Hi Roger

Language is rooted in analogy and metaphor and you are right about the misplaced faith in the literality of language in mainstream management. If you want to understand anyone’s view of causality in complex social systems look at the metaphors they use.

Robert Frost put it well: “What I am pointing out is that unless you are at home in the metaphor, unless you have had your proper poetical education in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere. Because you are not at ease with figurative values: you don’t know the metaphor in its strength and its weakness. You don’t know how far you may expect to ride it and when it may break down with you. You are not safe with science; you are not safe in history.” (Education by Poetry). One might add that without a firm grasp of metaphor you are not safe in management either.

At the same time, I think reflective managers are wise to be wary of unwarranted generalizations from cherry-picked examples of “excellence”. One can reverse-engineer the success of Cirque du Soleil or Haier etc. and abstract “principles” from it. But often these turn out to be desirable outcomes, disguised as actions by placing a verb in front of them. You can’t disagree with them but neither can you implement them. The result is a form of management that can be described but not practiced.