Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management |...

Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management | Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton | When common/convential wisdom, isn't...

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Hard Facts, Danger...

	Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton Harvard Business School Press, 2006 - 276 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jam-packed with intruiging thoughts and evidence

Ever since I read his book "Competitive Advantage through People" I have bought every book Jeffrey Pfeffer has (co-)written. And I have never been disappointed. All his books both are consistent with and build on his previous work and add new and interesting angles. When this new book by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton was advertized I had a slight worry about its title. It sounds so decisive and self-assured .... I worried whether it wouldn't be too pretentious. Management surely is not only a matter of applying knowledge! It is also dealing with uncertainty, improvisation, choices etc....

But after reading the book, I can (again) say that it is fantastic. It fully acknowledges 'the other half of management' (the parts where you can not yet rely on proven knowledge).

The authors pose some brilliant questions like: is work fundamentally different from the rest of life and should it be? Do the best organizations have the best people? Do financial incentives drive company performance? Is strategy destiny? Is the reality of organizations nowadays "change or die"? Are great leaders in control of their companies?

Do you think you know the answers to these questions? And if you do, do you know what these answers imply for you actions as a manager? I bet you will learn a lot by reading what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton have to say about these things (like I did).

This book is jammed with intruiging thoughts, packed with practical wisdom and a true inspirational read!

Coert Visser, http://www.m-cc.nl/solutionfocusedchange.htm

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When common/convential wisdom, isn't...

So how much of that business "conventional wisdom" is really true (or even wise)? Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton make a great case for evidence-based management in the book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management.

Contents:
Part One - Setting the Stage: Why Every Company Needs Evidence-Based Management; How to Practice Evidence-Based Management
Part Two - Dangerous Half-Truths About Managing People and Organizations: Is Work Fundamentally Different from the Rest of Life and Should It Be?; Do the Best Organizations Have the Best People?; Do Financial Incentives Drive Company Performance?; Strategy Is Destiny?; Change or Die?; Are Great Leaders in Control of Their Companies?
Part Three - From Evidence to Action: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management
Notes; Acknowledgments; Index; About the Authors

The main gist of Hard Fact is that the common and conventional wisdom so often parroted in business today isn't really based on hard evidence to back it up. Some platitudes have been repeated and taught so often that it's just accepted as true, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Pfeffer and Sutton take a look at how these half-truths are acted upon, why they can be persuasive (and wrong), and how the evidence points to a very different conclusion, if only people would step back and question the assumptions. For instance, my favorite chapter was the one on leaders being in control of their companies. You can find thousands of books on leadership, all showing how leader X was decisive, wise, executed flawlessly, and otherwise walked on water. This general view of "great leaders" has lead to the ever-elusive search for the savior CEO, exorbitant compensation packages, and general neglect of the business in favor of personalities. The hard evidence shows that often the success of a company is more based on other factors, such as the market, people, systems in place, or just plain "being in the right place at the right time". True, solid management is a factor, but not as much as common wisdom would dictate. This chapter, as well as the others, will make you sit back and question your assumptions. Which, you really should be doing anyway...

You may not agree with all their conclusions, but the underlying premise is dead on. Just because everyone assumes it to be true, doesn't make it so. This should be required reading for senior management in all organizations...

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The Right Medicine for Management

Having followed the teaching and writing of Jeffrey Pfeffer for nearly 30 years, I think Hard Facts is his best book. The underlying management philosophy is surprisingly consistent with ours at Mayo Clinic. It is refreshing to challenge leadership to produce supporting evidence justifying such blindly held beliefs as incentive compensation, work is different from life, and leadership is in control. Seeing how medicine's focus on developing a culture of patient-centered, evidence-based decision making could be positively transferred to business is gratifying recognition for those of us in healthcare management.

Carleton Rider
Senior Administrator
Mayo Clinic

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Another cracker from Robert Sutton!

Fans of 'The Knowing-Doing Gap' will know Robert and Jeffrey's no-nonsense style, and this doesn't disappoint, taking on the flawed logic and execution that can turn highly successful companies into also-rans almost overnight.

It's all here - failed mergers, dangerous half-truths and the lack of clear data, backed up by out-of-date management procedures. Robert and Jeffrey propose in their place Evidence Based Management, a simple, but effective approach to avoid the corporate banana skins.

As always, Robert and Jeffrey's books combine clear thinking backed up by sound academic research. They ask some fundamental questions, like "Do Financial Incentives Drive Company Performance?", "Are Great Leaders in Control of Their Companies" and, most chillingly, "Change of Die?"

This book is a must for anyone in a senior decision making role. Highly recommended!

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Management Practice in the 21st Century

Despite the one-hundred year tenure of professional management, it's still surprising how often urban myth and superstition carry the day. While there continues to be a lot we don't know about effective organizational management, we should embrace that which we do, and keep asking more questions about the rest. Hard Facts eschews conventional management-think that has debilitated organizations again and again.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8

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