Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton, of Stanford University and authors of the book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, which I discussed recently, has just launched their website Evidence-Based Management, a management approach they describe as follows:
Evidence-based management is a simple idea. It just means finding the best evidence that you can, facing those facts, and acting on those facts – rather than doing what everyone else does, what you have always done, or what you thought was true. It isn’t an excuse for inaction. Leaders of organizations must have the courage to act on the best facts they have right now, and the humility to change what they do as better information is found. It isn’t a new idea and isn’t an original idea. Yet surprisingly few leaders and organizations actually do it – and those that do trump the competition. Our primary professional goal over the next few years is to help spark an evidence-based management movement.
Five Principles of Evidence-Based Management
- Face the hard facts, and build a culture in which people are encouraged to tell the truth, even if it is unpleasant
- Be committed to “fact based” decision making — which means being committed to getting the best evidence and using it to guide actions
- Treat your organization as an unfinished prototype — encourage experimentation and learning by doing
- Look for the risks and drawbacks in what people recommend — even the best medicine has side effects
- Avoid basing decisions on untested but strongly held beliefs, what you have done in the past, or on uncritical “benchmarking” of what winners do
Much of the decisions I see getting made in oganisations seems to be based on everything else but the facts. Given the vast amount of literature on management that is contradictory, a focus on separating, management fact from management fad is long over due. So Jeffery and Robert you most certainly have my full support!
Technorati Tags: Management, Business, Book, Evidence-based, Research, Books, Facts
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