The Latest Management Obsession, Part II

[dorchadas]

I wrote about it here, but the kerfuffle over the latest management obsession continues to unfold. One of the people who volunteered to help roll it out ("ambassadors", they're called) was over here talking about how painful the whole process apparently was. When it was first proposed, the idea was that everyone would memorize the standardized elevator pitch and be able to repeat the buzzwords. This got a ton of rightful pushback in the initial meetings, because it was pointed out that no one is going to use a canned recitation if they're actually trying to be convincing (because canned speeches sound canned) and it's insulting to make a bunch of people memorize a slogan like they're schoolkids. So after that, management came back with the idea that oh, you just need to use some of underlined buzzwords and apply them to your job. But lately people are coming in with stories about being asked follow-up questions in the meeting sessions, or on specific words that they missed, or they're going to ambassadors in a panic that they're not going to get all the words right, and it's become a huge pain for everyone involved. Except senior management, probably, because they're insulated from the effects of their dumb ideas as always.

My session is next week. We'll see what happens.

Comments

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Imagine how much more unhappy they'd be if people had obeyed and recited the canned speech ... and, of course, results plummeted because it sounded canned.

This is an excellent example of a trend that's been growing for years, training people to behave like robots. It consistently reduces performance quality and problem-solving, but for some reason bosses have a fetish for it.