Culting

The term Cargo Cult refers to a practice which involved natives copying the behaviour of troops on remote aircraft bases in a misguided attempt to get the cargo which the aeroplanes dropped for those troops. The natives assumed that the aircraft were bringing gifts from the gods, and that the perfectly rational behaviour of the people at the base was, in fact, a mystical process, that if copied, would yield great reward.

Despite the fact that management know about cargo cults, and may even explain what they are, all management are susceptible to culting. This is because of the following:

• Management want the world
• Agilismics can promise the world, via a series of practices
• Agilismics can prove the placebo-effect with those practices and suggest that the world is being delivered, on a plate
• Management hypothetically reason that the practice is bringing the world and, thus, roll it out across the organisation
• All of this is done in an atmosphere of shallow optimism which engenders the culting behaviour

How do you spot whether your organisation is worshipping the false gods of the cult? There are some obvious signs to spot:

• A few people are doing a lot of shouting about how things should be done and nobody can see why
• Some sort of bible is being brandished as a must-read for everyone
• Despite every initiative going, nothing seems to be happening
• You seriously doubt the sanity of the leadership
• People are rewarded based on their willingness to believe, rather their results
• There's a line of rats deserting the sinking ship
• The counter-intuitive is being rolled out based on the flimiest evidence of success

You get the idea.