On Knowledge worker productivity

KM thought leader Tom Davenport has a conversation on Knowledge worker productivity and wonders why most organizations don't do much about it. The reasons are almost the same:

1. It’s hard.
2. It takes a fair amount of up-front investment.
3. Knowledge workers, like Greta Garbo, like to be left alone.

So, as the reporter asks Tom, if companies are not putting their money where Drucker advised them to, was Drucker wrong?

Not really.

There are a lot of areas where organizations have not listened to Drucker (via Blogspotting) and that doesn't mean that the ideas are not great. It is just that Drucker showed the "aspired reality" for organizations.

Organizations on the other hand focus on the day to day operations, and listen more to the quarterly diktats of Wall Street and shreholders than focussing on the aspirations that leaders like Drucker showed.

Actual reality wins most of the time over aspired reality. Specially when the rewards of the actual reality are clearer than the transition and pain to change into the aspired reality.