Where’s the Evidence?
Posted by
Ricki Sharpe on
April 15, 2007
Filed Under
Leadership, Work Behaviour
There are business fads, fallacies and fashion; some survive while others die. Many bosses avidly follow them all, regardless of their company’s business model. They have become copycat managers, trying to find a one-stop, fix-it-all solution to their various problems.
Stanford University business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, a co-author of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense, urges managers to work to be more independent. He advises them to “systematically examine evidence about what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong,” instead of following what everyone else is doing.
The key theme of this book is that decisions and actions ought to be fact-based and the result of logical thought. However, as the authors are at pains to show evidenced based management is not all that common among public and private sector managers.
In addition, managers who stop and think about what they are doing are both rare and usually successful. Indeed, the most important message to managers in this book is, “Think before you do and understand that the devil is in the details.”
Next time you pick up a business book or article or are tempted to implement the latest management fad, use the following guidelines derived from the book.
- There is nothing new under the sun. No idea springs out of nowhere. Many management ideas are really repackaged old ideas. Insist that the authors of ‘new ideas’ provide information on their sources.
- Be suspicious of breakthroughs. Breakthroughs are sporadic. Knowledge moves forward as the sum of previous work indicates the next step. Look for patterns across a wide range of studies and writings.
- Celebrate collective brilliance, not lone genius. Gurus don’t generate ideas - communities do. A single person cannot implement a change in your organisation - it will take the collective wisdom of all your people.
- Emphasise the benefits, drawbacks and uncertainties of research and proposals. Many authors and consultants present only the virtues of an idea or proposal. Insist on fair exploration of the negative possibilities.
- Use stories to illustrate practices, not as valid evidence. Anecdotes and stories are not valid evidence that a hypothesis is correct. Observation is much better than recollection.
- Don’t give up the right to think. Explore all the data and evidence about a suggested practice, not just that which fits your assumption and biases.
Visit the Evidence-Based Management website for more evidence.
View an interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer on YouTube.
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