WISDOM IN A NUTSHELL

MANAGEMENT OF THE
ABSURD
Paradoxes in Leadership

By
Richard Farson
Simon & Schuster1997
ISBN 0 684 80080 2
172 pages

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Management Of The Absurd Page 2

The Big Idea

To understand basic human behavior and relations, we must first recognize that
most often it is irrational, and we cannot simply answer leadership problems with
trendy, simplistic formulas. This artfully written and unique book is fresh in its
perspective, offering an out-of-the-box approach and exploring a new way of
looking at things.

Embrace A Different Way of Thinking

First of all, throw out all previous ideas of leadership and human relations that
you have learned over the years. Open your mind to these new ideas. Number
one, you cannot control or manage people. Once you know this, you will go
about your leadership role (and private roles) with less frustration.

For as long as humans are thrown together in organizations, absurdity will

remain with us. There are no techniques offered here, this is a book full of
wonderful big ideas.

The Opposite Of A Profound Truth Is Also True

The rise of the fast food industry went right along with that of the gourmet and
organic products boom. Let’s take the ideas of pleasure and pain, conflict and
peace, good and evil, love and hate – all these opposing forces coexist and in
fact enhance one another.

Opposites often coexist in management. To be healthy, or organization needs full

and accurate communication, but at the same time, there is also a level of
distortion and deception embedded within these messages.

Nothing Is As Invisible As The Obvious

It takes someone with a fresh perspective to see what most people don’t, even if
they have it in front of their faces everyday:

James Watt observed the power of steam from a teakettle, leading to the
invention of the steam engine and the birth of the industrial revolution. Alexander
Fleming saw that bacteria inhibited the growth of microorganisms, which led to
the development of antibiotics. Henry Ford saw that by making workers do one
task repeatedly the automobile assembly line could produce much more at a
faster rate.

Some things that are terribly obvious only need to be pointed out by a pair of
fresh eyes and applied accordingly.

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Management Of The Absurd Page 3

The More Important A Relationship, The Less Skill Matters

When performing in the area of human relations, our obsession with technique,
skills, and technology does not help.

When one remembers significant events from childhood, the things our parents
did for us that meant a lot to us are often the spontaneous moments of humor,
caring, and thoughtfulness, things that are not found in a “how-to” parenting
manual.

The same goes for employee-boss relationships. Employees tend to become

more impressed with the humane side of their bosses, when they show their own
vulnerability, personal struggles, and reveal themselves as people. People
respond to what you are more than what you do. Being your own unique self has
nothing to do with skill.

Once You Find A Management Technique That Works, Give It Up.

Meet each situation with an open mind, and not with an armory of techniques.
Better managers transcend technique. Humans follow a “reciprocity rule”. This
means that whatever you feel towards me, I will eventually feel the same way
towards you.

“If we genuinely respect our colleagues and employees, these feelings will be
communicated without the need for artifice or technique. And they will be
reciprocated.” - Richard Farson

Effective Managers Are Not In Control.

Relinquish control and you will become less frustrated. Approach situations with
the attitude of a learner, a teacher, or both.

Our most significant human affairs such as marriage, childrearing, and leadership
do best when we have an occasional loss of control and increase in personal
vulnerability. You cannot control your children, your spouse, your lover, friend, or
colleague. We argue and have interpersonal conflicts because we want the other
person to indicate he or she has had an impact on us.

No amount of marriage counseling, self-help books, parent training classes, or

audio and videotapes that focus on technique will do the trick. Nobody really
knows how to raise a good kid, or have a long-lasting marriage, or keep
employees motivated. You simply can’t have all the answers to human problems

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Management Of The Absurd Page 4

because the very condition of not knowing, of being surprised by life, and being
unable to handle other people is what makes us human.

The people we love the most are the ones we cannot handle. When it comes to
employees, you cannot shape them into what you desire. You can only hope to
leave an impression.

Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems

A problem is something gone wrong that can be solved or corrected. A
predicament can only be coped with. Our most important human affairs, indeed
the most intimate ones, are predicaments. Often predicaments are made worse
when we treat them as problems.

Executives suffer from always trying to treat predicaments as problems, breaking

them down into parts to be addressed, but predicaments are never handled
smoothly. Predicaments are created by conditions we value and cannot give up.
For instance, we will always have crime for as long as people desire material
wealth, freedom, and urbanization.

Technology Creates The Opposite Of Its Intended Purpose.

The computer was supposed to bring about the paperless office, but today
offices seem to have an even greater amount of paper. The chemicals used in
air-conditioning pollute our atmosphere. Pesticides and preservatives endanger
our health. Widely available graphics software has given us a proliferation of bad
quality graphic design.

We Think We Invent Technology, But Technology Also Invents Us.

Take the automobile. This has greatly influenced the way parents raise kids.
Children in every neighborhood have to be driven to school. The automobile has
influenced our dating lives, our social lives. Technology has invented our
lifestyles. The computer has brought about virtual companies, network
communities, and many people now have online relationships. Most people can’t
live without television, cars, computers, refrigerators, and phones.

Paradoxes of communication

The More We Communicate, The Less We Communicate.

Most organizations are overcommunicating. There are more than enough faxes,
emails, meetings, and memos going around in every office. Employees are
overwhelmed by the amount of communication they have to deal with every day.

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Management Of The Absurd Page 5

Most communication problems are really balance-of-power problems. When

there is an unequal balance of power, communicating may further weaken the
position of the already powerless. If an employee openly criticizes her boss, she
may be fired. In a marriage, the rejected one may be further rendered
unattractive and vulnerable if he communicates his needs to the spouse who
rejected him. It is only when there is a fairly equal balance of power that true
candid communication can take place.

Top-level management requires a communication system that can truly serve the
strategic interests of an organization. Big bosses spend all their time in meetings,
making memos, and attending conferences. An information system has yet to be
designed based on the way these executive communicate.

In Communication, Form Is More Important Than Content.

From the design of our letterheads, annual reports, and advertising, to the accent
our receptionist has, these details communicate what kind of company we are a
part of. Printed communications tend to carry a heavier weight than handwritten
ones, even if the words used are identical.

Metamessages are the messages communicated to us in a non-verbal, subtler

manner. As children we learn to obey adult authority, fall in line, raise our hands
and ask permission. We learn there are things you can and cannot say to other
people. In life, the metamessage or unspoken message tends to be more
powerful than the message itself.

A round table communicates a more democratic setting. Taking one’s shoes and
tie off and sitting on the floor communicates we are in an informal gathering.
People are naturally intimidated by expensive leather office furniture and
authentic artwork on the walls.

Listening Is More Difficult Than Talking.

Listening requires humility to be able to open one’s self to another person’s point
of view. We risk being changed by that person’s view, and we have the impulse
to become defensive of our own views. Listening demands great trust and
respect and is really more of an attitude than a skill.

Praising People Does Not Motivate Them.

Praise only works to reestablish the hierarchy and put an employee in his place.
Praise is an evaluation, and being such, makes the person feel diminished since
the manager, by giving praise as a reward, reinforces his or her own status.

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Management Of The Absurd Page 6

If an ordinary person was to praise a person higher in status, the praise must be
given in a way that shows the difference, like “I loved your painting, Mr. Picasso”.

Managers try to make up for the lack of involvement and guidance in their
employees’ work by giving praise.

Praise puts a distance between people and terminates contact. We normally end
our conversations on a positive note, and we try to put a distance between others
and ourselves this way.

Every Act Is A Political Act.

Why do we hire females as secretaries? Why do we offer management positions
to men? Why do we give the bill in a restaurant to the man? Why do we make
people retire at 65?

Sometimes the very laws designed to “protect” women in the workplace actually
demean them. Most women still make only 75% of the pay men get for the same
work. Provisions made for women actually make it look like women are not
capable of taking care of themselves.

From African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians, to women, men, children, gays

and lesbians, handicapped and so on, we have legislation and equal opportunity
clauses supposedly to protect each group. Appointing representatives from each
group shows a fragmented society. Instead of seeing ourselves as one big
community, we see ourselves as different groups all competing against each
other.

The Best Resource For The Solution Of Any Problem Is The Person Or Group
That Presents The Problem.

An ex-drug addict is the best resource person to speak in a rehabilitation center.

Alcoholics Anonymous draws on the experiences of former alcoholics to
enlighten others.

It takes a good leader to come up with ways to respect each individual’s needs
within a group and see how these needs are accommodated.

Organizations That Need Help Most Will Benefit From It Least.

Psychotherapy works better for mentally healthy people than for those teetering
on the brink of madness. A deeply troubled company will normally not seek help.
Leaders of companies in serious trouble often do not seek help or call in

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consultants because of the intense self-examination it requires. (Case in point:

Enron)

The person who can change is the one a consultant should focus on. This is
normally the person who has brought the consultant in to look into a problem.
The absurd but practical solution when an individual is being difficult is we do not
ask him to do the changing. It is often those who are most difficult to handle who
are also the most creative and hardworking people in the company.

Individuals Are Almost Indestructible, But Organizations Are Very

Fragile.
Individuals can be very resilient. There are many Holocaust survivors who
function normally and go about the daily business of living, sometimes even
better than people who have never experienced such a trauma.

Organizations on the other hand can be destroyed with one bad public relations
disaster, bad decision-making, or unfortunate events.

The Better Things Are, The Worse They Feel.

This is where we encounter high-order discontent. When things are going well,
people may still not be satisfied and want more. It has been labeled the Theory
Of Rising Expectations. People in Western European countries complain and go
on strike for better benefits and privileges, when their basic lifestyles and salaries
are far better than their Third World counterparts. In life, even in the healthiest of
marriages, a spouse may still be seeking more from her partner, seldom are the
complaints of abuse or infidelity. Her discontent may be of a higher order like,
“We don’t communicate or connect as much as before”.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow provided us his famous hierarchy of human

needs, from the low-order to the high-order. From this one can expect that those
in a healthier organization tend to have more complaints than those in an
unhealthy one. People seek something better when things are good, not when
times are hard.

We Think We Want Creativity Or Change, But We Really Don’t.

Organizations normally resist change and do not want to go through the trouble
of implementing a new idea. Creativity is stifled through judgments, evaluations,
intellectualizing, sticking to tradition or stereotyping.

Real creativity always breaks the rules. The greatest achievements by human
beings have been results of people working independently, outside of a university
institution, or in their own small unorthodox organizations. Einstein, Freud,
Gandhi, Marx, Darwin or Edison- all these individuals worked independently.

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Management Of The Absurd Page 8

We Want For Ourselves Not What We Are Missing, But More Of

What We Already Have.

“The difficulty for all of us is that our absorption with what we do well may blind
us to what will enable us to do even better.”

Organizations tend to rely solely on their star product, failing to see what they
really need to do. Just like the way an individual who is always serious needs to
learn to lighten up a bit, organizations have to explore other areas they have not
yet opened themselves up to.

Big Changes Are Easier To Make Than Small Ones.

Sometimes is better to get through the painful big change as quickly as possible
in order to put it behind you. A gradual layoff will spark many protests, but an
instant downsizing effort can spare weeks of agony in the boardroom.

People respect big decisive moves and are more likely to buy into a change
when it is big enough to withstand any attempt at countering it.

We Learn Not From Our Failures But From Our Successes – And
The Failures Of Others.
When you are experiencing success, it inspires you to keep on working toward
bigger and better goals. A series of failures demoralizes you.

Gossip becomes the glue of community and social bonding. People can relate
more to stories of unfortunate events happening to others rather than their
success stories. It is human nature to empathize with those who are suffering
than with those who are succeeding.

Success and failure are intimately connected. We cannot experience one without
the other.

Everything We Try Works, And Nothing Works.

The truth is it doesn’t make a difference what technique works, because
everything seems to work. Training programs, trendy formulas, following the
latest guru - all methods appear to work when applied. The down side is the new
idea may work for a short while, as an experiment. Give it some time and the
effects seem to disintegrate.

Crash diets don’t work, but a permanent lifestyle change of exercise and good
eating habits can be more effective. The same is true for management. Lasting

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Management Of The Absurd Page 9

change happens when sound principles are practiced on a daily basis. There is
no such thing as a quick fix when dealing with people.

Planning Is An Ineffective Way To Bring About Change.

Members of an organization tend to be blind to those aspects of the organization
crying out for change. People resist change and prefer to maintain the status
quo, even programs that aren’t working, and contacts with people that are simply
liabilities.

• Plans are rarely of any real strategic use. The planning done in a low-
status department cannot have any effect on the high-level management.

• Planning that does not consult other departments and is focused on just
one department of an organization is limited in scope and cannot be
beneficial.

• Plans are always made to accommodate relationships with established

suppliers, contacts, and political interests.

• Plans are vulnerable to fads and self-interest.

• Planning is a process that requires anticipatory and strategic thinking, the

basis for organizational flexibility and readiness.

Organizations Change Most By Surviving Calamities.

People grow because of the effect of loss. Bad experiences force us to reassess
our lives and keep struggling. Suffering builds strength of character in a person,
and it can work for an organization as well.

It’s not about the way you manage a crisis, it’s about the way you survive it and
allow it to rebuild your organization into something better.

People We Think Need Changing Are Pretty Good The Way They
Are.
This is a very important message to all managers who feel frustrated with their
employees. You cannot fix people. Most employees are really trying to do their
best. The more rules you lay down, the more time clocks you install, the more
manuals you distribute- the more you try to control people, the more you create
an environment of distrust. Private meetings that exclude certain personnel are
another form of bad management practice.

A high-trust organization keeps a set of shared values and goals. Communication

flows freely. Managers pay attention to people’s personal issues and concerns.

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If you believe that human nature is not that bad and work your rules around this
belief, people will respond more positively. Nobody likes to work in a company
full of strict rules and regulations.

When forming teams, each individual brings something unique to the table. Learn
to appreciate the differences in people. The bad manager always tries to fix a
person and make him behave a certain way to conform to the group.

Every Great Strength Is A Great Weakness.

Take IBM and KayPro, both players in the market of personal computers. IBM
was a heavyweight company but was unable to compete in the market due to its
very size as a corporate giant. Agility doesn’t come easy to heavyweights.

KayPro was a small enterprise that moved with lightning speed into the market,
but lacked the size and experience to compete against other giants in the field.
Both IBM and KayPro had strengths, which also were their weaknesses.

Organizations need to be self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses, or they

tend to become inflexible or complacent, whatever size they are.

Morale Is Unrelated To Productivity.

Maslow chose achievers for his studies on self-actualization. These people were
among the greatest achievers in society, but were not necessarily happy. Some
were ruthless, boring, or lacking in humor. People have different reasons for
working, it may be monetary or due to family pressure. You don’t necessarily
have to be whistling while you work.

No matter how many little gifts you give your employees, or how many parties
you host and notes of goodwill you distribute, people can sense fakery. They
want a genuine approach to management and there can only be high morale if
you as a manager possess this kind of high morale. Enthusiasm comes from
people when it isn’t forced.

There Are No Leaders, Only Leadership.

The best leaders are servants of the people. You’ll find them going to the
blackboard and writing down the input of everyone in a meeting. They don’t take
the credit for themselves but share it with the group.
Our stereotype macho image of a leader has brought us to picturing our leaders
as dominant and aggressive types. Leaders are actually humble servants, and
they take advice from many people surrounding them.

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There is no model we can suggest for you to follow. Leaders are like surfers
trying to catch a wave. Their actions may not always work.

The More Experienced The Managers, The More They Trust Simple
Intuition.

You need to develop that gut feeling that tells you how to read a situation. Try to
see things clearly, without all the clutter grown-ups have acquired over the years.
Go back to your childhood sense of clarity.

• Trust your instincts.

• Don’t allow yourself to be victimized by appearances.
• If you believe in something, you are more likely to see it.
• You may want to repeat past successes even if what you did then won’t
work in this current situation.
• First impressions are usually right.
• Try to look into things others would rather avoid.
• Don’t let the pressure of the group thinking make your decision for you.
• Unlearn or get rid of the barriers to perception and clear judgment.

Leaders Cannot Be Trained, But They Can Be Educated.

Same banana? Not really. The management of human relations is not a skill. If it
were, we would have “professional” friends and “expert” parents.

Training applies to skill requirements and techniques. Education refers to

knowledge and wisdom.

“With education comes a better understanding of the context in which one’s

decisions are imbedded, a better perspective for viewing human affairs, and a
better idea of what is important.”

In Management, To Be A Professional One Must Be An Amateur.

“Architecture is like being in love.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright

In essence, the word amateur is taken from the Latin “amator” which means
“lover”. A professional manager must love his work and do it for it’s own sake.
Great leadership is a high art form. The amateur performs his work out of love
and the pleasure of accomplishment. Your passion for your work will indelibly
influence others.

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Management Of The Absurd Page 12

Lost Causes Are The Only Ones Worth Fighting For.

Why? Because lost causes tend to be the most humane ones. They require us
to live up to the best in us.

It is good to give up before you start. You know in your heart it may be a lost
cause but you set about working on it anyway. Why do you think there are so
many environmentalists, human rights workers, and non-governmental
organizations? These are idealists who work without any guarantee that they can
change the way world leaders decide on important issues.

Researchers are working on absurd ideas like greening deserts and growing
plants in seawater. It is about performing a task well, even if the rest of the world
thinks it is unimportant.

My Advice Is Don’t Take My Advice.

Advice is the easy way to address a situation without actually having to deal with
it. Do not take the ideas here so literally that you never praise your employees or
you never write a single rule down in a company manual. This book has been
written to challenge your thinking, and make you see things differently. It is
entirely up to you on how you wish to apply these ideas, contemplate their
opposites, or throw them all out and start again.

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