A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

58 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
Still, I remember that it had been what we considered chilly outside. This
was Claremont, California, forty miles east of Los Angeles. The temperature
rarely dipped lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the day in the
winter season. Sometimes it really warmed up. Visitors from other parts
of the country proclaimed our winter climate to be “balmy.” Still, we
termed it “chilly” and, for whatever reason, I remember this fact when
remembering Peter’s giving us this lesson.
This class met in one of the larger classrooms in Harper Hall. Harper Hall
was an old building on the Claremont Graduate School part of the campus
which The Clarement Colleges had allocated to it. The Colleges are a consortium
of five undergraduate colleges and two graduate institutions and a
central organization that provides general services to all seven institutions.
Large portraits of past professors and academic administrators from the
Claremont Colleges, most in full academic regalia, hung on the walls of
Harper Hall. This particular classroom was the first room one encountered
on the ground floor immediately upon entering the building. The classroom
was large because it had to be. This was a <strong>Drucker</strong> class.
A <strong>Drucker</strong> Gem
This evening’s lecture was far from boring. Moreover, the important lesson
that came right away was a gem. <strong>Drucker</strong> began to reminisce about his
work <strong>with</strong> various corporations both here and in Japan. He told us that it
was often very simple things that an outsider could do which would have
a major impact in the company he assisted. This was because inside people
were generally much too close to the issues, and also because they assumed
things from their past experience that they incorrectly thought were identical
in the present situation. An outsider would wonder and question these
things that a practicing manager in the organization frequently missed,
although all managers needed to train themselves to ask questions.
Asked the secret of his success in these endeavors by a student, <strong>Drucker</strong>
responded, “There is no secret. You just need to ask the right questions.”
Unexpectedly, one of my classmates raised his arm and exploded <strong>with</strong>
three questions in rapid succession. “How do you know the right questions
to ask? Aren’t your questions based on your knowledge in the industries in
which you consult? How did you have the knowledge and expertise to do
this when you were first starting out <strong>with</strong> no experience?”
“I never ask these questions or approach these assignments based on
my knowledge and experience in these industries,” answered <strong>Drucker</strong>. “It