Posts Tagged ‘‘New age’’

Show me the evidence!

Sep 8th, 09 / 0 Comments

Show me the evidence

Show me the evidence

Our practice has been increasingly focussing on evidence that something works as a ‘must have’ in any proposed intervention. In 2006 and 2007 this blog discussed some of the principles behind this approach, including the wisdom of ignoring management fads and approaching ideologies and theories based on the evidence, rather than assuming that the latest fashionable idea is best.

Essentially, evidence-based management is a sceptical approach that, according to Pfeffer and Sutton from their excellent book: Hard facts, dangerous half-truths, and total nonsense: profiting from evidence-based management (2006) follows a few simple guidelines including:

Treat old ideas like old ideas, and

Be suspicious of breakthrough ideas, and studies because they, almost, never happen.

There is much to still learn and discover about how organisations function, but there is also plenty of well-researched evidence around for what works in the business world. The so-called ‘gurus’ who claim that business is difficult to figure out because it is all about people and we are complex, unpredictable things that don’t follow predictable rational rules are giving up too easily. Trying to understand human and organisational behaviour is why we have psychology for instance.

So, claiming that business is too hard to fathom is weak. Worse than this though is using the complexity argument to justify unproven, flaky nonsense (see earlier posts on business psychics). A good example in the field of personal development would be “The Secret” with its claim of applying the “universal law of attraction” to achieve your desires- the idea being that if you simply visualise something it will be attracted to you – whether it is a physical object, maybe a car or yacht, or an abstract concept such as love or success.

Try as I might, I can find no evidence for this – the best I have come up with is gravity and magnetism.

People are often attracted to mysticism in it’s various forms because it offers easy answers to difficult problems. The business world, particularly in the current fragile economic climate, deserves better. So, rather than deciding that because we don’t have all the answers yet we should ignore management science and just make stuff up, let’s build on what we have found to date, do more research, reflect on experience and…show me the evidence!

Effectiveness, Organisation, Strategy

Business psychics – better than management consultants?

Jul 21st, 09 / 0 Comments

Last month this blog reported a surprising (to us at least) trend for businesses to seek ‘new age’ services such as business psychics and feng shui consultants. Is this limited to a tiny minority who would always be susceptible; is it a sign of desperation in the teeth of the economic downturn, or is it an indication that traditional consultancy is not seen as able to provide the required solutions?
In the field of health, people often seek alternative therapies when medicine does not fulfil their needs, which can often be psychological. For example, the provision of a particular treatment may provide part of the answer, but sometimes a patient needs reassurance, or just the chance to be listened to. Clearly medicine cannot cure everything, so maybe it is not surprising that other avenues are explored. However, as Derren Brown reminded us this week in his blog with a clip from a BBC documentary, psychics can be fairly easily tested and exposed.
So, what is going on in the business world? Maybe there are parallels with individual medical conditions in that we are dealing with the health of a business, but this is only a metaphor. Business performance is measured by sustained economic profit and positive cash flow. While it is right that a business person may want to seek reassurance that they are making a good decision, or that a big order will close, this is better sought from a colleague, coach or consultant until there is solid evidence that those who claim mystical powers of prediction have some special gift that the rest of us don’t possess. A challenge to prove these phenomena has been issued by the James Randi Educational Foundation, who offer a one-million-US-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. Are there any business psychics out there willing to take up the challenge?

'New age'

Recession increases demand for ‘new age’ services

Jun 17th, 09 / 0 Comments

To be fair there is always a ‘colourful’ fringe around, but there seems to be an increasing tendency to search for answers from ‘unusual’ sources.  Last week I came across a group that offers feng shui consultancy to property businesses, and today I came across the concept of a ‘business psychic’ on twitter.  A group that describe themselves as offering ‘practical guidance for small business entrepreneurs’ said they are interviewing one and wanted ideas for questions - digging a little deeper, it appears that another business psychic was featured in Newsweek recently – she charges clients $10,000 per month for 24/7 access to ask her questions.

There are three thoughts that strike me: first, and we offer no judgement here, if people believe their business can benefit from feng shui, psychic readings, intuition, tea leaf interpretation etc. , then someone has to fulfil that need.  The second is that if there are feng shui consultants and business psychics around – what else is there?

Finally, it is a shame that we don’t feel able to offer our own rational, sceptical view of these services because of the experiences when writing about scientific evidence of excellent scientists and authors such as Simon Singh and Ben Goldacre.  While these alternative offerings conflict with or vakues and therefore we would never dream of offering any service that did not have evidence of it’s effectiveness, this humble blog cannot afford to take advice on what we can or cannot say in the more subjective field of business, so we merely report.

However, the Meridian 1 search for ‘new age’ and ‘alternative’ consultants in the business world begins!

'New age'