

Does business school teach people how to assert power before they're ready? - a4agarwal
http://sachin.posterous.com/does-business-school-teach-people-how-to-asse

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hoop
"""Business school should stick to teaching the mechanics of running a
successful business as much as possible, and leave the psychology out of
it."""

This is an interesting thought that I don't agree with. Management is simply
the art and science of achieving results through people. If you broke
management down into its major components, I believe that you would find that
management is mostly rooted in psychology with a sliver of economics. If you
leave the psychology out of it, there isn't much left.

(X-posted to blog comments)

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fleitz
Agreed, if you want to know how things really work one of the best articles
I've ever read on the subject is by Venkat from ribbonfarm.com. Read the
Gervais Principle it's long but well worth it, lots of fresh thinking, and if
you watch the office you'll see it in a whole new light.

Part 1 [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-
principle-o...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-
the-office-according-to-the-office/)

Part 2 [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-
principle-i...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-ii-
posturetalk-powertalk-babytalk-and-gametalk/)

Part 3 [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/04/14/the-gervais-
principle-i...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/04/14/the-gervais-principle-
iii-the-curse-of-development/)

Part 4 [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/10/14/the-gervais-
principle-i...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/10/14/the-gervais-principle-iv-
wonderful-human-beings/)

~~~
hoop
I'll read them all over the next couple of hours. (I am sick in bed anyhow :))
Readings that I recommend are "The Great Jackass Fallacy" (I got my copy <$10
on Amazon) and "Drive" by Daniel Pink. There's also a Youtube/TED video that
sums up "Drive" very well. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y>

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sachinag
Sachin's conflating the teaching of techniques he finds distateful with the
general notion of teaching management skills in general.

Trying to teach the mechanics of running a business without going into
psychology is like trying to teach the piano with only a book and a metronome.
I cannot tell you how many times an MBA2 student (I'm currently an MBA1 at
Michigan, which is awesome and amazing) has made a comment like "I was in [x]
situation that was eerily just like a roleplay situation in my MO class."

The mechanics of running a business are exactly the sort of thing you can
learn in a book (or a blog); dealing with people to get optimal outcomes takes
a classroom environment with an excellent teacher and groups of other
students. You have to bang the keys to really learn how to be an effective
manager of - and hopefully, leader of - people.

~~~
jallmann
Weird, I always thought you were OP. Guess I should click those usernames more
often.

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sachinag
That pisses off the other Sachin a lot more than it bothers me. :)

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gregburek
In my experience with business school and engineering school, EVERYONE asserts
power before they earn it. Others may call it "fake it till you make it", but
I would say that over-confidence and power games are rewarded in social
constructs which make me (and other techies I know) very uncomfortable.

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johngalt
Does tech school teach people to assert competence before they're ready?

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a4agarwal
you can't compare technical skills with teaching attitude

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Alex3917
"Business school should stick to teaching the mechanics of running a
successful business as much as possible, and leave the psychology out of it."

I disagree. At least 85% of success is knowing how to put on a good show.
Knowing what behaviors/signals/designs will get what reactions is key, and
it's something that can really only be learned from a competent teacher.

