I had a really bizarre experience last week in class, and it led me to a very important realization: B School is a lot about BS. Really.
I have one class, which will remain nameless, where we usually have three readings per class. It is usually two theoretical readings and one case. I read everything. I'm a total dork. I think I'm the only one in INSEAD and Wharton who reads it all, but I really think it adds to my experience (imagine that), and I read it.
On Thursday last week, I prepped all of the readings that morning. I got to class, and the prof was asking questions that really didn't make sense. The case we had read was IBM, and the case picked up at Palmisano's leadership. He was asking question after question about Gerstner, and about the differences between what the two did to turn around IBM. I looked around totally confused. Gerstner was mentioned in our readings, but we really did not have this information. No one else was confused. They all looked totally confident. I asked people around me, "hey, did you see Gerstner in the readings?" I got "yes" or no response, and I got one "I didn't do the readings." People just bullshitted their way through the questions, and no one seemed concerned or confused at all.
After class, I had a quick look through the readings again, and I also checked my inbox to make sure I hadn't missed an email from the prof with an additional reading, and then I spoke to the prof. It turned out that the print shop at Wharton had indeed given us the wrong case, and the one he thought we had was not included in our course pack. He would have NEVER known. NO ONE ELSE SEEMED TO NOTICE! Super weird.
I realized that people just ACT like they know what's going on - a lot. They give confident answers, because that's what they're supposed to do, not because they feel confident in their answers. I wish I could be more like this sometimes, because then I could BS better, but then I sort of don't mind that I'm a bit more honest...and at least I get to the bottom of the case!!
3 comments:
One of the things a person learns as s/he gets older is that for the majority of people the packaging is everything. If you look confident, people will think you know what you're doing. If you look/act "cool," people will think you're cool. If you're honest and vulnerable, however, people will learn what you're really like. Not everyone can handle that.
I've been told ( by my son) that B School is called that becasuse that is the grade most often given, the S you speak of must be graduate level B School.
Your thoughts?
De-De
Phyllis - I totally agree. I think it's possible to control for part of that by surrounding yourself with as many good, friendly, and quality people as possible. I try to do that, because I'm not the best at BS-ing.
DeDe - I'm not sure I understand. Both B schools I have been to are grad schools, and also both have non-grade disclosure, so our grades don't actually matter. I bet that undergrad b schools have less BS than we do...but I haven't tried it out (yet!).
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