The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
90% Of Business Advice is Crap. So Why Bother?
Posted on 02. Jun, 2006 by Wayne in General
Oh I do love a good bandwagon- just can’t wait to jump on. So when Stanford University professor Robert Sutton wrote on “Change This”, that “90% of all management and business advice is crap”, I read it and climbed aboard. I whole-heartedly agree. (Read it here for yourself…it’s important).
A lot of other bloggers, writers and would-be management gurus clamored to agree, too(presuming, I suppose, that they were in the 10%). But if most of it is crap, and I make no claims for being smarter than the average bear, why bother to do a show like The Cranky Middle Manager that exposes lots of ideas and if the numbers are true is 90% warmed-over nonsense? (Full Disclosure, I wrote a full column on this for Management Issues last night).
Because, my friends, it’s only crap if a) you feel it offends or doesn’t apply to you at all or b) you’ve already accepted the advice and are doing it so it’s not news. You have to hear it, apply your God-given judgment, and decide whether or not it’s for you.
 I had this epiphany back in the fall when I interviewed Rosa Say about “Managing With Aloha”. I adore Rosa’s work and her philosophy but as I listened to her it occured to me there was really nothing new in terms of content, it was just phrased in a way I’d never heard before and it slowed me down long enough to listen. I even said that to her at the time.
THAT’S THE POINT! I’m going to continue to bring you lots of people and opinions- some of whom will be full of bilge water and hubris (I can think of a couple I’ve interviewed and they’re way bigger names than me). Hopefully I’ll bring you enough voices, from enough places, saying enough things, in enough different ways that something cuts through the fog and resonates with you.
You can decide what’s valuable and what’s not.At the very least I’ll try to keep it entertaining.
Let’s face it, 90% of everything written, acted or sung is crap- my daughter will tell you I’m 100% full of it. Doesn’t mean a brother shouldn’t try.
Wayne
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Wayne, I think you’ve said this best in your Management Issues article:
If we all learned what we have heard, and then would actually put what we have learned in practice, I can easily believe that a good 90% of business books today would not be published — but because it is repetitive, not because it is crap. I think Sutton knows it too, but the sensationalist title of his manifesto gets more of us to read it and get the conversion rate up higher!
By the way, you are one of my Six Scoops of Aloha for 06.06.06! Check it out here:
http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/2006/06/six_scoops_of_a.html
Hey Wayne,
While I’m not a manager, your show manages to inspire and keep a smile on my face at the same time. Who would have thought management could do that to someone.
As far as 90% of management advice, maybe that 10% just needs to keep getting repeated as often as possible (because people still don’t do it). I also subscribe to the theory that 82.3457% of statistics are made up anyway.
Keep on trucking on.
Cheers,
Jess