Say Nothing - Manager

There is this interesting thing that economists love to say. "You cannot see the wood for the trees." It has a kernel of truth and meaning in it, of course. That, when you make policy for an industry, or for a country, there can be serious problems for ONE company or so. But concentrating on individual cases while making policy can end up harming the entire industry or country. The problem, though, is that it is such a lovely phrase for the hot air merchants - the 'Say Nothing, but say it in a lot of words' brigade, if you will. You see, it conveniently absolves you of the need to even be able to distinguish an oak from a shrub, while speaking wisely of the wood. So, you can spout wisely about the 'wood' with nary an idea of what composes the wood!

Managers just LOVE economics for that reason alone. Especially, the 'Say Nothing' lot. As a student, it is enough that you spout a lot of words while saying nothing. Adults also have the need to make those words sound wise while they are doing so. Ergo, you can do without the knowledge of concepts but cannot do without a stock of wise-sounding phrases and economics is such a storehouse of such wealth.

Now, the management equivalent of the 'wood' is the 'Big Picture'. You want to support the other guy's point of view? "Yes, perhaps on a day-to-day basis there may be some issues but we need to see the big picture here." You want to oppose it? "It may seem efficient to do it this way but we need to see the big picture here." The best thing, of course, is when you do not have to take sides and just say, "Does it work well when we consider the big picture?" THERE you go. The beauty of this thing is that the other guy can only oppose your view by citing specific cases and all THAT, as you well know, can be airily dismissed as the 'small' picture, so to speak. The 'Big Picture' is too big to be seen in toto, except by you, and, so, like the Emperor's New Clothes, it is seen and appreciated by everyone while not even existing!

You think it is difficult in your favorite area of today - the infotech sector and all that it has spawned? How about "Looks fine, but I think there may be scalability issues"? Or, "Will it be robust enough to handle the transaction load?" How can anyone be opposed to scalability and robustness? Just collect a few such phrases and you are all set.

I do not need to belabor the 'Team Player', 'Square peg in a round hole', 'efficient deployment of abilities' or 'right-sizing' and the rest of the wisdom of the HR arena, do I? I have written enough posts on them.

The point, though, in being a 'Say Nothing' manager is that you should play your cards well enough not to be in a position where you are expected to be responsible for DOING something. THEN you can keep sounding wise by saying a lot of wise words without ever saying anything concrete. Getting stuck with the job of actually doing something, though, can be a problem. But THAT is precisely why we have been wise enough to create those positions of 'consultant', 'adviser' and all such - mainly for those who can sound wise even if they have failed to BE wise!

And those who ARE wise and have come into these areas? Trespassers, I tell you, taking the bread from the mouths of honest 'Say Nothing' managers like us!