please empty your brain below

The pandemic is showing what really matters. Hopefully, we'll see an end to this trite nonsense and the parasitic roles that thrive on it
This BS plagued me back when I was working FT in national and global companies. It started with the introduction of TQM principles in the mid-to-late 80s. Every single subsequent example, every encounter with a quality auditor, a communications template, or a meeting facilitator, etc. caused me to feel like a little bit more of me had perished. Towards the close of my career I had colleagues whose sole mode of communication was via written or spoken BS. I despised them for their utter compliance.

Thanks. Feel better for that rant-ette.
Stakeholders? Is that to deal with any vampires who might invade the site?
In my experience:

Engagement = have lots of meetings
Leadership = defer any meaningful decisions

When confronted by meaningless words like these, usually from marketing colleagues, I find simply asking them "yes, but what does that mean?" is the perfect response. The terror in their eyes as they struggle to respond is entertaining, if not ultimately illuminating.
Back in 1970, when I was a business student, I remember a rather pompous student, later an unsuccessful Conservative parliamentary candidate, referring in a seminar to an 'ongoing corporate financial strategy'. Before his mouth shut, another student, now a knighted member of the Labour supporting business community, added the phrase 'extending horizontally through time and space', which brought the house down! Bullpoo like your example sadly is everywhere, but to be fair, I think it is quite a good one and definitely one for anyone needing to make these presentations to keep in their locker.
ahhh engaging stakeholders.
Loved it when that one was on my Bullshit Bingo card.
Engaging stakeholders whilst practicing social distancing in order to avoid a terminal episode.

So simpleq question, has this campaign/policy reduced accident rates? If yes, then despite being generic business nonsense,it is having a positive impact. If no, then it is a waste of time and should be removed (along with the people who created it). If the answer is don't know, we aren't monitoring that measure, then what is the point of it?

Unfortunately, I have found that don't know is the most common answer.
Yes Frank F, I believe I was terminated from my 'truth telling' career because I refused to engage in BSing, Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Anything You Say crap. That way we got the likes of Trump and other notable buffoons.
Unfortuately, although Jimbo's question is a simple one (and a good one), it cannot be simple to answer.

Even if accident rates are carefully measured before imposition of the bullshit, and again afterwards, and they have reduced, unless you have somehow managed to keep everything else the same (including the external environment), you will not know if the improvement is becauseof the bullshit, or in spite of it.
Malcolm, agree completely, but it's better to measure it and get a false positive, rather than not measure it and be completely clueless. Far too many decisions are made based on feelings rather than data, and clueless wins out.
What Frank F said so well.
Ah, this takes me back to those heady days of playing Bullsh*t Bingo at work.

As waves of management consultants would be brought in to lighten our darkness as to the true path to achieve business excellence and deliver extreme customer delight. To help us mere mortals achieve going forward, the holy grail of our organisation realizing the true benefits of synergy and business agility.

We were on the bus so they could ring the bell. Hold very tight please.
I'm trying to remember when this sort of nonsense started - early 1990's I think. Suddenly companies found that winning contracts was not all about doing their core business well, but also depended on producing elaborate but meaningless documentation to satisfy auditors assessing compliance with newly invented requirements.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy