Bullshit is common in organisations, It can be a well-entrenched social practice used to reinforce a social identity and to get things done. Bullshitting works as a practice. In fact, it can work so well that it takes over whole teams and industries.
Bullshit as practice is on the increase and thrives in environmental conditions where there is competition, uncertainty and a drive to dominate along with shallow processing, uncritical thinking and low levels of feedback.
There is even a growing field of research in psychology and sociology called ‘bullshitology’ to study the effects of bullshit on people and society.
Not all bullshit is bullshit all the time. Jargon can be bullshit when it’s done for the purpose of confusion. However, most jargon is used as short cuts amongst those that understand the meaning and hence is not bullshit.
Bullshit is bullshit when it confuses, misleads or deceives. With bullshit on the rise, we are at risk of bullshitting becoming routine. Routine bullshitting for individuals can lead to failures in self-awareness and judgement. Within organisations or industries it can create problems with shared understanding, rational decision making and ethics.
A bit of bullshit can be okay. It’s like the kid that talks about how big the fish was that they caught (and its always twice the size and growing.) It’s fun, the kid feels good and no one is hurt.
Too much bullshit is when we expose people and organisations to negative effects and additional risk. These risks can be immediately obvious like the bullshit report that misleads and prevents taking action quickly, or more subtle like constant sharing of bullshit success stories that lead to incorrect understandings of real performance.
