The English verb “to manage” was originally derived from the Italian maneggiare, meaning to handle and train horses. In this earlier meaning the emphasis is on learning with, abiding with, adapting to, respecting, and working with another complex entity: the horse and rider as coevolving brambles in a wider thicket of social traditions surrounding beauty and form.

Around the early 18th century, this original meaning merged with the French term menage, or household, making it easier to adapt the meaning of the combined term manage to the metaphor of the obedient machine, to the corridors of power, and to the actions of controlling and directing.

The naturalistic approach we have advocated, in effect a return to manege rather than manage, is the most effective way to achieve results in organisations made up of real people “

Kurtz & Snowden “Like Bramble Bushes in a thicket”