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At this point, many of us look back on the past 12 months and blame ourselves for not achieving much, and resolve to be more productive. However, I began to wonder if individuals are really the greatest hindrance to our own potential. With things beyond our control: compliance, “computer says no” systems, and the power of words seem to be on the rise.
In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advances would enable his grandchildren to work 15-hour weeks. Instead, we seem to be busier than ever. Keynes didn’t think about the computerized call center menu, how our information is handled and strongly urged us to try the website, which of course we have, otherwise why would we pick up the phone to enter the sixth circle. Hell?
He did not anticipate the proliferation of words and phrases that seem to be the hallmark of the 21st century. In the UK, the average FTSE 100 annual report contains more pages than a Charles Dickens novel. In the U.S., ESG reports showed the fifth highest growth in three years, compared to the S&P 500. Board packages have also expanded: an average of 226 pages long. The majority of board directors in the US and the UK told surveys that packaging had little impact or was a barrier to understanding the business.
Instead, I suggest reading Watson and Crick’s 1953 paper describing the molecular structure of DNA. It is only a few pages long. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was 10 sentences that inspired the nation. Both are smaller entries than most reports on my desk. Here’s a line I just picked up: “Lack of absorptive capacity can easily be a critical barrier to continued innovation.” The report was written by a consulting firm about – er – Productivity.
A few months ago, I sat in a cafe in Massachusetts and tried not to listen to a woman make a long call about whether her presentation addressed “key learning objectives” or “stakeholder outcomes.” Last week I saw a friend in London who had been asked to advise a Whitehall department, only to find that the two-page memo she had sent beforehand had been turned into a “word salad” by the authorities. That is what took up most of the meeting.
How did we get people to write gobbledegook? How will we cope when AI models are trained on it and create more clutter? Management consultants are partly responsible. When I started my career at McKinsey many years ago, we were taught pithy phrases that explained that “quick wins” were one. These days, many consulting reports are drowning in the limelight, perhaps to cover up a gap in thinking — or to justify high fees. But even those who charge by the hour don’t want to read this stuff. A fascinating experiment by American lawyer Joseph Kimble found that lawyers don’t like complexity as much as everyone else. When Kimble sent two versions of the court’s ruling to 700 lawyers, they chose the most understandable one.
“The more you write, the less people understand” are the wise words of the UK’s Government Design Guide, which urges authorities to write short sentences in English. Unfortunately, the message is getting lost. Some parts of the public sector are models of efficiency – I recently reported the death of an elderly relative. “Tell us once” service One that conveys sad tidings in the system – but others are fortresses of words. An agreement framework for architects seeking to build contracts with three London councils asks applicants, among other questions, “How do you determine shared social value and what strategies do you use to maximize social value for clients?” Collaboration with Stakeholders”.
One of the aims of this document is to encourage smaller firms to compete for construction work. But you’ll be stretched thin when trying to generate enough verbal responses to meet the criteria.
I remembered. Bullshit Works: TheoryAccording to anthropologist David Graber, one third of modern jobs are meaningless, and they simply do work for other people. These include “taskmasters”: middle managers who create unnecessary work, and “sides” – lobbyists and marketers who try to sell something that no one wants or needs. Graeber’s thesis had a huge response – many wrote in to admit that they themselves were bullshit, and they were pathetic.
Verbalism – or as the former Lord Justice Igor Judge calls it, “anxious parade of knowledge” – saddens us. No one wants to be invited to a “brainstorming session”.
A novel by Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxyBullshit jobs problem on the planet Golgafricham, sending all marketing consultants to a new planet colony. On planet earth, maybe organizations can start moving all the people who create pointless complexity into important roles. It lowers our blood pressure, saves time and can even solve labor shortages. But I will make the Plain English Campaign 2025 one of my charities.
