Mary Parker Follett: The Forgotten Pioneer of Modern Management

More than a century ago, she challenged the way businesses were run. Today, with AI changing how we work and make decisions, her ideas deserve another look.

I've spent more than four decades in business, and I've learned that some of the best ideas aren't necessarily new. Sometimes we've simply forgotten who came up with them.

That brings me to Mary Parker Follett.

You may never have heard of her. I hadn't appreciated just how far ahead of her time she was until I began looking into her work.

Nearly 100 years ago, when most businesses operated on the principle that the boss gave orders and everyone else followed them, Follett was suggesting something quite different.

She believed leadership wasn't simply about having authority. It was about understanding people, bringing different perspectives together, and recognizing that the best ideas could come from almost anywhere.

That may not sound particularly revolutionary today.

But imagine suggesting it to a business executive in the early 1900s.

Being in Charge Doesn't Mean You Have All the Answers

Born in 1868, Follett studied political science and became deeply involved in community organizations before applying her thinking to business management.

She wasn't interested in leadership simply as a matter of organizational charts and job titles. She wanted to understand how people actually worked together.

One of her most important ideas was the distinction between "power over" and "power with."

Power over is pretty straightforward. You're the boss, you give the orders, and people are expected to follow them.

Power with is something entirely different. It means people work together toward a common objective, bringing their own experience, knowledge, and judgment to the table.

I've managed enough people over the years to know that the second approach is much harder than the first.

It's relatively easy to tell someone what to do.

It's much harder to create an environment where people feel comfortable challenging your thinking, offering better alternatives, and taking responsibility for the outcome.

But that's often where the best results come from.

And I've learned something else.

The person with the biggest title isn't necessarily the person with the best answer.

Sometimes the smartest person in the room hasn't said a word.

You Don't Have to Agree to Work Together

One of Follett's most memorable observations appeared in her 1918 book, The New State:

"Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, nor absorbed."

Think about that for a moment.

She wasn't suggesting that everyone should agree.

Quite the opposite.

She believed differences in opinion could actually make an organization stronger, provided people were willing to listen and work through them.

And she didn't believe every disagreement had to end with one person winning and another losing.

Instead, she encouraged people to find solutions that brought together the most valuable elements of competing ideas.

That sounds sensible enough.

But how often does it actually happen?

I've been in plenty of meetings where everyone nodded in agreement, only to discover later that several people had serious reservations they never expressed.

I've also seen disagreements produce better decisions because someone had the courage to question what everyone else had already accepted.

Experience has taught me that surrounding yourself with people who always agree with you may be comfortable, but it can also be very expensive.

Agreement isn't necessarily evidence that you're right. Sometimes it's simply evidence that nobody wants to argue with the boss.

What Business Has Taught Me About Leadership

Over the years, I've watched entire industries change, including businesses that once seemed almost impossible to disrupt.

I've also experienced what happens when change comes faster than you expected.

Running a business requires making decisions, sometimes without all the information you'd like to have.

And there have certainly been occasions when I've made the wrong one.

That's part of the experience.

What matters is whether you're willing to recognize it, listen to other perspectives, and change direction when circumstances demand it.

I've never believed that good leadership requires pretending you know everything.

In fact, I think one of the most dangerous things a business owner can do is become so convinced of their own judgment that they stop listening.

The people around you often see things you don't.

They may be closer to the customer, more familiar with the technology, or simply see the problem from a different angle.

Ignoring that knowledge because you're the person in charge makes very little sense.

Follett understood this long before collaborative leadership became a popular management philosophy.

Now Add Artificial Intelligence to the Equation

Here's where I think her ideas become especially interesting.

We're living through another major transformation in how businesses operate.

Artificial intelligence can analyze enormous amounts of information, identify patterns, prepare recommendations, and perform work that once required hours or days.

And it's only going to become more capable.

I'm enthusiastic about what AI can do. We use it, we work with it, and I believe it will change practically every industry.

But I also think there's a danger in confusing access to information with the ability to make good decisions.

AI might tell you that the numbers suggest one course of action.

But what happens when a customer behaves unexpectedly?

What happens when the market changes overnight?

Or when the people responsible for implementing a perfectly reasonable recommendation tell you it simply won't work?

The numbers may be correct, but they don't always tell the entire story.

Someone still has to evaluate the circumstances, consider the consequences, and make a judgment.

Sometimes that judgment means deciding not to follow what the data appears to tell you.

That's not a criticism of artificial intelligence.

It's a recognition that technology, no matter how sophisticated, doesn't automatically eliminate the need for experience and human understanding.

I suspect Follett would have found this particularly interesting.

After all, much of her thinking centered on bringing different kinds of knowledge together rather than letting authority alone determine the outcome.

Managing People and Leading Them Aren't Quite the Same Thing

There's another distinction I think is worth making.

Managing a business often involves organizing work, setting expectations, measuring performance, and making sure things get done.

Leadership involves something more.

It's understanding where you're going, why, and how to bring people along with you.

And occasionally, it's recognizing that where you're going is no longer where you should be headed.

That last point has become increasingly important to me.

I've spent much of my career in publishing and media, industries where technology repeatedly changed how information was created, distributed, and consumed.

I've seen companies keep doing what had always worked, long after the market told them it was time to change.

And I've learned that there's a considerable difference between keeping a business operating and actually adapting it to a new reality.

The same principle applies to leadership.

You can have all the technology, information, and analytical tools in the world.

But if you're unwilling to listen, question your assumptions, or recognize when circumstances have changed, those tools may simply help you make the wrong decision faster.

A Woman Worth Remembering

Mary Parker Follett died in 1933.

Many of her ideas received greater recognition decades later, as management thinkers began paying more attention to collaboration, employee involvement, and organizational relationships.

Today, we hear constantly about teamwork, shared leadership, workplace culture, and the importance of listening to different perspectives.

Much of this thinking has roots in ideas Follett was exploring more than a century ago.

Yet her name remains unfamiliar to many outside management history.

I find that fascinating.

We're constantly looking for the next revolutionary approach to leadership, the latest management theory, or the newest technology that promises to change the way we work.

Sometimes it's worth looking backward.

Because the fundamental challenge of leadership hasn't changed nearly as much as the tools we use to exercise it.

Businesses still depend on people.

People still disagree.

Experience still matters.

More information doesn't necessarily mean better judgment.

Follett understood that leadership wasn't about proving you're the smartest person in the room. It was about creating an environment where the best thinking could emerge.

That's a lesson I think every business owner, executive, and manager could benefit from remembering.

She was ahead of her time.

Or perhaps we're still catching up.

One Final Thought

As artificial intelligence becomes capable of doing more of the analyzing, planning, and decision-making that managers have traditionally handled, we're going to have to think differently about what makes someone an effective leader.

And here's the question I keep coming back to:

If AI eventually knows more than you do, analyzes information faster than you can, and can recommend a better course of action, what will make you the person others still want to follow?

I'd be interested in hearing how you would answer that.