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Introduction was converted to a separate article due to increased volume. See Note on Fundamental Absurdity of IT Management
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Please understand that epic technical incompetence of higher level IT management is more common then you would think. It is actually typical, and people like Bill Gates are just exceptions to the rule. What is typical is over-reliance of consultants (who mercilessly fleece those jerks), technical fads, promotion of cronies and fighting for territory (territorial games). All of those are just different manifestations of two core problems that is immanent in IT departments of large corporations -- incompetence and absurdity.
There is also another side of technical incompetence -- the systemic rise of various types of authoritarians (especially double high authoritarians) and psychopath (especially female sociopaths) in IT management ranks. And authoritarians do not directly belong to the category of psychopaths they are no less, if not more, destructive. They are also much more numerous (approximately 4% of psychopaths vs. approximately 20% of authoritarians by some estimates). See
Please understand that death and life question of working in large corporate IT now is: Not only how do we deal with incompetent leadership? but also "How to work within authoritarian leadership model? with all its warts.
More complex question is about value of working in large corporations, including large corporate IT departments. Here my message is mixed. There are some unique opportunities within large corporations IT departments that you can't find elsewhere (so please don't assume that I am a simplistic nihilist), but you need to know quite a lot about authoritarian organizations to survive and prosper in such an environment. Social skills that are typically severely underdeveloped in many talented programmer and sysadmins are of crucial importance. Learning them is also "life and death" issue, if you intend to survive in a large corporate IT environment. Platitudes about authoritarianism and absurdity aren't enough.
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Amazon.com
Mr. Ford Greene EsqOne of the most important books for the 21st century,
March 31, 2005
God. The God of Science, The God of Papal Infallibility, The God of National Security, The God of Family Values, The God of Buddhist Selflessness, The God of Unconditional Love. What are they good for? Absolutely nothing.
The Guru Papers elegantly identifies the masks that power uses to hide its abuse of others. Authoritarianism is the exercise of authority which, presuming an unquestioning obedience, can tolerate neither question nor challenge, meeting either with disregard or punishment. Assiduously distinguishing the everyday exercise of authority - living life and making choices amongst the propositions it presents - from the bullying domination intrinsic to the type of power unwilling to recognize an equal, the authors carefully dissect the threads which, woven together, comprise the cloth of abuse. Whence abusiveness flows, certain features are invariably present.
When a "leader" sets up an ideological standard of perfection or purity that no human being can attain, and our consequent failure of such attainment becomes the raison d'etre for a double standard of treatment whereby the leader gives orders and we obey them, we have lost our freedom, particularly if we believe it is for our own good.
Whenever one pole of a duality is identified as essential to good living and the other pole leads to evil, behind that mask an authoritarian moralist weaves his tale positing that which he believes is most important, that which he says is God. Gurus and religions, politicians and governments, educators and schools, parents and families, and lovers and spouses frequently equate evil with selfishness and goodness with selflessness and sacrifice. They say if I am sufficiently sincere and pure of heart, I will sacrifice what I want for what they tell me is best. Thus, I will be a better man.
There is little difference between the cult leader who demands allegiance to the unproven presumption of his godliness, and the lover who, crying "let me be myself," claims his imperfections should be accepted without limit in the name of unconditional love. When a moral demand for sacrifice is made in the name of something sacred, be it the Immaculate Conception or an Idealized Lover, one best be brave and ask one's questions. If such courage is met with punishment or disregard, one better run. If one does not, one's conduct will communicate that there is something wrong, and it's not with the other guy.
The essence of authoritarianism attacks the inner certainty of individuals by claiming that it knows a superior, more moral path. It not only condemns an individual's assertion of self as selfish and wrong, but also is unwilling to engage in dialogue which does not adopt an unquestioning regard for that which it deems sacred. If an individual adopts this moral dichotomy, he can only mistrust himself as inferior. This, Alstad/Kramer say, is the purpose of authoritarian control: to generate internal self-mistrust which makes the individual available to imposition of control by an external authority.
They correctly expose the deception that such externally imposed control is benevolent. According to Kramer/Alstad, authoritarian persons are never benevolent because such persons use others for their own selfish purposes while lying about it, saying they are not, if they are saying anything at all. "Do as I say, not as I do; and if you dare question what I do, you are questioning what all good people know is beyond reproach. You, too, would have respect if only you were a good person. Since you are not, you must do as I say. It is for your own good." Such is the circle of authoritarian ideology.
The language of authoritarianism is the language that Orwell named double-speak. There's no Orwellian double-speak in this book, just hard-hitting practical logic that rips the guts out of sacred cows that have fed too long in pastures provided by a naive and idealistic population. Such a populace, wanting to be good, denies that someone who directs their focus on great and beautiful-sounding ideals could be ripping them off, as was one of Hitler's more notable tricks.
Thus, the book shows how both the willingness to psychologically dominate, and to surrender to such, are embedded in one another. The dominating and the dominated persons both believe in an unattainable and essential purity which requires extreme sacrifices, both in its name, as well as for its attainment. One person makes the sacrifice, after the other has convinced him he must, erstwhile he would be morally condemned as selfish and self-centered for having disobeyed the other who claims to know best.
The Guru Papers recognizes that both self-centeredness and selflessness exist - you cannot purge the self of selfishness - and must work together in oneself in balance. It forcefully argues why intelligent negotiation is life-affirming whereas dumb submission invites death. It meticulously dissects the myriad protean tricks authoritarianism employs to maneuver its subjects into place and keep them there. Access to information and accountability for one's conduct are essential for the brave new world that might emerge if the reptant strain of authoritarianism in humankind does not destroy this world first in the name of knowing better.
The book says listen to yourself and if you are degraded or expelled for asking questions, recognize that the inadequacy lies with the authoritarian character, not with you. The Guru Papers makes the authoritarian predicates accountable and exposes them when they are not. It's about time!
Amazingly insightful, though miss-titled., October 10, 2012
By Mr. Serpent "Mr. Serpent" (Tennessee)This books is only ostensibly about "gurus". (Thankfully) and largely about authorities, the authoritorians who love them, and how power structures and hierarchies necessitate an authoritarian structure. Thus authority isn't necessarily bad or stifling, but as it's a conduit of power, it's a lightning rod for abuse and manipulation.
This book explores a myriad of relationships, the hierarchies they involve, and the nature of surrender to authority and how love is often confused with submission. The book isn't "about" cults, religion, family relationships and rolls, etc, as it involves all of these and much, much more. People who would tell you that it's essentially Krishnamurti is like saying the bible is largely about Job. This nearly 400 page tome is not Krishnamurti rehashed.
Hell, one can point to any one section and say that there is a resemblance to any given philosopher. For example, the section explaining how selfless love and unconditional love is an illusion that necessarily ignores ego, the reference in "I" love you, is Ayn Rand's Objectivism explained without the contentious takes on altruism and selfishness. ("It is what it is" rather than "A = A".) IMO it's an important work, and sadly, not well known.
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Magnificent., June 3, 2007
By M. Harris (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
`On the psychology of military incompetence' is officially on the list of books that Army personnel aren't allowed to read, but since I was given this was a retired general, reading it seemed like the thing to do. I'm pleased I did.To be frank, non-military personnel might not admire its sheer brilliant powers of deductive observation. As soon as I had read it I started to panic as I saw the caricatures played out around me. I then started to spot them in myself, and began to panic harder. I suspect this book is designed to give oneself (if you happen to be in the military) a bit of a fright, and to encourage introspection.
Anyway, it's a brilliant book that's simply chock-full of theories, explanations and uncomfortable questions. I think the uncomfortable questions are the most valuable, but you have to read for yourself to discover if you think the same. And you should read it - it should be required reading for Officer Cadets right up to Generals, and civilians should read it as well - after all, you're the ones ultimately in charge of us gun-slinging types, yes?
A serious look at a deadly problem, March 19, 2007
By In the Middle of the Road (Connecticut)For most people, including most of today's amateur theorists on the events of the day, war is something akin to moving toy soldiers around. What they know of military matters is all too akin to cheering for a sports team. They want someone with a can do spirit and the willingness to charge into stiff resistance. Take that hill no matter what the cost. Fight to the death. A lot of horse manure.
War is a deadly business and there is probably no war in which incompetence was not afoot, whether in losing or in winning. Mix incompetence and a failure to understand the technology of war and you have WWI. The reality is that incompetence is as pervasive in the military as it is in the corporate world. And if we must fight wars, we should have a reasonable expectation tht the people who direct that effort have some idea of waht they are about. Dixon is concerned primarily with generalship.
I first read this when it was first published in the UK at least a couple of decades ago. It filled an important gap in the range of serious reading on both the military and organization behavior. As another reader notes, this is just organization behavior mil101.Most corporations are still organizing along military lines and that cuts through titles like team leader and associate. It is hard business to make it work right and too many times in the military, there is a failure of competence.
The fields o fhte world are littled with the remains of those who died through bad generals. Dixon reflects some of his own military experience in the British Army, including WWII, before he entered the Psychology field. There is a British emphasis, but the approach is generally and applies broadly to any military. And the examples he cites are among those that are studied deeply for implications. He covers the field from the intellectual capability of generals to a chapter that for the sake of review rules must be labeled as Bull droppings.How do we deal with incompetent leadership? That is one of the questions Dixon addresses. It probably should be extended to political leaders given their power over warmaking.
In our day, we are assaulted with people who accuse their opponents of micromanaging war in Iraq. A decade or two from now, it may be somewhere else. But what we began doing in Vietnam was executive branch micromanaging and that was greatly expanded during the Iraq fiasco to the point that many left senior ranks. We look closely at our generals, but can we afford to go to war without understanding the competence gap that we might have in political leadership..
Irreverent, superbly written, interdisciplinary, enlightenin, September 29, 1998
By A CustomerDixon is a former artillery officer, Sandhurst graduate, and self-described authoritarian personality, who left the Army and became a clinical psychologist. He uses both sets of experiences to analyze why officers in armies throughout history--mostly British, but the principles are generally applicable--have fallen into a stereotypical pattern of incompetence specific to senior military leaders. Much of the reason, he believes, derives from personality development, but the book is refreshingly devoid of psychobabble and is written in an astonishingly clear style. A real eye-opener, after which military history will not be quite the same to the reader again.
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February 28, 2012 | Blind Bat News“The direct causes of the nuclear accident were the unpreparedness of Tokyo Electric Power…and the government’s lack of a sense of responsibility.”-Koichi Kitazawa, lead investigator
A Japanese government sanctioned independent investigation has revealed gross incompetence in the wake of the March, 2011, nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. It also says that Tokyo Electric made the situation worse!
Six investigators interviewed more than 300 people, including Japanese and U.S. government officials. However, officials at Tokyo Electric refused to co-operate with the investigators! They have just published their findings, February 28, 2012.
The report calls government response “off the cuff”, and “too late” (as I was posting last year)! The nuclear power plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo), was ill prepared for a nuclear disaster, despite decades of telling locals they were prepared (as I posted last year). The Japanese government, especially the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, failed to ensure the proper training for nuclear disaster response (as I posted last year). The report also blames Japan’s complicated system of delegating authority and responsibility. No one knew who was supposed to do what regarding the disaster; from top national government officials down to sub-contractors working for TEPCo (again, as I posted last year).Things were so bad that local governments have been taking the initiative to try and deal with things like relocating residents, and decontamination efforts, with little help from the national government (again, I posted).
Also, many of the discoveries of radiation contamination came as a result of individuals and private groups, who took it upon themselves to pay for testing things like dirt, water, and even food, like beef, sold in grocery stores (again, I). It was local governments who discovered farm crops to be contaminated (posted last year). The report also says that information coming from the private sector to government officials was insufficient to make proper decisions. TEPCo officials simply dragged their feet when it came to dealing with specific issues, like cooling systems being shut down, and vents not being opened. Not only did TEPCo drag their feet, but the investigators found that there was a back up cooling system that was functional, but TEPCo never used it!!! Although Japan’s government has a crisis management policy, the investigators said it is totally useless!
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ZDNet
For additional background, it's helpful to look at the 2006 National Audit Office report (emphasis added below):
The single payment scheme is not a large grant scheme compared to some government programmes, but the complexity of the EU Regulations, the complex way in which the Department planned to implement them in England, combined with the deadlines required to implement the scheme for 2005, made it a high risk project. By choosing to integrate the scheme into a wider business change programme, the Agency added to its already considerable challenges.
Many of the Agency’s difficulties arose, however, from:
- underestimating the scale of the work needed to implement the scheme;
- over optimistic progress reporting; and
- governance structures which, in practice, proved overly complex, and the absence of clear metrics, arising from the lack of appropriate management information that would have allowed the oversight boards to measure progress objectively.
By the end of March 2006 implementation of the single payment scheme had cost £46.5 million more than the Agency had anticipated in its November 2003 business case. The implementation of the single payment scheme and the wider business change programme had cost £258.3 million, will not achieve the level of savings forecast, and there is risk of substantial costs for disallowance by the European Commission. The farming industry has also incurred additional costs, 20 per cent of farmers have experienced stress and anxiety as a result, and five per cent of respondents to our survey said they have considered leaving farming.
MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY
The level of RPA mismanagement can hardly be over-estimated. As a small example, representing a broader pattern, see this House of Commons testimony (section EV8), by Johnston McNeill, former RPA boss, during an inquiry into the SPS debacle (emphasis added below):
Had we known that there was going to be that [level of claimant and land registration] volume, we could have looked at the volumes that the system could handle; whereas we could only look at the normal requirements. When we specified this system in 20034, when we were talking to Accenture, we had had a lengthy contract procurement and specification. We were specifying without any understanding of SPS requirements. We were specifying on our normal business requirements.
Although government incompetence has played a role, Accenture's involvement in this mess should not be ignored. Commenting on Accenture, a House of Commons investigating committee stated on page 5 (emphasis added below):
Accenture witnesses appeared to have been well schooled in not venturing comment on matters which they deemed were beyond their contractual observations. This attitude denied the Committee an important perspective on the way the SPS project was being run from the standpoint of a company at the heart of the venture. We regard this as an unacceptable attitude from a company of international repute and which may still aspire to work with UK government in other areas.
In evidence submitted to the House of Commons, Accenture denied responsibility for the problems, saying that (emphasis added below):
As has been widely acknowledged by numerous commentators and experts, significant IT enabled business change programmes can be difficult to manage. There have been many examples of problem projects in the public and private sectors in recent years with difficulties attributed to poorly defined requirements, changing business needs and lack of business involvement and preparedness that can lead to delivery difficulties.
NAO RECOMMENDATIONS
To address the issues, the National Audit Office offers these suggestions:
We recommend that the Agency:
- recovers high value overpayments to farmers (such as those over £25,000) as soon as practicable;
- brings its key offline databases into the single payment scheme IT system to make its forecasts more accurate and reliable;
- in the event that the European Union makes policy changes to the scheme, explores whether its existing IT systems would be able to accommodate such changes without the need for major redesign of the application. If the system is unlikely to be able to accommodate such changes, the Agency should notify its Management Board and the Department of the risks accordingly and update farmers once a revised timetable can be defined;
- draws on the good practices we identified from the IT systems supporting the German model of the single payment scheme on how to keep claimants informed about the progress of their claims, and the online processes already available to German farmers to transfer entitlements; and
- learns lessons from implementation of this IT system, to take account of best practice. In particular, the Agency should:
- use appropriate off the shelf rather than bespoke software whenever practicable, after considering business needs and scheme complexity, because bespoke software is costly to develop, needs to be thoroughly tested, and takes more time to implement;
- avoid offline systems, on which the main IT system depends;
- align the system to business needs, rather than the business to the system needs, applying caution to any significant movement away from tried and trusted business methods to accommodate the IT system; and
- ensure the system specifications retain a realistic level of flexibility to cope with future changes.
MY ANALYSIS
The National Audit Office recommendations listed above illustrate the extent to which basic IT best practices were not followed. Consider this as well:
- RPA developed custom software, rather than use off-the-shelf products. What was Accenture's role in this decision? It's precisely the kind of issue I addressed in a blog post called Consulting's dirty little secret, which explained how consulting companies can gain financial benefit when a project becomes larger and more complex than expected.
- RPA created databases in which data was stored in computers disconnected from the main system, despite the fact the main system depended on that data to function properly. Such issues force questions around who designed this system, from both technical and business perspectives, and how experienced these folks actually were.
- In general, the entire situation represents poor planning and project management taken to new heights of incompetence. Despite complexities in aligning UK practices with EU policies, both RPA and Accenture designed and executed a system based on poor practices, lack of experience, and world-class levels of bad planning.
IMPACT ON VICTIMS
This situation is different from many government IT failures, where money is wasted but innocent victims don't suffer personal injury. In this case, delayed and incorrect payments have directly affected farmers depending on subsidies to maintain their operations. In the words of Roger Williams, Liberal Democrat from Wales:
Farmers have found it difficult to accommodate problems with cash flow. Mention has been made of paying bills, but at the end of this week interest payments will be due on most accounts. That money will be taken out of the farmers' accounts. They will not have to make a conscious decision about it; the money will be removed from their accounts. That may take them above the level that they have agreed with their banks, and they will suffer the financial consequences—not just additional interest, but the other costs involved.
The BBC further reports on the damage caused to farmers:
Farmers in the East are being forced to the brink of bankruptcy by the Government's failure to pay their subsidies.
Many are struggling to survive while awaiting money from the Single Payment Scheme (SPS).
Johnston McNeill, former head of the RPA, eventually apologized for his agency's role in the disastrous situation:
"I deeply regret that we in the RPA and I as chief executive were not able to make payments to farmers in the targeted timetable". He said he was "saddened by the consequences".
Unfortunately, apologies coming from a man who earned £250,000 per year (about US$500,000), while inflicting such damage on his constituency, leave only a bereft and hollow sound.
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May 4, 1997
DILBERT MEANS BUSINESS. The (anti-)hero of one of the most successful comic strips of our time is an icon for office workers everywhere - the only character property that speaks to business through multiple media outlets including the daily comic-strip, an award-winning web site and a best-selling publishing program.
Anybody who works in an office or deals with bureaucracy relates to Dilbert's plight. Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert addresses issues ranging from office-envy/challenges to new technology - and the mayhem they produce. Dilbert features a rich cast of characters, including his sidekick Dogbert, his inept Boss, and his co-workers Wally and Alice. Primary target group for the property is adults 18-49 years old - affluent, educated and technology savvy.
The Dilbert daily comic strip appears in 2.000 newspapers in 65 countries worldwide in 25 different languages. More than 20 million Dilbert books and calendars have been sold in North America alone; several titles cumulatively spending over one year on The New York Times Best Seller List. The Dilbert Principle is categorically the best selling business book of all time.Dilbert was also the first syndicated comic strip character to officially go online, and the strip was the first to contain its creator's e-mail address. The award-winning web site The Dilbert Zone attracts millions of visitors each month. A Dilbert television series premiered in 1999, with Scott Adams and Larry Charles (Mad About You, Seinfeld) as executive producers.
Working as a computer engineer, Scott Adams started drawing Dilbert doodles to "enliven boring staff meetings". The character soon became so popular that other people at the company started using the character in their presentations. A "name-the-nerd" contest soon followed, and Dilbert was the obvious winner. After a few years, a contract was made with United Media, and Dilbert - "a composite of my co-workers during the years", Adams says - went from doodles to dailies.
Since then, Scott Adams has been awarded several prestigious prizes, including the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year and Best Newspaper Comic Strip (1997); Prix d'Excellence for Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook from the Maxim Business Club, Paris (1998), and the prize for Best International Comic Strip at the International Comic-Salon, Erlangen, Germany (1998).
Says Emmy Award winning Larry Charles, writer/producer of the Dilbert TV series: "Dilbert is a big Kafkaesque story of a little, logical man in a big, illogical world". In an environment where all bosses and many co-workers are heartless and stupid parasites, Dilbert stands out as the engineer with an active imagination and a His true love? Technology. Dilbert loves technology for the sake of technology; In fact, he loves technology more than people – he'd rather surf the Internet than Waikiki.
Dilbert's dog Dogbert is no man's best friend. His not-so secret ambition is to conquer the world and enslave all humans - whom he feels have been placed on this earth to amuse him. Dig deep enough below his fur, and you'll find a cynical, arrogant conniving little mutt with his paw on the pulse of the absurdity of corporate culture.
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Years ago in Cleveland I saw the musical "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," mail clerk J. Pierpont Finch's hilarious romp up the corporate ladder. I remember using that experience as a take-off point for a sermon on business ethics - with the president and vice-president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce in the congregation. I was young and foolhardy then. Now I am old and foolhardy -- as once again I attempt to enter a world in which I have had little experience, but about which I have many opinions.
Cartoonist Scott Adams in his strip Dilbert has updated "how to succeed" and created a primer on how not to succeed in business and in life. The Dilbert Principle is that "the most ineffective people are moved to the place where they can do the least amount of damage: management."
In Gilbert on Dilbert I suggest instead the Gilbert Principle - that our most important real life task is management - the management of meaning in our lives.
I am convinced that good cartoonists, as few others, have their pulse on the Zeitgeist - the spirit of the times.
Scott Adams' cartoon critique of management has become the talk of the town. Dilbert’s boss comes in for most abuse. For example, Adams parodies a management buzz word, reengineering, about which the boss says, "Everybody's doing it. We'd better jump under the bandwagon before the train leaves the station." Mixed metaphors are always dangerous.
Have you ever written a mission statement? Been there, done that. In another strip he satirizes the omnipresent mission statement, which he defines as "a long awkward sentence that demonstrates management’s inability to think clearly."
The Boss says, "I took a crack at writing a ‘mission statement’ for our group.
‘We enhance stockholder value through strategic business initiatives by empowered employees working new team paradigms.’"
Dilbert: "Do you ever just marvel at the fact we get paid to do this?"
The Boss: "Did anybody bring donuts?"
One of Adams’ E-mail correspondents demonstrated the observation that Dilbert is more documentary than satire. "My boss actually said to me ‘Let’s bubble back up to the surface and smell the numbers.’ I had no idea what it meant." As Adams says, "No matter how absurd I try to make the comic strip, I can't stay ahead of what people are experiencing in the workplace."
Though he was fired from his job in corporate America, Adams personally thinks that corporate downsizing often does make the workplace more efficient - fewer workers means less time to waste on idiotic pursuits like vision statements, meetings and reorganizations - he nonetheless makes that phenomenon the target of many of his barbs.
One strip begins with a boss announcing he will be using humor to ease tensions caused by trimming the work force.
'I've decided to use humor in the workplace. Experts say humor eases tension which is important in times when the workforce is being trimmed. "Knock, knock," says the boss.
"Who’s there?" asks a hapless worker.
"Not you anymore," responds the grinning boss.
But Adams’ cynicism about human nature does not stop with the boss. Co-workers also seem to be caught up in this absurd work culture. A group of workers gather around another’s desk.
One says,
"We’re sorry to hear you’re getting laid off, Bruce. We calculated that if ten of your friends here took ten percent pay cuts, then the company can keep you."
Bruce: "Gosh! You’d do that for me?"
"No, we’re here to look at your office furniture."
What is the gospel according to Dilbert? There are times when Scott Adams becomes a prophet, skewering perceived injustice, mocking dehumanizing practices that are too close to reality for comfort. He writes about a familiar corporate mantra: "‘Employees are our most valuable asset.’ On the surface this statement seems to be at odds with the fact that companies are treating their "most valuable assets" the same way a leaf blower treats leaves. How can this apparent contradiction be explained?"
He treats this issue in a cartoon in which the boss admits he was mistaken that "employees are our most valuable asset." Actually, he explains, "they’re ninth." "Eighth place?" someone asks. "Carbon paper," says the boss.
After a particular "downsizing" there were unused work cubicles which the company decided to hire Dogbert Construction to retrofit them and rent them out to the state as a prison.
Dilbert: "I don’t think it’s fair to put convicts in our spare cubicles."
Dogbert: "Don’t be such a bigot. These people have made one little mistake. Otherwise, they’re just like employees."
Dilbert: "I think there are a few differences."
Dogbert: "Yeah, their health care is better."
How are we to assess Adams? Is he prophet or embittered employee getting back at his former bosses? I think Adams is no prophet but a social critic. He has a totally cynical view of human nature. His characters are not suffering from paranoia, people are out to get them -- from the boss to the stockholders to their fellow-workers. These characters are totally self-interested, with no discernible trace of altruism.
One reporter asked him, "Are you as cynical as you seem?" "Yes. I don’t think what I’m doing is based on rage, but I’m terribly amused by the absurd.
The absurdity stands out more in a business setting because there’s an expectation that people will act rationally. But people aren’t rational."
Whether or not Dilbert is true to life, it is close enough that millions of people read it daily. In one survey of workers indicate that 87% say their workplace is a "pleasant environment," but Adams responds, "If you’re in an absurd situation and you’re not changing it, then you define it as being OK."
And it is true that more than 70% of workers report stress on the job, suggesting that there may well be a kind of suppressed rage in America’s workplaces. Dilbert's problem is that he is totally dehumanized by his work environment. Certainly my conversations with many of you indicate that working isn’t what it used to be - that work has become an ordeal - that it is robbing people not only of their time, but also of their human dignity.
For such people Dilbert is a pleasant catharsis. But Adams has been roundly criticized by more radical cartoonists as being "on the side of the ruling class," betraying "millions of insecure and beleaguered office workers" who consider him their champion. It is "not very radical commentary to say ‘Boy, aren’t bosses dumb.’ There’s no analysis, even in a goofy way, of why bosses act the way they do.
It’s ‘Boy is my boss dumb,’ but not ‘Boy, is this huge company stupid for doing this merger and laying off half its employees and devastating the local economy and shipping the jobs to Mexico or Indonesia.’ Criticizing stupid bosses without putting them in context is like complaining because it gets dark at night without understanding that the earth revolves around the sun. It’s a really limited view. It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just a safety valve."
I confess I am somewhat suspicious of Adams' credentials as the prophet of the workplace. I withhold that status from anyone who in critiquing the corporation has become one, anyone who proudly admits he has always wanted "to make as much money as I could....If you can write on it, if it will hold a label, it’s a prime target for licensing. You can’t get to overexposure without getting to filthy rich first."
What is disturbing in Dilbert is the relative equanimity with which the office workers accept their plight. Passivity is their chief character trait. They seem to be automatons who do not so much live in, as simply respond to, their environment.
One wonders if painting this humorous picture of their ineptitude, their shallowness of life, their willingness to go along with absurdity, is a step on the way to ending the insanity. Or does it simply help them deal with it by laughing at it?
After all, CEO’s and management consultants post the cartoons on their office bulletin boards - how penetrating can this critique be if the targets simply divert the satirical arrows with a laugh? Adams says they always think he's pointing the finger at somebody else. Does Dilbert merely co-opt workers who ought to be struggling to humanize their work environment instead of making the best of their dehumanization?
Adams seems to be ambivalent on his role. On the one hand he defends himself by saying "anything which can be mocked will not last...." but who is to say it won’t last? And, on the other, he says, "My goal is not to change the world. My goal is to make a few bucks and hope you laugh in the process." He is hoisted on the petard of his own cynicism.
What is going to stop our thoughtless, dangerous, headlong dash into the 21st century in which work once more becomes drudgery - albeit a high tech one - a drudgery which increasingly consumes our lives.
In the mid-1990’s the Apple Macintosh development team wore T shirts proclaiming "90 hours a week and loving it!" Is that the kind of brave new world we want? We seem caught up in a momentum about which many of us complain, but about which we seem to be able to do little or nothing. We accept the new oppression with nary a critical word - so fearful are we for our jobs.
Now the cartoonist, of course, is not really supposed to be a social revolutionary, but is Adams helping sustain a workplace environment which so often saps the human spirit by merely encouraging us to laugh at it?
Or is he launching a long-overdue conversation about the place of work in human life? Is Adams helping or hindering our headlong dash into the brave new world where we live faster and faster, with more and more, for less and less meaning?
In 1987 social critic Jeremy Rifkin uttered these prophetic words:
"We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient. We have become more organized but less spontaneous, less joyful. We are better prepared to act on the future but less able to enjoy the present and reflect on the past."
Is that to be the culmination of our evolution as spiritual creatures? That our work will suck the life force from us, as it did for Scott Adams. Are you happy in your work? Does it add meaning to your life? If so, good. If not, what are you, what can you, do about it?
The Dilbert solution of supine acquiescence in absurdity is a spiritually fatal position. It is a study in how not to succeed in the business of life. Adams offers us no hope. The Gilbert principle is that we need to manage the meaning of our lives in the workplace - for it is there, increasingly, that humanity’s fate is being decided. It would not be not enough for me to endure the absurdity of the workplace, to find a humorous "haven in a heartless world." It is our task to make that world less heartless.
Sources:
Business Week, 5/27/96, 46.
U.S. News and World Report, 4/22/96, 77.
Fortune, 5/13/96, pp. 99-110.
Newsweek, 8/12/96, pp. 52-57.
Windows, 5/95, reprinted in Utne Reader, 7-8/95, 88-9.
Salon - on line
USA Weekend, 7/26-28/96, 10, and 3/21-23/97, 18.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 2/23/97, 1E.
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TechRepublic
Last week, I asked for your thoughts about the usefulness of regularly scheduled One-on-One meetings with your subordinates, for an upcoming column I'm writing.
I got some great emails from you, but I thought this response from Margaret Thorpe best captured both the upside and downside of such meetings:
Not long ago I worked with a manager who knew the buzzwords but not the substance of the job. Yes, he scheduled one on ones but the team soon came to realize that he was simply going through the motions and over time he would show up for about 10% of these meetings. When he did appear he had no agenda or interest in the outcome. Finally he simply added these meetings to his schedule but neglected to invite his team -- the schedule was truly "for show" and satisfied his superior. What a waste!
Too many IT managers haven't learned to manage people and use low-tech people skills. Sometimes you'll see managers spending this sort of time with only a favored employee or two - to the envy and distrust of the rest of the team. It's OK to have favorites, but don't neglect the others when you have one on ones.
There are immense benefits to conducting one on ones. Simply getting to know and spending time with an employee is one of the best predictors of good management-employee relations. Understanding how an employee works and what the employee can do can help a manager deploy work more effectively and use resources where they can best operate. When a manager pays attention to his team using one on ones, she can develop an overall view of the projects and work and more effectively plan and schedule his teams work and run interference as needed.
Well said, don't you think? I'm not sure I'll be able to top it, but I'll post the link to my column when it's up later this week
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