The myth of fixability – why is a silver bullet so attractive in business?

Guest post by Steve Hearsum, author of No Silver Bullet: Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix 

A few years ago, a friend of mine who has deep experience of helping organisations with their digital ‘transformation’ ambitions explained to me one of the fundamental challenges they face when working with senior leaders. Exec teams in modern organisations are typically made up of people who have led the business to where they are today. Faced with digitalisation and the need to invest in new technology, people and processes, these leaders make seven-figure investment decisions about things they, at best, have a superficial understanding of. To admit they do not know what they are talking about in this context is to accept that the self-image they have constructed over years, and maybe the ideal they have of the leadership team as a whole, is not quite true.

The lure of silver bullets

Who wouldn’t want a certain answer?

Faced with a complex challenge, and the anxiety you experience when you realize you may not know what to do, who wouldn’t want a Silver Bullet? You would be a fool not to buy one if such a thing existed. The problem is that quick fix, easy answer, simple solutions to complex challenges do not exist, whether that be for digital transformation, culture or a myriad other organisational challenges. The evidence that no easy answer exists is simple: if it did, we would all be using the same consultancy, worshipping at the feet of one thought leader or buying the same airport tome by the latest exec moved to pass on their learning.

Here is where we run up against what Mark Cole and John Higgins coined the ‘myth of fixability’ (2022), which boils down to laziness in decision making, in part underpinned by assumptions about the nature of change. Instead of accepting that change in human systems is unpredictable, fluid, emergent and a function of the quality and frequency of human interactions, we are lured by an endless stream of purveyors of Silver Bullet solutions, selling us 2×2 matrixes, n step models of change, methodologies that promise predictable outcomes and consultants and consultancies proffering beautifully animated slide decks that sooth our furrowed brows.

What drives the need for certainty?

In my research, I asked people what they believed fed the need for certainty that makes Silver Bullets so attractive. Several themes emerged, many recurring:

• Expectations – of leaders, followers, stakeholders, shareholders, etc. which necessitates that a lot of weight is put on clarity, certainty and coherence.
• Pace – the need to be seen to be doing something right now and the need for speed.
• Archetypes of ‘great leaders’ – e.g. fast, decisive, confident, heroic, charismatic, etc.
• Laziness – because, bluntly, it is too much like hard work (or too uncomfortable) to stop and think.
• Fear and anxiety – of failure; of what might be discovered or revealed, about either the situation or oneself; existential anxiety; discomfort with ambiguity; of being exposed somehow as ‘not knowing’ or being seen as incompetent; of being held accountable; of simply being and bringing oneself to work, e.g. in the C-Suite and executive level more widely, how OK is it to ‘be you’, really? And underpinning all of that – shame.
• Inability to cope with not knowing – not knowing what to do, why something is happening, what will happen if I do/do not act, etc.
• The need to please – parent/child behaviour is rife in many organisations for the simple reason they reflect the humanity of those that work there. Part of this dynamic is the need for some leaders to be liked, to please employees and peers by being seen, for example, to have found the solution to a problem.
• Displacement – the need to make someone – or something – else responsible. If things do not work it, it is the Silver Bullet that is at fault, not you.
• Mindset – if your background is one that tends to a view that the world is inherently plannable or you have a high need for precision, that will increase the need.
• Cognitive overload – all this ‘stuff’ is just too much to bear.
• Risk reduction – in commercial environments less a need for certainty, rather to quantify, manage and/or externalise risks as best as possible. However, ‘risk’ can be deeply personal and subjective, even if coached in business-speak.

And to wrap things up, a nice list from Rob Briner, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Queen Mary University London:

• Magical thinking, incentives and rewards for leaders, cognitive biases, lack of training in decision-making, limited accountability, few evaluations and “management ‘theatre’ where being seen to be doing something is more important than what you actually do”.

The kicker

Given all of that, it is hardly surprising that leaders are receptive to offers of certainty in the form of Silver Bullet solutions. Wishing something were true is not the same thing as it being so, and the way we construe the world, and interact with it as it really is, is key. My tentative suggestions in terms of how we might more usefully respond is:

1. Develop reflexivity – understanding how your own beliefs, judgements and practices are influenced by psychological, social and systemic factors.
2. Cultivate a both/and mindset – it’s not easy, but when everyone around you is asking for binary responses (either/or, yes/no), getting comfy with not knowing requires the ability to see and hold nuanced positions.
3. Ask questions – particularly when you are dealing with the unknown. That is a time for sensing and responding, not heroic leadership.
4. Experiment – and be prepared to fail and learn from it. If you do not know what is going on or what to do, expecting to be right as a default is an absurdity.

None of these are Silver Bullets. All are the antithesis of leading with an underlying mindset that believes in the myth of fixability.

Steve Hearsum is an experienced consultant, supervisor and developer of change practitioners, the founder of Edge + Stretch and the author of No Silver Bullet: Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix (out now).

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