Business Insight Zone

It’s Friday the 13th.

Myself, I give little thought to common superstitions. I don’t avoid the number 13, or throw salt over my shoulder, or avoid black cats. As a figure of speech I might say “knock on wood,” but that’s about it.

Yet like most people in the business world — heck, like most people, period — I do carry around unspoken superstitions, if by superstition we mean an unsubstantiated bit of magical thinking that leads to avoidance.

Examples?

• “We have to grow top-line revenue constantly, no matter what.” (Bo Burlingham has documented great companies that have chosen to limit their growth in his Small Giants.)
• “We can’t do anything with the economy like it is.” (Some of the best companies of the world were founded under lean circumstances.)
• “Only we can understand what this product needs” — a.k.a. the Not Invented Here syndrome – or its converse, “No one here can solve this problem,” which is the fundamental belief that drives demand for management consultants.

What examples would you add to this list?

The most insidious superstitions aren’t as obvious as black cats and broken mirrors. They sneak up on us. They have every appearance of being true, simply because we don’t think to question them. And as any anthropologist could tell you, folk beliefs are hard to kill — even when they deserve to die.

What business superstitions are you carrying around?

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(Photo by miss pupik.)

Category: Management, The language of business