Emperor has no clothes phenomenon
March 21st, 2005 by Bill
Over at Ripples, David has posted Have we reached a tipping point in American employment? And he’s touched on several aspects of today’s corporate work world that make me want to tear my hair out.
I call it The Emperor Has No Clothes Phenomenon – the business of saying something is one thing when it is clearly the opposite. David touches on at least two:
- Performance reviews
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
But performance reviews aren’t about performance. They’re about managing costs. Which is why they are disincentives to performance. David describes it perfectly:
You see this in organizations where managers say, "I know you did an exceptional job, but I am allotted only one exceptional review, two superior reviews and the rest must be limited to satisfactory. I have three valuable senior employees, so you get a satisfactory review."
Customer relationship management is similar. It is only about customers in a roundabout way and it’s certainly not about relationships. CRM is about managing costs. Which is why customers generally feel businesses are faceless and about as personal as a shut door.
In both cases there are fundamental problems but the overarching problem for many is the fact that something is named and described in a way that is opposite to how it is experienced – thus, The Emperor Has No Clothes Phenomenon. It feels essentially dishonest – even when it isn’t intended that way.
If a thing is not named and described in the way it is experienced it will always feel false. If it is night, call it night. Don’t tell me it is day. How can I trust you when you are either, a) lying or, b) too dim-witted to know the difference?
Update: I notice that over on Doc Searls Weblog he has a post titled, Because "Customer Relationship Management" is about management more than customers. Interesting.
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