Do You Want To Be Right, Or Accepted?

 

In a variation of the question in the title, Adele Tartaglia, in an excerpt from her book appearing on SelfGrowth.com, wrote this:

The “I’d rather be right than happy” attitudinal stance in life seems at first like conceit or egoism when it actually stems from the complete opposite as do most behaviors overtly appearing like self aggrandizement. All are based on deep insecurities, worthiness issues, self doubt, and self abnegation.[i]

Ms. Tartaglia does not appear to consider whether or not her assertion is right, or actually based on deep insecurities, worthiness issues, self doubt, and self abnegation, so I will save such an evaluation for some time when I’m feeling a bit more esoteric or combative.

Now, compare and contrast this assertion to the ideas that Thomas Kuhn advanced in his classic The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, where he describes the cycle that generally greets all new scientific theories, especially those that represent a dramatic challenge to the ideas that are in wide acceptance at the time of the new theory’s introduction. Consistently the new theories, and the people who develop or support them, are sharply criticized – ridiculed, even – until such a time as the evidence supporting the new theory becomes virtually unavoidable. As the majority of scientists in the field begin to abandon the old theories and embrace the new, a Paradigm Shift occurs (Kuhn actually coined the term), and the “new” theory becomes the baseline – until still more evidence comes in that appears to challenge the existing ideas, and the whole cycle begins again. But note the reception that the person advancing the “right” idea encounters – rejection, ostracism, extreme criticism. And these are in circumstances where the science can be demonstrated to be valid using hard data, and reproducible in an experimental setting.

I understand very well that, when we discuss the so-called management sciences, a great deal of subjectivity has suddenly been injected into our experimental evaluations. In the macro economy (or even in the micro economy, if we are honest with ourselves) there are simply too many parameters or data elements to be able to precisely define or measure the dependent variables that drive a particular outcome. In simpler terms, we never really know all of the causal factors that went in to our successes, or failures. There’s simply too much going on to recognize, much less quantify into reproducible causality loops in an experimental setting. With nothing less than the optimal way of conducting management at stake, such an environment invites the introduction of unsupported (indeed, unsupportable) theories as legitimate management science – and when I say “unsupported,” I mean ideas that often represent examples of openly fraudulent analysis techniques. Examples include:

• Risk Management, especially when they pretend to be able to quantify the future;
• Communications management, particularly when they advise PMs to willy-nilly “engage stakeholders,” even those stakeholders who may be opposed to the project;
• Asset managers who insist that a project’s at-completion costs can be accurately estimated from the data in the general ledger.

I could go on (and often do), but you see my point. Many of the things the PM community writ large accepts as valid practices or techniques really aren’t, and to challenge them in the least bit often means making the choice between being right (because the ideas being challenged really are silly), or being accepted by one’s peers who have embraced the popular “wisdom,” and can probably be counted on to react as other science advocates do when commonly-held notions are challenged, or even overturned outright.

So, when the PM practitioner considers the path forward, and the implications for career advancement (ProjectManagement.com’s April theme), the question remains – would you rather be right, or accepted?

[i] Tartaglia, Adele, “’I’d Rather Be Right Than Happy’ Identity, A New Solution,” from SelfGrowth.com, retrieved from http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/i-d-rather-be-right-than-happy-identity-a-new-solution on 23 April, 2016, 14:44 MDT.