategy of their organizations, but also the organizational form that makes most sense for implementing such a strategy.

Henry Mintzberg has been recognized for his pioneering work on management and organizations. He has published more than 150 articles and 15 books, and has honorary doctorates from universities all over the world.  It is an honor to have Mr. Mintzberg on the faculty of the McGill-HEC Montreal Executive MBA, especially since his work inspired much of the design of our program.