This section deals with the tools of effective management. Or, to be more precise, it deals with the things that must be made into tools in order for a manager to be effective. The tools I am suggesting here are not tools by themselves. No one is born with them, nor do we learn to use them at school.

In a certain way the mastery of tools defines a profession. A person who knows how to work with a chisel is a stonemason – perhaps only an amateur or one who is just pursuing a hobby – but whether that person is a sculptor is doubtful. However, he is a stonemason, irrespective of whether he has a certificate of apprenticeship or a master craftsman’s certificate, whether he is a member of a guild, and irrespective of the way he has learnt to use the tool. The purpose for which the tool is utilized is another issue. It can be used for good or for bad. That does not depend on the tool.

In order to master a tool practice is necessary. Indefatigable, continuous, never ending practice and training is the only way to gain mastery of tools. There is no other way. Whether what is known as virtuosity can be achieved using this method alone is another issue. In most cases a certain basic talent must also exist. However, what is essential is not the talent but what is achieved with it. That is what we mean by effectiveness. And effectiveness requires continuous practice, as has been shown by experience and all kinds of analyses. It can be observed in those people who have taken something to a form of virtuosity, to mastery, such as successful sportsmen and sportswomen, musicians and also surgeons, for example.

The tools that I suggest for managers and their effectiveness are very unspectacular, mundane things. This creates a problem. Not much attention |11|is paid to them; they are not even recognized to be what they actually are. People think of complicated, more striking things. I often carry out a small exercise with participants in seminars before I start on the subject of tools. I ask them to tell me what they consider to be tools. In the last few years the spontaneous and immediate answer has been the computer. The computer is no doubt a tool, but it is a tool for practically everyone and not specifically or primarily for managers.

Then there is a pause; the participants reflect. I have never come across a joiner, locksmith or bricklayer who had to think when I asked them to name their most important tools. Managers always have to think. They are unfamiliar with the whole abstract category. Then come the answers, uncertain, hesitant, and questioning rather than answering, usually very complicated things: capital budgeting, cash flow analysis, efficiency analysis, cost benefit analysis, critical path technique, and such like.

These are indeed tools but I would suggest that they be considered tools for specialists. A few managers need to master these types of tools and methods; or to put it another way, every organization needs a few people who can use these tools. However, these things are certainly not required by every manager. The principal question here is: What does every manager in every organization need, and what should the manager be equipped with in principle?

Many managers are not familiar with their tools nor do they practice their application. This is true of an astonishingly large number of managers. Some, more of a minority, think they are too good for tools; this is either arrogance or stupidity. On the other hand, most are not even aware of the existence and importance of tools. They cannot imagine that tools should also be important in their profession.

Tools are, of course, not the aim and object of a profession, even though they define it in a certain way. The tools of a mountaineer – rope, ice hammer, crampons and safety equipment – do not constitute the aim of mountaineering, whatever we may see that aim as being. They are, however, necessary if we want to climb mountains.

There are seven elements that I think are suitable tools: meetings, reports, job design and assignment control, personal working methods, |12|budgets, performance appraisal, and systematic waste disposal. These tools now assume far greater significance as a result of the working conditions in the service, information, and knowledge society. The precision and professionalism with which they are used are essential for the success of a manager.

This is not a very exciting topic. It becomes interesting, informative and sometimes very exciting when the volume of work, the working methods, and the results of managers who have learnt to use their tools effectively are compared to those who have not. It is the difference between a professional and a dilettante. What is striking is, above all, the volume of work and the high degree of complexity that managers can handle when they have mastered these tools.

Perhaps one more comment on the word “tool”. I have already mentioned that most managers have no idea of this category as such. Some do not seem to particularly like the word. Of course, I would have nothing against people using the word “instrument”. Ultimately, it is not the words that matter.