The American View: Welcome to 2025 – The Dangers of Chasing the Next Great Idea

Alas, no. This fellow was too much like the zealots I grew up with. He was suffused with Absolute Certainty™ and, in his capacity as the Chosen Saviour of All Mankind™, could only comprehend my refusal to submit to his demands to be a diabolical repudiation of his entire belief system … or something like that. He flushed and berated me loudly for not accepting his card. It was my “duty” to his deity, he bellowed, that I accept this deputization and immediately go forth and convert heathens. I knew his lines by heart. Same confrontation, different day. 

Maybe my expression inspired him to reconsider. [1] Maybe he spotted a more timid prospect behind me and figured his odds would be better bullying someone else. Maybe a peeved Zeus paralysed his vocal cords from Mount Olympus. Whatever happened, I strolled away; Zealot Boy didn’t follow. 

As we drove home, I considered just how similar Zealot Boy’s zeal reminded me of the True Believers™ I’d met at work. Every other year, it seemed, someone in power would get inspired by some management methodology or other – didn’t need to be new, just inspirational – and launched a Cubicle Crusade™ to change their world. Might be Total Quality Management, Choices, or big-A Agile, they’re all the same: some clever boffin conceived a genuinely good idea and someone else expanded that idea into a life-changing, miraculous, world-changing program. Evangelists and consultants preached the program’s magnificence (for a paltry £500/hour). Inspired business leaders “saw the light,” then attempted to convert their workers into unquestioningly loyal crusaders who joyfully brought forth their glorious new world of quality circles, radical honesty, Jira tickets, or whatever. 

Personally, I don’t have beef with any of the aforementioned reformation programs. Their core ideas have legitimate potential and often deserve to be studied and tested. Even Zealot Boy’s source material has good stuff in it. If ZB had started off asking how I felt about the Beatitudes and their relevance in the modern world, we could’ve had a fun and fulfilling conversation. I can say the same about topics like little-a agile software development, et al. 

The trouble is, that’s not how True Believers™ like Grapevine’s Zealot Boy think or act. Once someone gets fired up with “life-changing” revolutionary spirit, conversion and obedience become more important to them than content or conduct. It’s not enough for other people to do the things their world-changing Great Idea™ requires; other people must BELIEVE!!!!™ the world-changing Great Idea™ with all the apocalyptic fervour of a 11th century crusader on a meth bender. To be clear, I’m not claiming that business reformers are religious fanatics. Rather, I argue that most extreme of the True Believers™ in the business world emulate the binary, us-versus-them fanatical approaches of the more fringe-elements of various historical and contemporary faith communities. [2] To be honest, I’ve witnessed more bile-spewing hate and ideological condemnation come from secular businesspeople than I ever have from religious folks. That’s my experience; your mileage may vary.

That’s what worries me about at the start of every new year. When a senior executive discovers a Great Idea™ from some book, video, or trade show demo, their unchecked power within their organisation allows them to do to their workers what Zealot Boy couldn’t do to me: compel obedience and stifle all objections. When a street preacher demands that I change my religion, I can walk away. At most, there might be a short scuffle. When a Chief Whatever Officer orders me to put on a robe and chant to Azatoth until my department achieves ISO 9001 certification, however, the only option I have to resist them is to quit my job … which (in America) quickly leads to bankruptcy and death. Not a fair fight. 

That, in turn, is why I dread the intoxication and messiah complex that all-too-frequently comes from overreaching business gurus and high-dollar consulting firms. To be clear, I’m not opposed to trying new things at work. What I can’t stand is being forced to participate in the cult-like pseudo-religious fervour that’s often “required” to implement the next new Great Idea™. In my experience, striving to retain your integrity when everyone around you is enraptured by doctrine is exhausting, frustrating, dehumanizing, demoralizing, silly, and – inevitably – futile. These Great Idea™ never deliver on their miraculous promises. How could they? If they were truly miraculous, you wouldn’t need an army of £500/hour consultants to achieve them …

If you can, I strongly urge you to rein in your executives’ expectations when they deliver you the next Great Idea™ (whether it’s inscribed on a stone tablet or not). Take what’s useful and appropriate from the new doctrine and set aside the next. Remind them that culture change takes a long time. Belief alone won’t transform a company into something it’s not. If they want to improve quality or output or whatever, focus on the fundamentals … and skip the pseudo-religious trappings. They’ll get more cooperation from their people with honest pragmatism than they ever will from fanatical evangelism. 

[1] I was once told by a senior officer that I have “resting murder face.”
[2] Be they religious, secular, or somewhere in-between.