Expand Your Mind: Dumb, Stupid and Dimwitted
by Miki Saxon
In my ongoing effort not to offend I am wracking my brain to think of a polite way to say this, but I’ll try.
Ahem. The amount of idiocy masquerading as brilliant management advice pales in comparison only to what is offered in the name of leadership. (How’s that for diplomatic?)
These are the supposedly silver bullets that will solve all difficulties and turn around any problem, not to mention making your organization run perfectly. (And if you believe that I have a great deal on a bridge for your front yard.)
What they are is dumb, stupid and dimwitted, in spite of being preached by high profile CEOs, consultants and various pundits.
But it seems as if I’m not the only person who is fed up with the management/leadership solutions du jour, although some have been around for decades.
BNET had three posts that cover the idiocy pretty completely.
The first is The 5 Dumbest Management Concepts of All Time, which are
- Downsizing
- Leadership
- Human Resources
- Empowerment
- Business Warfare
The second is The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time, which are
- Six Sigma
- Business Process Reengineering
- Matrix Management
- Management by Consensus
- Core Competency
- Management By Objectives
- The Search for Excellence
- Management by God
The third is 5 Dimwitted Leadership Strategies, which are
- Command and Control
- Bottom Line Be All End All
- Tradition and Prescription
- The Black Hole
- The Lone Ranger
And since we are on the subject of dumb, stupid and dimwitted check out the review of a new book that takes a different look at leadership. I can’t add my two cents, since I haven’t read it, but the review is hilarious.
Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership is a peculiar, sometimes interesting, sort of pseudoscientific, and often baffling explanation of how evolution has created a subspecies of men who grow tall, remarry constantly, and make oodles of money. If it’s true, it might one day give Upper East Side divorce lawyers the same clout The Origin of Species gave biology teachers.
Image credit: MykReeve on flickr
