So, is “the blind leading the blind” an accepted business-practice these days?

In short: Yes. More importantly from my perspective is that it does not stem from salesmen; but instead business management and leadership. I realized this around the time a book came out(heavily touted by corporate management as something everyone at every level should read) which stated in the forward that:

"...leadership is finding a parade and getting in front of it."

I had been working for that well respected R&D company for four years at that point, and it is at that point that I lost all respect for that company. Unfortunately, that is the general attitude about career advancement these days and work performance measurement too. It is pervasive in what I have observed over the last ~15 years.

Generally, I try to keep my posts here pretty much on topic, but this is one issue which threatens to get me all up on my high horse. So, I am going to allow myself to rant just a bit.

Some of this is spurred by the excellent series posted by eyepopslikeamosquito, Nobody Expects the Agile Imposition (Part I): Meta Process and follow ons. I am still reading through that work, cogitating, and attempting to wrap my abused brain around what all that means to me. The point brought up here is a tiny micro-symptom of the business "Magic Pill" syndrome. So many pills to take over the years! Just look at the list of references and the volume of subject matter!

In a poor attempt to be fair, I learned some cool stuff from almost all of these methodologies/philosophies.(OK, enough of being fair). Each one of these was sold as The solution to today's and tomorrows problems. If not by the author and authors sponsors, then by the management team that 'bought in from the top down -100% committed!) There are good things to be learned from each and every one of those methodologies/philosophies. But they are NOT solutions. They never were, and they never will be. They are tools! However we treat them as a pill you hand out while singing hymns of praise to the guy who wrote the white paper introducing this revolutionary approach to solving business problems, and pushing folks to do things they know won't work every time, and often not even most of the time.

I alluded to this in a response to the previously mentioned articles. What I have concluded from my contemplation regarding that writing thus far, and within the context of my experience is:

  1. There is no pill/formula/methodology/philosophy that provides solutions to problems
  2. There is a tendency to believe that #1 is not true.
  3. We substitute complexity for a basic lack of principled work ethic
  4. We encourage the "Magic Pill" by quickly promoting those who introduce "Magic Pills" instead of expecting them to live with the medication they foist on the rest of us, thus exacerbating #3
  5. Our metrics for measuring performance are as short sighted as most business outlooks: about a fiscal quarter in length
  6. Our metrics create competition where there should be collaboration and cooperation. Way too much focus on the individual as compared to the team, and more importantly: The work at hand.
  7. We take our pills regularly even though we know them to be doing more damage than good. We do this because we are afraid of being left behind.
What we need to do is:
  1. Be open to ideas, and flexible enough to adopt the pieces that work for us, while acknowledging that other pieces might work much better for others, even within the same department within an organization
  2. Be open to telling leadership what works and what does not, firmly, professionally, and without rancor.
  3. Be respectful to ourselves and thus to others around us in the work place. Competition is good in its time and place. In my experience, it is bad news when it carries into the job at hand.
  4. Be patient and honest with ourselves, our roles and our abilities.

    Not one of those "Magic Pills" ever delivers in the long term. They don't build skills, develop relationships, enhance productivity, or deliver on any of the other promised benefits. People do....we deliver, a system does not. A system is a tool until we let ourselves become tools of some silly system. Cart before the horse? It takes time to learn to use a tool, the more complex the tool the longer the time it takes... The focus needs to remain on the job at hand, not the tool to do the job. If the tool requires so much effort that it detracts from the focus on the job at hand, then it is the wrong tool.

  5. Be willing to be left behind for a while.

    Don't have to be Luddite like, but being in front is not always an advantage, and there are advantages to being at the back of the pack for a while. (I am reminded of the little creatures in Canada and Alaska that swarm up, start running, right over cliffs to their demise,,,lemmings?). Yeah, sometimes it is better to feel left out than it is to be included in a game of follow the latest leader.

The disturbing thing about that salesmen who is selling swimsuits to the drowning isn't the salesmen. It is the drowning people who buy from him. His pitch fits right in at the individual level in a system of levels that encourage pill popping. Face it: He would not be selling if we weren't buying... and we buy because we know we have little chance of advancing without proving we popped the pill corporate prescribed this week. The frustrating thing is that even if we take the meds, there is little chance that we will get any real good out of it. After all, to be a level II SCRUM master, you don't even have to know how to program.... End Rant:

Update: s/SCUM/SCRUM/ LMAO @ myself! :-)

...the majority is always wrong, and always the last to know about it...

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...

A solution is nothing more than a clearly stated problem...otherwise, the problem is not a problem, it is a facct

wjw

In reply to Re: Selling swimsuits to a drowning man by wjw
in thread Selling swimsuits to a drowning man by locked_user sundialsvc4

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