Make Believe for Fun and Profit
In Which Grouchy Neocon opines about business fads:
Met with the Dark Lord today. Other than our discussion of Total World Domination and how I can accomplish that before my next review, nothing very interesting happened. However, it reminded me of something that's been bugging me...
For quite some time now the Dark Lord has been preaching the virtues of the latest business book he read. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but business books are a dime a dozen. If the advice given in them is really all that great then why isn't the author out doing things the way he recommends in the book? Possibly, the authors of these books just want to share their knowledge for the good of all mankind. Or it could be that everyone has an opinion and for every opinion there is yet another book on business and yet another author who wants to write a bestseller and retire.
Not that all of these books are bad. Right now, I've got this book sitting at home waiting to be read. It looks interesting but I doubt it will change my life. It probably won't change anything.
The reason for this is simple. Consciously or not, I'm only attracted to those books that coincide with my worldview. (or at least my view of business) Like most people, I enjoy reading things that reinforce my existing biases. Even though I try to be open-minded, it's really difficult for anyone to honestly do so.
Which brings me back to The Dark Lord. He's proclaimed that the concepts presented in the book are holy writ. The way we do things at our company from this day forward. He wants us to have our employees read this book. He wants us to preach it's merits at staff meetings and to develop activities which reinforce it's concepts. He reassures us that this book is no mere fad but a new and different way of doing things!
On a regular basis we've been asked to report on our progress in regard to prosyletizing this book. My peers dutifully talk about all the different activities in which they've engaged. All fine and good. Except my peers are lying like the scum sucking lapdogs that they are. In reality, no one is doing anything any different than before. More than just a cursory conversation with those employees reveals that all of these spiffy activities are merely vapor. At best any changes are window dressing on activities that would've occured otherwise.
No one is doing anything any differently including the Dark Lord. I imagine he convinces himself that he is, but it isn't so. He's using the contents of the book in order to reinforce his perfectionistic tendencies. He wants to squeeze just a little more juice out of this orange that is his company.
I haven't named the book because this is an anonymous blog and the exact title is unimportant. It's actually a fairly good read and the concepts presented seem sound to me. I suspect, though, that anyone who agrees with the book is already doing the things it recommends or something not too different.
I suppose I'll have to spend some time inventing my own little activities as part of this whole charade. I enjoy receiving a paycheck and I don't want to rock the boat. (Boat rockers don't last very long.) Right now, I'm wondering if this is how the people who work for Kim Il Sung feel. (On a grander scale and with more severe consequences for failure to follow the party line.)
I hate having to play make believe so the emperor won't realize he isn't wearing any clothes. This is exactly the sort of thing that gave me nightmares in my 20's. Yes, that's me, a corporate sellout. Reminds me of that commercial from monster.com that has little kids saying things like, "I want to be a paper pusher when I grow up."
Enough whining for now.
Met with the Dark Lord today. Other than our discussion of Total World Domination and how I can accomplish that before my next review, nothing very interesting happened. However, it reminded me of something that's been bugging me...
For quite some time now the Dark Lord has been preaching the virtues of the latest business book he read. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but business books are a dime a dozen. If the advice given in them is really all that great then why isn't the author out doing things the way he recommends in the book? Possibly, the authors of these books just want to share their knowledge for the good of all mankind. Or it could be that everyone has an opinion and for every opinion there is yet another book on business and yet another author who wants to write a bestseller and retire.
Not that all of these books are bad. Right now, I've got this book sitting at home waiting to be read. It looks interesting but I doubt it will change my life. It probably won't change anything.
The reason for this is simple. Consciously or not, I'm only attracted to those books that coincide with my worldview. (or at least my view of business) Like most people, I enjoy reading things that reinforce my existing biases. Even though I try to be open-minded, it's really difficult for anyone to honestly do so.
Which brings me back to The Dark Lord. He's proclaimed that the concepts presented in the book are holy writ. The way we do things at our company from this day forward. He wants us to have our employees read this book. He wants us to preach it's merits at staff meetings and to develop activities which reinforce it's concepts. He reassures us that this book is no mere fad but a new and different way of doing things!
On a regular basis we've been asked to report on our progress in regard to prosyletizing this book. My peers dutifully talk about all the different activities in which they've engaged. All fine and good. Except my peers are lying like the scum sucking lapdogs that they are. In reality, no one is doing anything any different than before. More than just a cursory conversation with those employees reveals that all of these spiffy activities are merely vapor. At best any changes are window dressing on activities that would've occured otherwise.
No one is doing anything any differently including the Dark Lord. I imagine he convinces himself that he is, but it isn't so. He's using the contents of the book in order to reinforce his perfectionistic tendencies. He wants to squeeze just a little more juice out of this orange that is his company.
I haven't named the book because this is an anonymous blog and the exact title is unimportant. It's actually a fairly good read and the concepts presented seem sound to me. I suspect, though, that anyone who agrees with the book is already doing the things it recommends or something not too different.
I suppose I'll have to spend some time inventing my own little activities as part of this whole charade. I enjoy receiving a paycheck and I don't want to rock the boat. (Boat rockers don't last very long.) Right now, I'm wondering if this is how the people who work for Kim Il Sung feel. (On a grander scale and with more severe consequences for failure to follow the party line.)
I hate having to play make believe so the emperor won't realize he isn't wearing any clothes. This is exactly the sort of thing that gave me nightmares in my 20's. Yes, that's me, a corporate sellout. Reminds me of that commercial from monster.com that has little kids saying things like, "I want to be a paper pusher when I grow up."
Enough whining for now.
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on Monday, June 27, 2005 at 12:55 PM.
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