"Colored rubber bracelets hung on our wrists to remind us of the cause du jour. Wide-legged jeans are back in again, and we must never forget the frosted tips of the early aughts (many of us still regret that one). All trends have one thing in common: they sure seemed like a good idea at the time and ostensibly serve some purpose, despite looking silly in hindsight. My junior high school yearbook picture drives that truth home."
"Trickle-down economics seemed like a viable answer for a bit, but it has done its share of harm. A trend that keeps coming around is an overreliance on cold data in a vacuum (quantitative observations, or the McNamara Fallacy). Then there is the importance of being an " alpha" wolf/leader-not only is this often straight-up unhelpful and potentially toxic, but the core concept itself was rejected by the term's originator after realizing his original observations were wrong."
"Current organizational trends (and this will be a surprise to no one) heavily center around the expanding use of AI (and all the slapdash vagueness that sometimes implies) and a focus on emotional intelligence (a skill that will help guard against threats such as misapplied AI). We've yet to see where this AI road will take us, but intuition tells me emotional intelligence is a better investment for the long term."
Popular trends often feel sensible at the time but can look foolish in hindsight, as illustrated by fads in fashion, movies, and accessories. Business trends carry similar risks, with policies like trickle-down economics producing harm and a recurring overreliance on quantitative data in isolation (the McNamara Fallacy). The glorification of the "alpha" leader has proven unhelpful and sometimes toxic, and the origin of the concept later repudiated its own conclusions. Contemporary organizations focus heavily on expanding AI alongside heightened interest in emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence offers protective value against misapplied AI and represents a stronger long-term investment for organizational resilience.
Read at Big Think
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]