bizarreville

The Association of Business Gurus (ABG) has just published a paper in the prestigious Important Business Stuff Journal, concluding that Talking-the-talk is now more important than Walking-the-walk.  This important finding could make thousands of business/management books gathering dust on bookshelves nationwide instantly obsolete.

For years, the ABG has preached that Walking-the-walk(WTW) was the critical leadership dimension, particularly when it came time to executing change programs.  They measured that TTT was valued at only 3.5 on the 10-point Business Wizardry Scale, compared to WTW at a hefty 8.5 rating.  This was based on 100 business studies, which found that blabbering and blabbering about change was not viewed popularly with people.  It was the leaders who led by example and made change an integral part of everything they did in daily actions that was ultimately meaningful.  Well no more.

In the new 12-month breakthrough study, the ABG determined that their hypothesis was totally incorrect.  One part of the problem was that no one was Walking the Walk, anyway.  “It’s just too difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating for Leaders to do all that walking.”  Most leaders said they now just email their troops marching orders…may even add a little bit of rationale if time permits.  A new popular fad among leaders is to put a Footer on all outgoing email that simply reads: “Shut up and comply.  Failure to do so risks immediate termination.”  Simple and to the point, why waste breath?

The study goes on to show that leaders tend to have much broader reach and quicker response with Talking-the-talk.  In today’s world, that is critical.  It points out that the President has used TTT to its pinnacle, and totally ‘walked away’ from real action, follow-up, accountability, or real performance.  Moreover, the public seems entralled by it all.  “Talking-the-talk fits perfectly in our Facebook Society,” commented Dr. Stuhl, Professor of Business Ergonomics at Bizarreville University, “why complicate matters on stuff that no one cares about?”

Another part of the study concluded that leaders who demonstrably show they care about a problem and use persuasive body language technique in showing compassion/care are more effective 2 to 1 than leaders who actually do anything about solving the problem.  A Survey of nationwide cynics concluded that, when confronted with a problem, most leaders can’t really do anything about it anyway… even if they could they’d probably louse things up and do the wrong thing…so, if they at least show that they care…well, that’s something.  ‘Wiping the fake tear from the eye’ continues to be the highest rated act of pseudo-compassion showing, followed closely by “I feel your pain’.