Preying mantras

This blog follows False consciousness: The new opiate of the desperate continuing the limitations of the Personal Development (or Self Help) Industry (PDI) particularly in delivering claims for successful, sustainable business building. It is clear that many people get a lot from PDI initiatives –they certainly pay enough. However, for all its testimonials –which seem like a classroom where the start-stricken practice hagiolatry -‘I love you dude. Mega!! Absolutely inspiring’ it is difficult to locate objective results. Individual providers do not publish success rates, or how many customers actually do develop sustainable businesses rather than enthusiastic starts. Remember from a sociological perspective, the evidence is that being excellent at getting to the starting line is the bane of this sector. 

In this blog, I’ve chosen a number of common phrases that PDI providers use as mantras, or to underlie their thinking, which when used as such are more disabling then enabling, and generate dependence when what new venturers need above all, is critical independence. However, to be fair, this practice applies to many involved in ‘development’. For instance, all teachers, to some extent make their learners dependent on what they (the teacher) knows ie has learned. But better teachers are aware that half-learned stuff doubles learner dependence on them and further, will involve those being ‘developed’ in significant unlearning; thus better teachers develop explicit methods to generate learner independence. Do PDI methods do this?  

The ‘mantras’:  These phrases are peddled as if they were the secret to riches, shining like a bag of money on a pauper’s grave. Here’s the first one:  

1 ‘Be yourself’

The fast food:

Read: what you already have and are, is enough. It sounds easy, and it is said precisely because it seems easy. ‘I do it all the time, look how you can be like me -effortlessly’ (if you pay). The scar tissue of preparation, the practice, the sweated failures, the complex variables reduced to ‘being natural’, is deliberately hidden.

However, don’t budding business developers need something more? For instance do I have the starting power and staying power to last in an uncertain venture and climate? What happens if my default position is controlling, resentful, jealous of others success, or if my communication style is declarative, or listening-deficient? Should I even be a business builder? The first thing in a new venture is realising my strengths might not be enough and that more than likely something (about me) needs changing.

 The wholefood:

How do I know who I am (in a working way without being overly introspective)? How can I get some useful feedback on myself, on my actual behaviour? Wouldn’t a more useful mantra be ‘Know yourself first? And ‘That of which we are unaware can control us’.[1]  The full phrase the mantra is based on is ‘Be yourself – more - with skill’[2] If the first  task for any ‘developer’ is to make people think, the urging to ‘be yourself’ does the opposite. It stems from a (unadmitted) key PDI command: don’t think, follow. 

For people to develop sustainably, they need something like: ‘Know and show yourself –enough’ (same source) This is not just for ‘leaders’ but for anyone needing to adapt themselves to different situations. As Machiavelli said, you don’t have to have all the qualities but it is very necessary to appear to have them. Being yourself is a role – to be effective, you need a mask.  

The real message: No shortcuts: the rigour of hard thinking

These ‘lies of laziness’ painted as ‘you know it already’ are part of the selling pitch to get you on board. They result in offloading thinking - someone else has done it for you. As one person said of PDI methods, they thrive on people whose experience of learning is ‘when I grow up I want to be spoon-fed’. The methods are barriers to ‘significant learning’, that is, the learning most needed when people are experiencing change such as building a business. What ‘significant learning’ is and how it is indispensable for sustainable development, is explored in my recent book Managing Value in Organisations: New Learning, Management and Business Models  

If it was a film it would be called ‘TOWIL: The Only Way Is Learning’ with a subtitle –‘Don’t throw it in!’  As such there are no shortcuts –but please, readers and business builders feel free to challenge this.

Coming next, more mantras: ‘Taking the body out of body language’ and ‘Lighting up light bulb moments’