The Importance of Information Increases Directly with Distance and Cost
This is a maxim that I’ve generally found to be true in my many years of consulting experience. Although I’ve seen it in the technology industry, I have no reason to believe that it’s any different in other specialties. As a matter of fact, if you’ve ever worked in or with a large organization, you’ve probably observed it yourself. It may even happen in your personal relationships!
Companies spend a lot of money to attract, screen, and hire top-notch employees. I think it’s safe to say that most organizations make an honest effort to hire the highest quality people they can find. So why is it that when a critical decision needs to be made about the business, the company values the input of an over-priced consultant half-way across the globe over the expert that they invested so much time in to attract, screen, hire, and employ?
I wonder if the mindset is something like: “Our employees can’t be that good, because if they were, they’d be working for <insert external firm here>.” Or possibly that by working side-by-side with the employees, we learn that they’re everyday people that make mistakes…just like us, whereas someone we don’t know must be more competent, simply because we’re unfamiliar with them. I think we can find a bit of evidence to support this second hypothesis by simply looking at the air of authority that celebrities bring to any topic they decide to discuss, even if they’re not an expert in that topic at all.
I think a corollary to this maxim might be the interest of organizations to mimic the practices of their competitors even when those same competitors are trying to mimic them! It seems to be a lack of self-confidence on the part of the organization, even if that organization currently dominates its industry.
I know that I’m not the only person to observe these behaviors. What have you seen in your experience?
Comments
- Anonymous
November 11, 2004
This is hilarious - but also true. I'm going through it right now. I was just hired on to a large organization (any reader would recognize the company) as the first in the IT staff with any .Net experience (primarily j2ee company). I've got the certifications to prove it, but still am sitting with little to do while our contractors and consultants gladly take care of any .Net needs. I'm beginning to think that, since I can do what the folks that work for <insert external firm here> can do, maybe I should be working for <insert external firm here>... - Anonymous
November 11, 2004
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
November 11, 2004
I would be very curious to know what spawned this post, Mike... considering that I am working in the same general vicinity as you. ??? - Anonymous
November 11, 2004
Mark...I'm afraid there was nothing juicy that inspired this post. I maintain a list of topics that come up in conversation that I think would be interesting to blog about. The time had come for this one.
And Bruce, I like your take on things. Perhaps the behavior can be partially explained by perspective and accountability. - Anonymous
November 11, 2004
I totaly agree with your post Michael,
im Portuguese and we have a saying in Portugal, "The neigbours Chicken I allways fatter than ours" :) - Anonymous
November 12, 2004
When I taught at a college we were always fascinated (read irritated) with this phenomenon. In education to be an expert you needed to be at a rival college or from a larger institute. I was one of the first to use multimedia in the classroom in our area, but obviously not an expert. So of course for in-service we had to have someone from another university introduce us to multimedia. It worked out fine in this case, since I went to the other institute as an expert and presented <s>. - Anonymous
November 23, 2004
The comment has been removed