Comments on: The McNamara Syndrome http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/ author and journalist Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:21:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Burying the Best and the Brightest | Brian Frank http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/#comment-657 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:09:23 +0000 http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/?p=161#comment-657 [...] by OpenConceptual on 07-09-2009 I’ve been thinking about the pernicious effects of our overachievement society again, this time by way of Philip Delves Broughton (via NYTimes Opinionator), in a post called The McNamara Syndrome. [...]

]]> By: McNamara Syndrome | Ben Schiller http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/#comment-314 Wed, 19 May 2010 09:48:32 +0000 http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/?p=161#comment-314 [...] This is almost a year old, but I’m linking to it anyway because it’s still relevant, I’m interested in this at the moment, and it’s, well, my site and I can talk about whatever I want… It’s a blog post by Philip Delves Broughton, author of a brilliant book about the Harvard MBA program, diagnosing what he calls a “McNamara Syndrome” among business schools and business leaders. McNamara is famous for importing a business mentality to the Pentagon, and prosecuting the Vietnam War as if he was rolling out a new product. It was all about “strategy, planning and measurement” – principles that he had learned from his MBA at Harvard. Broughton says many of today’s leaders exhibit the same narrow thinking (though not, of course, with the same loss of life). The Syndrome has three elements: 1) Excessive faith in systems, long-established networks, language, thinking and a set of assumptions which change more quickly than you do. In McNamara’s case, he trusted his brilliance in interpreting data, while ignoring the possibility that the inputs were being manipulated. He also had no trust in or respect for other ways of reaching conclusions. [...]

]]> By: Burying the Best and the Brightest | the Open/Conceptual Studio http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/#comment-90 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:42:48 +0000 http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/?p=161#comment-90 [...] I’ve been thinking about the pernicious effects of our overachievement society again, this time by way of Philip Delves Broughton (via NYTimes Opinionator), in a post called The McNamara Syndrome. [...]

]]> By: Andrew http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/#comment-85 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:06:32 +0000 http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/?p=161#comment-85 Thank you for this incredibly interesting insight, Philip. It was great to see that this piece made it on to the opinionator, but reading the comments there disturbed me.

I’m not sure that the majority of the human race has sufficient intellect to deserve a broadcast medium as powerful as the Internet.

]]> By: Morning Skim: Bigger Than Elvis? - The Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/2009/07/07/the-mcnamara-syndrome/#comment-82 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:22:55 +0000 http://philipdelvesbroughton.com/?p=161#comment-82 [...] Delves Broughton says the “McNamara Syndrome” still exists among “business and economic leaders,” one element of which is [...]

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