The problem with pragmatism in the workplace

Truth!

According to pragmatic philosophy, truth is mutable. Truth is a product of our own perception combined with the "unknowable" reality of the situation.

I say HOG WASH !!! Truth is knowable. One of the issues facing our world today is the influence of pragmatic philosophy. The relativism with which we are facing the world and our problems is, in fact, the problem. There is a knowable right and wrong way to do things, and not striving to do them right is inappropriate.

We have built, within our companies, organizations of diffused accountability based on pragmatic approaches to business. We have simple precepts, which when followed, lead us to the right way of doing things. Yet, we complicate these with acronym-laden processes as if choosing the right credentialed people and implementing the right (flavor-of-the-day) process will make everything OK. It won't.

We need to return to more simple management techniques. We need to begin holding each step in the value chain accountable. Someone asked a question the other day about management by objective. It took me a little by surprise, because I think it is the only way of managing. But, it made me realize how many don't. They manage the process in between in a constant state of micro-management. This is an ineffective way of managing humans, in my humble opinion. It kills innovation and improvement, and at the end, everyone is responsible for following the process, but no one is accountable for the result.

TURN IT AROUND. Give your employees the rules, and the objective, and let them figure out the best way to achieve the result. Reward them highly for improvement and innovation, and if they don't reach the objective, well, tough love should be the route. Find someone who can hit the objective.

This is a huge subject, right? But, I'm starting to talk about it now, and I'm focused on making this better in each organization I touch. Thanks for reading my ramblings this morning.