guru triangles

Thanks to a Mark Gould tweet, I encountered Scott Berkun's post: How to call BS on a guru. SB's post kicked me into writing this one as I have been pondered the place of business gurus.

My pondering is simple: I think that we need to get over them.

Do not misunderstand me. We need people with:

• deep skills & expertise in a particular area;
• provocative or insightful points of view;
• the ability to energize and enthuse others.

But under no circumstances should we treat them with deference or undue respect. How would you treat your postman? Well that's how a business guru should be treated. However instead I see a tendency to give undue deference and respect to the "guru" when what we really should be doing is destruction-testing their assertions.

I don't see this as being only the gurus' fault. We bare much of the blame ourselves. You may recall a couple of posts last year on drama triangles. I think we often fall into unhealthy cycles of behaviour. Drama triangles are unhealthy because in playing a role within the triangle and its associated games, we avoid owning our problems. We act like children.

E.g.

Guru: I am great and all-knowing. I have seen the future of business.
Follower: Truly I am lost. Rescue me, oh great guru! I will pay for your book and your seminar series. Tell me the one true path! I will do anything (except take responsibility for my own future).
Guru: Verily I will show you unworthy one. Remember all other business gurus worship false idols.
{There is a pause. It becomes obvious that not all the guru's sayings are literally true}
Follower: You tricked me, you evil guru! I spit on your Harvard Business Review articles and your incomprehensible lecture notes!!!
Guru: Love to chat, but there's a new fad coming round the corner. Goodbye.
Follower: Truly, I am lost...
{Repeat}

It all ends in tears. And haggling over invoices.

So what can we do? Here are three suggestions:

• Drink from many wells. There are lots of good ideas out there but no perfect ones.
• Cultivate critical engagement. Ask questions. Lots of them. Start with what niggles you.
• Develop your own ideas. Everyone wants to buy ideas of the shelf - but homegrown is ultimately more satisfying.

N.B. If you ever find yourself in a session that I am running and you think I am going a bit "guru", I give you permission to throw paper at me. Or anything else that does comparatively little damage on impact. I will thank you for it.