Work Matters

12 Things Good Bosses Believe is Still #1 at HBR: The Attraction of Lists?

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supermoxie

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I am pleased, and a bit surprised that my now 10 day old post at Harvard Business Review on 12 Things The Good Bosses Believe is still the most read. It is nice to see that people resonate with these topics from Good Boss, Bad Boss and my other writings, but I think something else is going on. I was talking to one of the editors from HBR last week, one experienced in the ways of the web and blogs, and she commented on something I guess I knew but had never quite thought of before: People love lists — they attract attention on blogs and just about any other place in life. 

As I thought back to posts I have written that have generated the strongest responses, many turn out to be lists.  Certainly people had a lot to say about my updated list of 17 Things I Believe and some of my most popular posts over the years include Places That Don't Tolerate Assholes and Tips for Surviving Workplace Assholes. More recently, my list of 10 Suspect Assumptions from HR  and my short list of the Dumbest Practices Used By U.S. Companies generated dozens of additional suggestions from readers.  For example, Wally Bock had some great ones to add to the list of dumb practices:

We
ignore the importance of supervision. We "promote" people into
supervisory jobs without evaluating if they have a good shot at
succeeding. Then we give them little to no training and even less
support. Then we wonder why they don't succeed.

We hope for magical leadership instead of developing good systems.
When we do develop systems we favor the engineered and the technological
over the human and common-sensical.

So, what is it with lists?  This is a trick you see everywhere that people want to attract attention, from David Letterman's nightly top 10 list to Bill Maher's New Rules and on and on. Why do we
love to read them, generate them, and add to others?

Comments

32 responses to “12 Things Good Bosses Believe is Still #1 at HBR: The Attraction of Lists?”

  1. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  2. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  3. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  4. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  5. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  6. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  7. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  8. Joe Marchese Avatar
    Joe Marchese

    Lists tend to cut to the heart of the matter. The additional content about context, process, relevance, etc., may add value but will almost certainly not be as memorable. And lists satisfy our desire for clarity that many other approaches lack.

    Reply
  9. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  10. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  11. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  12. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  13. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  14. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  15. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  16. Kimberly Blessing Avatar
    Kimberly Blessing

    In response to Wally’s comment — what does such a system look like? I’ve been through plenty of managerial training programs which were crap; what is or would be a good one?

    Reply
  17. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  18. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  19. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  20. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  21. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  22. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  23. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  24. Benjamin Avatar
    Benjamin

    The fascination with lists is probably closely related to the power point culture in the workplace. We are often overwhelmed by information and boiling it down to bullet points allows us to easily organize process it. The danger is that we may only gain a superficial understanding of the information. Without proper context and depth we are liable to misuse the information or reach the wrong conclusions.
    I’m not suggesting that lists are bad. They are a really useful way of summarizing the key points of a topic. We just have to remember that they should be the starting point, not the end point.

    Reply
  25. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  26. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  27. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  28. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  29. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  30. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  31. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply
  32. Terry Del Percio Avatar
    Terry Del Percio

    To a certain extent, I agree with Benjamin. Lists are a concrete way of dealing with being being overwhelmed with information and too much sensory input. Life has become overwhelming…work has become overwhelming…information input has become overwhelming…
    I’ll make a list to gain a sense of simplicity and control.
    Terry Del Percio
    @WorkIntegrity

    Reply

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