Thank you for stopping by and the pointer to your site. I plan to check it out.

–B

I certainly agree that searching for silver bullets is like looking for the holly grail: full of hope, disappointments with nothing to show after all the hype. However, “what is a fad” is also subjective: I am no fan of platform shoes, but the niche market seems to love them! Would you consider these management practices and ideas a fad: management by objective, knowledge management or innovation? Some certainly do… Management practices and theories are focused on improving the organizational effectiveness, management competencies and competitiveness. According to Darwin, corporate evolution is inevitable; thanks to globalization, the evolution is happening faster than firms can handle it. In many ways, most of these new management theories have valid concepts and ideas. However, the problem comes when people latch on to them without adequate understanding, without recognizing that the change must be managed, and not committing the resources required for the implementation: i.e. the silver bullet syndrome. The result: wasted effort, disappointed and cynical workforce and management, not to forget the loss of credibility of the leaders. So, the question is, should we be blaming the “new religion” or the “prophets” for not delivering the heavens, or us for not recognizing that evolution starts with understanding of self? At the same time, there are certainly few charlatan doctors and snake-oil salesmen that travel from a firm to a firm, and we certainly beware of those. But with the proper process of vigilance to all new ideas we shall never be caught by their traps.

Thanks for stopping by!