Doesn’t matter how smart you are, you can be proportionally stupid.
I would like to start this post with a quote from William Blake that says: “To generalize is to be an idiot.”
It’s true, stupidity can be directly proportional to our intelligence, and any of us can be a victim, we should be aware of it’s existance, we can be its prey.
Functional stupidity it’s deeply rooted in organizations. It’s the big elephant in the room that nobody wants to see.
Spotify was disruptive, but above all, different from the others, original, and I said it “was” until everybody started copying them, from that moment it became average.
We love copying models, structures, methods, organizations, positions and patterns, we just simply implement them because it worked somewhere else, all copied and without the slightest effort of creativity.
Most organizations dream to be different, unique, disruptive or the new trend, but, copying what others do? Those idolized organizations you’re copying became great because they refused to be like others. Think about it!
Mediocrity, in someway, is lacking of inspiration, adequacy indifference, averaged, inferiority or even amateurism.
Nowadays it’s almost impossible to create something that hasn’t been already thought by someone, on the other hand, there’ll always be a market for what’s different.
TOYOTA
When Taiichi Ohno developed “Lean Manufacturing”, the Toyota Production System, he did not copy, he learned from US car manufacturers, he got rid of the waste and kept what it’ll work for them, increasing quality with the lowest possible cost.
HONDA
When Soichiro Honda created a motorcycle team to compete on the Isle of Man TT, during their first attempt, all the drivers arrived in the last positions, but for the next race Sohichiro Honda traveled through Europe, bought parts from other motorcycle manufacturers , he study them and produced new and better components, improving and adapting to his needs. Honda made history when most pilots end in the first places when they came back to the race track.
In most organizations, functional stupidity is hereditary and contagious, it’s spreaded and we all are potential victims, no matter how smart we are.
“Excellent” college ratings are overvalued, the “Rock Star or Ninja” profiles are not a guarantee of success, just look at many of those companies that once were stellar and we all admired, some ended up closing due to bad decisions, take a look at the world financial crisis, nobody could avoid it, even that those financial firms had the “best” experts money can buy.
Most companies end up developing products because competitors do, and not because it benefits the organization, and nor either to provide value to customers.
Remember, stupidity can be directly proportional to our intelligence.
“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”
― Victor Hugo
This post was inspired by “The Stupidity Paradox: The Power and Pitfalls of Functional Stupidity at Work” a book by Mats Alvesson & André Spicer. I highly recomend this book :-)
The book talks about so many interesting points, “the knowledge myth, questioning the leader’s role and leadership as a source of stupidity, in reality, “leaders” spend most of their time reading email, attending to meetings, budget, filling reports or forms. Structure-induced stupidity. Smart people doing stupid jobs, professional idiots. Imitation-induced stupidity, following the crowd. When image is everything and we have to show how updated we are. Branding-induced stupidity. Culture-induced stupidity, marching to the same tune without even think about it”.
“Some of the most problematic things are done by some of the smartest people. A lot of these stupidities are not recognised as such. Instead they are treated as normal, and in many cases even applauded. You need to be relatively intelligent to be functionally stupid.” ― Mats Alvesson “The Stupidity Paradox: The Power and Pitfalls of Functional Stupidity at Work”
Francisco Cobos
🐢 “Poc a Poc” (Little by Little)
