Management of the Absurd [Hardcover]

Richard Farson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1996

Facile formulas, catchy slogans, ten-step programs, and quick fixes too often dominate today's management training programs. But in organizations as in all of life, human behavior is seldom predictable, and business dilemmas do not easily lend themselves to gimmicks or simplistic answers. In "Management of the Absurd, " psychologist, educator, and former CEO Richard Farson presents a series of management paradoxes designed to challenge conventional wisdom and encourage managers to reexamine their assumptions about effective leadership.
Here, at last, is a dramatically new understanding of organizations and human relations. In his explorations of more than 30 paradoxical situations, Farson demonstrates the value of a radically different perspective on leadership and offers managers powerful new ways to cope with the many perplexing problems of organizational life. Managers at every level will recognize the very real dilemmas and complexities that Farson describes, and will be challenged by these provocative new views of the art of managing people.
Here are some of Farson's startling insights:

The better things are, the worse they feel.
Once you find a management technique that works, give it up.
Big changes are easier to make than small ones.
The more we communicate, the less we communicate.
Nothing is as invisible as the obvious.
Effective managers are not in control.
Organizations that need help most will benefit least from that help.

Many readers will share Michael Crichton's response to this book, as he observes in the foreword, "He irritated me. He provoked me. He made me nod, he made me smile, and he made me shake myhead....[He] reports more than experience; he gives us wisdom." Guided by "Management of the Absurd, " managers of the 21st century will be able to accept the inherent complexity of management situations and work through these dilemmas, not with manipulative and simplistic techniques but with understanding, compassion, and effectiveness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Psychologist, management consultant, former CEO and college dean, and currently head of the International Design Conference in Aspen, Farson has put together a challenging, irritating, galvanizing manual designed to help managers cope with the paradoxes, organizational logjams and interpersonal dynamics of corporate, business and institutional life. In 33 short, conversational chapters, he delivers a series of Zen-like injunctions to jolt readers out of well-worn grooves of thought and action. Some of these prescriptions have a counterintuitive appeal ("Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for." "Once you find a management technique that works, give it up"). Others exude Confucian wisdom ("Every great strength is a great weakness"), and still others sound potentially dangerous if misapplied ("Praising people does not motivate them"). This pithy guide is an armchair workshop in participative management.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Like Alice on the far side of the Looking Glass, the reader of psychologist and educator Farson's book is at first confused and disconcerted. With chapters like "Once You Find a Management Technique That Works, Give It Up" and "Organizations That Need Help Most Will Benefit from It the Least," it reverses logic, reason, and the basic building blocks of common sense. Yet Farson's topsy-turvy world of management tenets strangely rings true at times. Farson presents paradoxes to make us pause in our relative certainty and consider the complete opposite. The paradox of rising expectations, for example, demonstrates that the more things improve, the more people demand improvement. We think we want creativity, but, argues Farson, what we really want is controlled creativity. These are but a few of the truths Farson conjures from the flip side of the coin. For public library management collections.?Randy L. Abbott, Univ. of Evansville Libs., Ind. Hammond, Joshua & James Morrison.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Printing First Edition edition (March 13, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684800802
• ISBN-13: 978-0684800806
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,044,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'meta-thinking' about management, December 23, 2000

By 

Timothy H. Mansfield (Long Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Management of the Absurd (Paperback)

We generally believe that human behavior in a corporate setting is rational, a game with deterministic rules. The implication is that if we can just study the rules well enough, especially by learning them from the right guru, any reasonably talented person will know how to win. An enormous management training industry in books, tapes, seminars, consultants, etc. exists to teach various versions of the rules.

"Management of the Absurd" aims to show how such logical, conventionally-wise approaches to management are just too simplistic, in that they do not take into account the paradoxes inherent in human nature. In much the same way that the financial decisions of real people, taken individually, are much more complicated and unpredictable than the simple-minded 'homo economicus' which basic economics requires for its explanations, the workplace behavior of real people is much more complex than typical management theories are able to capture.

Parent-child and boss-employee relationships are hardly analogous, but a parallel can be usefully drawn between management training and parenting manuals. No one expects to become a good parent just by reading a book. Similarly, the many aspects of working together successfully in an organizational context are too subtle to effectively systematize. So this book's intent is to describe, not prescribe.

I did not give the book a fifth star because some of the illustrative examples were uninspired: the tired old "lower the truck by letting air out of the tires" anecdote as an example of seeing things from a different angle, the popularity of both fast food and gourmet cookbooks as an example of coexistence of opposites, and a few others. Also some of the observations seemed trite, e.g., "nothing is as invisible as the obvious" and "every great strength is a great weakness". Having said that though, I did find most of the observations to be genuinely thought-provoking. They are listed below in chapter order.

1. the opposite of a profound truth is also true
2. nothing is as invisible as the obvious
3. the more important a relationship, the less skill matters
4. once you find a management technique that works, give it up
5. effective managers are not in control
6. most problems that people have are not problems
7. technology creates the opposite of its intended purpose
8. we think we invent technology, but technology also invents us
9. the more we communicate, the less we communicate
10. in communication, form is more important than content
11. listening is more difficult than talking
12. praising people does not motivate them
13. every act is a political act
14. the best resource for solving any problem is the person or group that presents the problem
15 organizations that need help most will benefit from it least
16. individuals are almost indestructible, but organizations are very fragile
17. the better things are, the worse they feel
18. we think we want creativity or change, but we really don't
19. we want for ourselves not what we are missing, but more of what we already have
20. big changes are easier to make than small ones
21. we learn not from our failures but from our successes -- and the failures of others
22. everything we try works, and nothing works
23. planning is an ineffective way to bring change
24. organizations change most by surviving calamities
25. people we think need changing are pretty good the way they are
26. every great strength is a great weakness
27. morale is unrelated to productivity
28. there are no leaders, there is only leadership
29. the more experienced the managers, the more they trust simple intuition
30. leaders cannot be trained, but they can be educated
31. in management, to be a professional, one must be an amateur
32. lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for
33. my advice is don't take my advice

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leadership is a paradox, not a formula, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Management of the Absurd (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book so much I made it required reading in the leadership course that I teach. (Although it is not the ONLY book that I require...linearity has its' place.) Interesting that some of the other reviewers treat the book harshly, if I may paraphrase, because Farson does not provide any "formulas" for leadership. The entire central thesis of the book is that leadership is not about "formulas," it is about finding balance between extremes. It is about paradox. An excellent book to stimulate reflection and introspection; a foolish one if you are bound too heavily by linear thought.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of the best business books ever, May 16, 2004

By 

David Berkowitz "Blog - MarketersStudio.com" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Management of the Absurd (Paperback)

It's amazing this book isn't handed out to every literate adult in America. In so few pages, it completely challenges linear thinking about everything from running a meeting to raising kids, and you'll find yourself constantly finding real-world examples of what he's talking about after you read it. Though much of what he writes may not be new, as he frequently cites the predecessors he learns from, the ingenuity is how he coherently and concisely pulls it all together.