I just finished The Craftsman by Richard Sennett. I don’t quite remember how I came across the book, but I’m glad I did. It is a thoughtful and well presented work on the concepts of craft and craftsmanship with much application to our modern work lives. I see his presentation as breaking down into two broad categories – management and teaching. Here I’ll talk on the management side.
Sennett takes a broad view of the concept of craft. It is not just the domain of arts and crafty hand work, or some nostalgic longing for a simpler time. For Sennett it is “an enduring, basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake.” It involves a connection between “head and hand” with the person actively engaged in a process of exploration and adaptation. The craftsperson not only solves problem, but investigates to determine what the problems are. The process of Linux programming is as much a craft as parenting – a physical, hand-worked object in not a required end result. But, as with these two examples, it does involve participation in a community, which helps define, regulate and develop the practice of the craft.
This innate desire to perform a job well can be easily squashed by environmental or management pressures or the individual’s own loss of perspective. A craftsperson must be engaged in the work in a way where their contributions influences the final product. Requirements to follow some set of procedural rules that are seen to be disconnected from the real environment and result in inferior work will quickly demoralize people, and kills the craft instinct. Workers stop caring about the work. Craft does not require an obsessive attention to the art of the work, in fact just the opposite. This is where the community connection can help avoid any tendency for individuals to lose perspective on the performance requirements of the task at hand. From a management perspective, fostering a culture of craft, through activities as cultivating communities of practice, cross-functional project teams and a commitment to iterative, user-centric design should result in greater efficiencies, better products and happier customers.
From a management perspective it all comes down to a respect and appreciation for the dedication and contributions of individuals. As our work days get increasingly disconnected from the physical world we don’t need to leave the concept of craft behind. In fact it may be exactly the recipe to preserve attention to quality, innovaton and efficiency in a human-centric manner.
Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than “skilled manual labor,” Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman’s work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our most distinguished public intellectuals explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world.
The Craftsman – Sennett, Richard – Yale University Press
ADD YOUR COMMENT
Comments are moderated.
Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
New articles are normally posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. Subscribe to the RSS feed or the email update to keep current on the latest posts.
Past listings from 2004 to the present
Need a home (or better home) for your website? I highly recommend HostRocket -- they are the best!
