Hack:
Dodging the Silver Bullet Syndrome

Are some organizations making a mistake in over-emphasizing creative thinking of questionable merit (silver bullet solutions) rather than helping to ensure that employees are solidly grounded in the fundamentals of proven best business practices?  Is out-of-the-box thinking always superior to in-the-box thinking?

The fundamentals include the axiom that the most crucial aspect off the success of any organization is staffing.  Staffing means having the right people in the organization working in positions that promote individual and collective productivity.  A common error in many organizations is to focus efforts on trying to motivate internally unmotivated employees.  The focus should rather be on striving to avoid de-motivating employees that are internally motivated.  This is the essence of Hertzberg’s Hygiene Theory. 

If Hertzberg was correct, the search for solutions to organizations burdened with too many emotionally disengaged people should begin with a question:  Were the employees emotionally disengaged prior to coming to work for the organization or did they become disengaged after being hired?  If already disengaged, the search for solutions should focus on hiring processes.  If they became disengaged after being hired, the focus should be on management training (or upgrading the management team).

 A symptom of the silver bullet syndrome in an organization is too much emphasis on thinking outside the box.  More important is the reality that many employees have never mastered thinking inside the box.  Thinking inside the box means focusing on the fundamentals—the proven principles, strong theories and competencies including those that are extra-cultural and extra-generational.  The Innovation and motivation we desire will be a natural outcome of strong fundamentals. 

 Such fundamentals include having a budget and living within your means (something our government has yet to learn).  In the sport of American football, when a team begins to perform below expectations, smart coaches focus more intensely on fundamentals such as blocking, tackling and route running.  Similarly, many believe that the major shortcomings of our current educational system are a largely a consequence of a generation of drift from the fundamentals (the three Rs).   In my own experience as a recruiter of sales professionals and former Director of Research of a sales consulting company, the data show that success in sales revolves around two fundamental competencies:  1. the ability to initiate contact with prospective buyers, and 2. the ability to ask for the sale.  Everything else is secondary.   This means that sales driven companies should build their sales forces around individuals who are comfortable prospecting for new business and are not afraid to ask for the  sale.

Dodging the silver bullet syndrome means strategic targeting of energy and  resources on mastering the fundamentals that are the foundation of an organization's success.  Such efforts can foster an organizational culture where innovation and motivation are a natural byproduct.