Are we at the Tipping Point?

An an exercise in evisceration, Andrew Orlowski’s dissection of Malcolm Gladwell is up there with the best. It starts:

A substantial subclass of white collar “knowledge workers” hails this successful nonfiction author as fantastically intelligent and full of insight – and yet he causes an outbreak of infantalisation. He’s better known for his Afro than any big idea, or bold conclusion – and his insights have all the depth and originality of Readers Digest or a Hallmark greeting card.

and ends:

The man has a 6,300 word disclosure statement on his website. All it needs is: “I’ve got nothing to say, move along.”

His enthusiasm amongst the VMB class tells us a lot about how stupid they think we are. As humans we are naturally insatiably curious and inquisitive – and demand answers. Mostly. Then there are people who read Malcolm Gladwell’s books.

Ouch!

Orlowski makes this curmudgeoon look like an amateur. He frequently does a fine job of hacking down marketing sacred cows most often articulated in the words of social media people desperate for relevance and attention in a world that is cynical about what they have to offer. Just check out the recent series of cartoons by Hugh MacLeod and you’ll see what I mean.

Orlowski articulates many of the problems I have with so-called popular management book thinking: vapid, based on pop science and pseudo culture, without a shred of real evidence but soudning plausible. A couple of weeks back I met with a person who has been hired to work out a strategy for helping a company manage its efforts in ’socialzing’ the workforce as a way of tapping its knowledge in new ways. It was a breath of fresh air. The chap has a degree in social spychology and understands the workplace better than anyone I’ve met in recent times. As he said: “Too many people are hanging their hats on half baked theories that have little basis in reality.”

As we move into 2009, I suspect there will be a backlash against the New Age thinking that has dominated much of the rhetoric around ’social media’ and its alleged influence in both shaping the way things are done and the future of business. That’s to be welcomed. Orlowski’s diatribe is a first step on that less trodden path.

In that regard it’s maybe not so bad that the profession is laggardly. We can at least learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before.

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Tagged as: Andrew Orlowski, Hugh MacLeod, Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point