Bureaucracy and Leadership — what I’m learning at the Peter Drucker Forum 2020.

It’s been a long time since I wrote…. The pandemic and some health issues got in the way. Now I’m back! Thanks for staying with me.

I have always believed that it can be useful to attend a conference that is NOT in one’s field. You never know what you’ll learn!

With that in mind, I’ve been attending a conference in Vienna, Austria — alas, virtually. I’m sitting in my own kitchen, sipping my coffee alone — not in a breakout meet and greet. While I wish the conference was actually in Europe — it is not this year. Maybe next?

The conference is the 12th Global Peter Drucker Forum 2020. Peter Drucker was the American-Austrian management guru who spanned the 20th century (1900–2005). The conference in his honor is filled and with amazing folks from around the world — CEO’s, international companies, business school professors, consultants, authors, thought leaders, musicians, etc. You get the picture.

So what am I doing there? I work in the US public schools — as an attorney who represents public schools and formerly as a junior high school teacher. I’m not a business person. I don’t run a company. And, as I looked at those ZOOM boxes that traversed the globe, I didn’t see anyone from the US public school space — except me.

Yet, it’s been wonderful, enlightening, and fun. As I listen to the presentations and even participate in the chat room, it dawned on me that so many of the issues and challenges raised here are easily transposed…