Mopsos

Why Can't We Get Anything Done?:

"Companies often confuse talking with doing. They think that talking about doing something is the same thing as doing it! That planning is the same as doing. That giving presentations is the same as doing. That making reports is the same as doing. Or even that making a decision to do something is the same as doing it. All of those errors occur with alarming regularity in companies today.

Mistaking talk for action is worse than just a simple error: Talk can actually drive out action. Studies about the way that meetings actually work demonstrate that negative people are perceived as being smarter than positive people -- that is, being critical is interpreted as a sign of intelligence. You see this attitude in business all the time: The fastest way for me to seem smart is to cut you down. So you come up with an idea, and I come up with a thousand different reasons why that idea won't work. Now everyone sees you as dumb and me as smart -- and we've created an environment where no one wants to come up with ideas."

This gives an indication of why this country is paralyzed. Too many smart people from Polytechnique, ENA and Corps des Mines who know they are smart (they have been told so) and who make a living judging the actions of other less smart people. But there's worse: Not so smart people in France often try to boost their ego by imitating smart people.
That's what we call French wit: A lot of interesting conversations and little action. The Establishment of smart people.

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