THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY HANS C. NOEL
LENGTH: 88 lines
ONLY A HUMORIST can pound out a thin-on-research, fat-on-filler book on a hot topic like corporate management without risking criticism as an opportunist.
Thus Scott Adams' ``The Dilbert Principle'' can fly under the radar as nothing more than another collection of cartoons and other silliness.
And it succeeds as a collection. The insanely popular Dilbert is funny. Here the newspaper cartoons aren't presented chronologically but are grouped by theme. That doesn't make them less funny.
But ``The Dilbert Principle'' is a real book - justifying a place in the bookstore among the latest in management literature instead of alongside Peanuts and Pogo.
The ``principle'' is what Adams says is replacing the ``Peter Principle,'' the dictum that employees are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. Now, Adams says, employees who are incompetent at real work are transferred to the place where they can do the least damage - management.
It's cute, but even Adams must know that, evidence to the contrary, his principle can't actually be in practice. Finding the truly incompetent is too hard.
But Adams uses his joke as a jumping-off point for what is, beneath the wisecracks, a serious message: Management in the '90s doesn't work right.
Adams supports his thesis with the most indefensible of evidence. He cites anecdotes and personal experience as a cubicle dweller for 17 years. He uses spurious logic at times. He fabricates research.
But he's still right.
``The Dilbert Principle'' doesn't need quantitative sources because it's about common sense: Adams assumes that anything everyone will laugh at must be a bad idea.
He has plenty of real-world examples for us to laugh at. Fans of his work have e-mailed him hundreds of stories from the trenches, and he presents them as proof that everyone in business is an idiot.
For example:
To: scottadams aol.com
Scott,
In the wake of a recent senior staff retreat, it was announced that as a reward for outstanding work, one employee would be selected each month to receive the ``Fuzzy Bunny'' award. Another employee, dressed in a rabbit suit (I swear I am not making this up) would visit the chosen employee's cubicle bearing balloons, a coffee mug, and a certificate of merit. This would presumably encourage us to work harder. The plan was killed (thank God) because nobody would agree to be the bunny.
The secret to Adams' humor is that he just repeats the silly things that otherwise sane people do when they are at work.
Adams' foray into prose proves he also is capable of communicating without the help of tiny characters in boxes. Writing seems to have loosed in him a desire to use outrageous analogies and lists:
(``Development needs'' that are safe to mention in your self-appraisal:)
``I need to become less attractive so co-workers are not constantly distracted.''
``In the interest of teamwork, I need to learn to control my immense intelligence in the presence of less gifted co-workers.''
``I need to learn how to relax instead of working my typical nineteen-hour days.''
``I need to make contact with an alien civilization, since their technology is the only thing I don't already understand.''
Proof that Adams is taking his message seriously is his last, slightly less irreverent chapter, in which he anticipates the question, ``OK smarty, what do you suggest management do to increase productivity and remain competitive?''
Well . . .
If companies say happy workers make happy customers, here's how companies can make happy workers:
Spend energy on the fundamentals - what workers do - instead of on processes; encourage workers to leave the office each day by 5 p.m.; get out of the way and let employees do their jobs.
These recommendations, while strangely in conflict with so many management theories, are really just good business sense.
Anything else, we laugh at. MEMO: Hans C. Noel is a staff editor. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[Box]
BOOK REVIEW
``The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses,
Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions''
Author: Scott Adams
Publisher: HarperCollins. 336 pp.
Price: $20 by CNB