Beware of Fake Action
It can fool the magician as well as the audience.
If you’ve been in the workplace for a while, you’ve probably noticed “fake action.”
Fake action is an action taken for one reason only: to show that something has been done. It need not be effective; often it isn’t. Effectiveness is not its goal. It is a shield, not a spear. In short, it is an alibi. An excuse, not a solution.
The motives for fake action can be numerous. It may be believed that the price of meaningful action is too high or taking real action may be inconvenient. Although often denied, simple confusion or cowardice may be the motives. Let someone else do the heaving lifting and assume the costs and criticism of taking action.
“We’ll deal with it when we get the time.”
This may not be senseless. After all, few of us operate in a world of Mission Impossible luck and precision. Taking action is sloppy and costly and often embarrassing.
And aside from all of the above, of course, there is an old companion named Procrastination who will assure us that delay is not only harmless but beneficial. We’ll do a better job when we’re in the mood because, after all, when we are in the mood, we are dynamos.
Of course, if anything goes wrong, we can blame it on Surprise, but in a world of crisis prevention and information overload, that’s an acquaintance we might not want to acknowledge.
Granted, it’s easier to spot many problems from hindsight or from the outside. Those who overlook them may argue that those niggling little business and management problems are easy to overlook.
Which may work with relatively small problems, but what about the giant ones?
Take an out-of-body gander at the growing American national debt or the rise of radically undemocratic Muslim populations in Western Europe or the fragmentation and isolation caused by technology and you may feel as if you are in a theater audience watching an old horror film.
As each audience member internally shouts, “Get in the car now!” or “There’s a monster in that closet! “or “Don’t go into the basement!”, and other commonsense admonitions, the main characters blithely proceed to do everything possible to invite disaster.
And if they take action, it’s fake action (“Let’s split up and check the doors!”) that is unlikely to produce any serious protection or improvement.
Leaders often do what they do best. Unfortunately, that means they will surface, debate, deplore, alert, research, and address matters for decades while serious threats grow and already dire conditions decline.
But that’s the nature of fake action. It’s not meant to produce solutions, only illusions.