
The Management Myth (2006) - hko
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200606/stewart-business
======
dxjones
This is an outstanding, well-written article about how business management
often falls victim to faddish theories.

It is long, but enjoyable and well worth the read.

My favourite quote: "Knowledge, by its very nature, must be intelligible, not
obscure."

It comes up in the context of management consultants using bafflegab and
fancy-sounding jargon to mislead clients (and perhaps themselves). This quote
is a reminder to have the courage, (as is needed in some contexts), to speak
up when you don't understand something, ... since what seems like wisdom you
are having difficulty grasping, may in fact be snake oil.

For a strangely related article, you might also like to read: "What you can't
say" ( <http://paulgraham.com/say.html>) which also talks about widely held
beliefs that later turn out to be just a passing fashion. Although later seen
clearly to be false, at the earlier time, the flaws are invisible.

~~~
gruseom
I read it, but apart from the excellent beginning I'm not sure it's well worth
it. The author wants to have it both ways: he's an insider and also an ironic
critic. But he never addresses his own years of involvement in the bullshit he
exposes. As a result, the article becomes increasingly evasive and self-
justifying, ending in a bunch of platitudes of his own.

You can't just take a bucket of irony varnish and slather it over everything
and act like that makes you different.

~~~
frossie
The point that he is making is not that management consulting is useless, but
the framework for teaching is ineffective. As he says, _"What they don’t seem
to teach you in business school is that “the five forces” and “the seven Cs”
and every other generic framework for problem solving are heuristics: they can
lead you to solutions, but they cannot make you think."_

The problem (and I see this in technical management as well as in the business
world) is that a good manager can think themselves out of the situation
without gimmicks or formal training; whereas a bad manager does not become a
good one with all the MBAs and training courses in the world.

The other great point he makes, that confirms my own impression, is: _"If it’s
reminiscent of the kind of toothless wisdom offered in self-help literature,
that’s because management theory is mostly a subgenre of self-help. Which
isn’t to say it’s completely useless."_

I think that is exactly right. Yes there are some people that will derive some
benefit from reading a self-help book, but it rarely provides a lasting
benefit and is no substitute for an intelligent and mature reflection on your
problems.

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azgolfer
Gerald Weinberg's book The Secrets Of Consulting IMO is a much better view of
the give and take of giving business advice. Grad school has become far more
popular than it used to be and a lot of people seem to promote it as
worthwhile to students (paying large tuition, and spending extra years in
school) and business (paying high initial salaries and rapidly promoting the
grad school graduates). The book "The Big Test" talks about a new class of
"Mandarins" - people who have high test scores, get advanced degrees and get
high end jobs in business or government as a result. Bill and Hillary Clinton
are two of his examples.

~~~
gruseom
Weinberg's book is excellent. It saved me all kinds of trouble. I recommend it
to anyone doing any kind of consulting or even just interacting with other
human beings.

It's also a nice antidote to the Dogbert kind of consulting described in the
OP.

~~~
azgolfer
Hey, turns out he has a blog

<http://secretsofconsulting.blogspot.com/>

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gruseom
The most interesting thing in this article is its claim that Taylor was a
self-promoting fraud, which gives a whole new meaning to his status as the
founder of "scientific management". If you want to understand a thing, look at
its origins.

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gyeh
It's interesting to note that the author plans to release a book regarding the
same subject later in the year: [http://www.amazon.com/Management-Myth-
Consulting-Present-Lar...](http://www.amazon.com/Management-Myth-Consulting-
Present-
Largely/dp/0393065537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240893048&sr=8-1).

While it should be a good read, it's bit too opportunistic IMO, given the
current economic climate. Heads will roll, and MBA's are a juicy scapegoat
(nonetheless, deservingly so).

I guess not everyone can be like Shiller.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_Exuberance_%28book%2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_Exuberance_%28book%29))

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huherto
I think there should be a management degree where you actually start a small
business. I am not thinking just about an assignment for one semester; the
whole purpose of the degree would be to end up with a real small business.

~~~
Chickencha
I would argue that such a "degree" already exists. Simply start a small
business. If it's successful and you decide to move on to something else,
having created and run a successful small business will look great on your
resumé. If it's unsuccessful, then I guess you flunked out.

~~~
tigerthink
So you don't think going meetings of other small business founders or
listening to lectures by an expert small business founder would be valuable?

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bitwize
I went to Stevens Institute of Technology as a lad. I like telling an
illustrative anecdote about the school compared to its competition: W. Edwards
Deming went to MIT; Frederick Taylor went to Stevens.

All you need to know, really. :)

~~~
rodneylester
From Wikipedia: W Edwards Deming received a BSc in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Wyoming at Laramie (1921), an M.S. from the University of
Colorado (1925), and a Ph.D. from Yale University (1928). Both graduate
degrees were in mathematics and physics.

Of course, I am a University of Wyoming BSEE graduate, so I'd know the first
:-)

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datums
One of the biggest challenges in managing is the social aspect.

