Business Fads and Their Value

By now most of us are aware of business fads, especially in training and management. An idea or method becomes a fad within a particular social group when many in the group adopt it for a time, and then let it go. Fads usually grow rapidly in popularity, and they're often identified as fads only after their popularity peaks.

The term fad is usually a term of disdain. Once we identify a fad, we tend to dismiss it. But for ideas and methods, faddishness doesn't necessarily imply absence of value because widespread adoption often indicates real intrinsic value.

Because dismissing something just because it's a fad could be a mistake, it's useful to understand the source of value for ideas and methods that become fads.

Fads are specific to groups

Widespread adoption within a group can give an idea or method the properties of a fad, even if it isn't adopted globally. For instance, Silly Bandz® are a fad among the young, but many adults don't even know what Silly Bandz are.

We each belong to numerous groups — our own organizations, our industries, cultures, demographic slices, and more. All are capable of fad behavior.

Widespread adoption can degrade value

If the idea or method confers advantage on adopters, early adopters benefit, but once it achieves fad status, advantages can vanish. For instance, mirroring is a communication technique that helps users build rapport with others. But when the user's communication partner recognizes the use of mirroring, a feeling of being manipulated can result.

Early rejecters of a fad can gain advantage, just as early adopters can, if they're among the first to curtail investment when the fad no longer provides advantages.

Widespread rejection can restore value

Once an idea or Early adopters of a fad benefit,
but once the fad achieves fad
status, advantages can vanishmethod achieves fad status, its use can wane, and people sometimes forget it. Thereafter, new members of the group might never have learned about the fad. If the value of the fad declined as a result of widespread use, its value can then return.

Fads that have been passé long enough can confer significant advantages on early re-adopters.

If you adopt a fad unknowingly, you might wrongly conclude that it's useless

Those who adopt an idea or method near its peak of popularity or later might wrongly conclude that it has little value. If the value to adopters arises from being among the minority who use it, and users are the majority, their experience will suggest that it has little value, when in fact, the idea or method might actually be very valuable when users are a minority.

Before adopting an idea method, determine the source of its value. Is value inherent, or is value determined by what others do?

Next time we'll consider some of the less-often-appreciated costs of business fads.   Next issue in this series   Top    Next Issue

Is your organization embroiled in Change? Are you managing a change effort that faces rampant cynicism, passive non-cooperation, or maybe even outright revolt? Read 101 Tips for Managing Change to learn how to survive, how to plan and how to execute change efforts to inspire real, passionate support. Order Now!

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

When Your Boss Is a Micromanager

If your boss is a micromanager, your life can be a seemingly endless misery of humiliation and frustration. Changing your boss is one possible solution, but it's unlikely to succeed. What you can do is change the way you experience the micromanagement.

Some Costs of COTS

As a way of managing risk, we sometimes steer our organizations towards commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, methodologies, designs, and processes. But to gain a competitive edge, we need creative differentiation.

Paradoxical Policies: II

Because projects are inherently unique, constructing general organizational policies affecting projects is difficult. The urge to treat projects as if they were operations compounds the difficulty. Here's a collection of policies for projects that would be funny if they weren't real.

The Self-Explanation Effect

In the learning context, self-explanation is the act of explaining to oneself what one is learning. Self-explanation has been shown to increase the rate of acquiring mastery. The mystery is why we don't structure knowledge work to exploit this phenomenon.

Six Traps in Email or Text: II

Collaboration requires communication. For many, communicating often takes place in email and text message systems. But much of the effort expended in communication is dedicated to resolving confusions that we created for ourselves. Here are four examples.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming September 4: Beating the Layoffs: I

If you work in an organization likely to conduct layoffs soon, keep in mind that exiting voluntarily before the layoffs can carry significant advantages. Here are some that relate to self-esteem, financial anxiety, and future employment. Available here and by RSS on September 4.

And on September 11: Beating the Layoffs: II

If you work in an organization likely to conduct layoffs soon, keep in mind that exiting voluntarily can carry advantages. Here are some advantages that relate to collegial relationships, future interviews, health, and severance packages. Available here and by RSS on September 11.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenyrWpTxHuyCrjZbUpner@ChacnoFNuSyWlVzCaGfooCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info