July 10, 2009

“In summary, we have found that most of your social issues have to do with people.”

“Does that mean that the rest of them have to do with our inability to please the space aliens?”

The government does it.  Academia loves it.  Corporations pat themselves on the back for doing it.  You are familiar with how it works.  In the government world, a study is commissioned to engage a blue ribbon committee to spend money to tell us what we already know.  Corporate America issues employee surveys to get feedback on things we learned as toddlers.  The greatest value is in the humor of watching it all play out.

Several years ago, a group of us sat listening to the preliminary results of another round of employee survey feedback.  Since our own human resources experts couldn’t tell us what we already knew, we hired an outside firm to tell us.  We weren’t far along in the presentation before we realized that the individual giving us feedback was an absolute master of the obvious.  With the lack of real data and useful information we were being provided, it was as if the presentation were prepared before the survey was taken.

Most of us in the room were completely glazed over as the last set of slides flashed across the conference room screen.  Not surprisingly, humor came to the rescue.  The expert began his wrap up by stating, “In summary, we have found that most of your social issues have to do with people.”

A colleague mumbled the first question any of us had mustered in at least thirty minutes, “Does that mean that the rest of them have to do with our inability to please the space aliens?” 

My guess is that space alien feedback is on someone’s funding docket somewhere.

July 10, 2009