book

Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense

by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton

February 2006

Intermediate to advanced

276 pages

9h 10m

English

Harvard Business Review Press

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Poor Decision Practices, and How to Recognize and Avoid ThemWhat Is Evidence-Based Management?What to Do When There Are No Sound Data AvailableThe Focus on Dangerous Half-TruthsMaking the Difficult Job of Managing a Little Easier
Obstacles on the Road to Implementing Evidence-Based ManagementUse Sound Logic and AnalysisSome Guidelines for Evaluating Management Ideas and KnowledgeWisdom: The Most Important Thing

What Is Supposedly Different About Work?Work Doesn’t Have to Be Different from the Rest of LifeThe Benefits of Keeping Work Separate from the Rest of LifeThe Benefits of Integrating Work with the Rest of LifeStriking a BalanceAccommodating the Rest of Life May Actually Be More Efficient
Why Smart and Skilled People Fuel PerformanceWhy an Obsession with Individual “Talent” Can Be Hazardous to Organizational HealthThe Right Kind of TalentPrestige, Pride, and Performance
What Incentives Can DoThe Growth in Incentive PayIncentives Signal What Is Important, but the Signals May Be BluntIncentives Motivate—Sometimes the Wrong BehaviorIncentive Systems Do Attract Talent—Often the Wrong KindVariable Pay = Pay Dispersion = Lower PerformanceGuidelines for Using Incentives
Strategy as a Source of SuccessWhy Strategy May Not Be That Important: The Logic and the EvidenceWhat to Do About Strategy
Is the Change Worth Doing?Does Change Need to Be Difficult and Take a Long Time?What to Do About Change
Leaders Make a Big DifferenceExcept When They Don’tWhy the “Leaders Make a Big Difference” Half-Truth PersistsShould Leaders Be in Control of Their Organizations?What Should Good Leaders Do?Getting Beyond the Half-Truths of Leadership
Implementation PrinciplesA Different Perspective on Leadership

Overview

The best organizations have the best talent. . . Financial incentives drive company performance. . . Firms must change or die. Popular axioms like these drive business decisions every day. Yet too much common management wisdom” isn’t wise at allbut, instead, flawed knowledge based on best practices” that are actually poor, incomplete, or outright obsolete. Worse, legions of managers use this dubious knowledge to make decisions that are hazardous to organizational health.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton show how companies can bolster performance and trump the competition through evidence-based management, an approach to decision-making and action that is driven by hard facts rather than half-truths or hype. This book guides managers in using this approach to dismantle six widely heldbut ultimately flawedmanagement beliefs in core areas including leadership, strategy, change, talent, financial incentives, and work-life balance. The authors show managers how to find and apply the best practices for their companies, rather than blindly copy what seems to have worked elsewhere.

This practical and candid book challenges leaders to commit to evidence-based management as a way of organizational lifeand shows how to finally turn this common sense into common practice.