“Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap?”

This was a fun weekend read:

ChangeThis :: Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap?
Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap?

Here’s a good quote from the piece:

My Stanford colleague, Tony Bryk, describes American educational policy as “The United States of Amnesia,” because the same bad ideas—like flunking lots kids (i.e., “ending social promotion”) and tying teachers’ pay to student scores—sweep through school systems every few years. There is a huge body of research that shows they are ineffective, yet no one seems to remember these policies have failed over and over in the past. And even when an idea, like “Hamel’s Law,” is supported by evidence, as I said, no progress can be made on ideas that are
constantly being rediscovered. That is why, after I read about Hamel’s “New Math,” I proposed Sutton’s Law: “If you think you have a new idea, you are wrong, Someone else probably already had it. This idea isn’t original either; I stole it from someone else.”

Classic.

Are we perpetually doomed to repeat our mistakes? How can we avoid being sold new ideas which are just bad ideas (barely) repackaged? I think the first step is to identify them - this piece provides some clues as to how.
Another great quote:

Sure, some business thought sales people are outright lying, but psychological research suggests that many others have actually convinced themselves to believe their own lousy logic and arguments. Human beings see what they believe, and disregard the rest.

Ah… good ol’ confirmation bias.