New Management Fad: Strength Finder

[GalaxyBoy]

I got an email this afternoon from Megacorp informing me that I've been chosen to participate in a "Strength Finder Quiz." This is all based on a book that has spawned its own web site (https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com) that, as far as I can tell, exists to sell managers quizzes to give their underlings. The results will be compiled into pretty slides to be presented to the group.

Has anyone else encountered this before? As I approach my FIRE date (early next year, I hope), I'm finding these things worth less and less of my time. I guess I'll file it between my Meyers-Briggs profile and my TQM manual, next to my Crosby Quality handbook and Six-Sigma materials.

 

[euro]

I got an email this afternoon from Megacorp informing me that I've been chosen to participate in a "Strength Finder Quiz." This is all based on a book that has spawned its own web site (https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com) that, as far as I can tell, exists to sell managers quizzes to give their underlings. The results will be compiled into pretty slides to be presented to the group.

Has anyone else encountered this before? As I approach my FIRE date (early next year, I hope), I'm finding these things worth less and less of my time. I guess I'll file it between my Meyers-Briggs profile and my TQM manual, next to my Crosby Quality handbook and Six-Sigma materials.

 

[MichaelB]

Has anyone else encountered this before? As I approach my FIRE date (early next year, I hope), I'm finding these things worth less and less of my time. I guess I'll file it between my Meyers-Briggs profile and my TQM manual, next to my Crosby Quality handbook and Six-Sigma materials.

Where's the Malcolm Baldrige handbook?

 

[Totoro]

It was leaned away, perhaps?

 

[Meadbh]

I had Strength Finder imposed on me in my last year of w*rk. I thought it was a bunch of codswollop.

 

[Amethyst]

Myers-Briggs, DISC, Looking Glass, and 360-Degree Evaluations were all taken, so the consultants had to come up with a new money-making scheme. Be sure to post your score on your desk so people will know how to approach you!

This is still the best:

Dogbert's Employee Rating Chart

 

[athena53]

I did that about 3 years ago when a coworker discovered it and decided it would be good for the whole department to do. I don't even remember my results, let alone how they meshed with those of my coworkers.

 

[Aerides]

I did that back in 2012, and again right before I was RIF'd/FIRE'd earlier this year. You don't have to read the book, but the test is pretty easy and the results are cool if you like that sort of thing.

Out of a department of maybe 35 or 40 I was one of only a 2 or less in a couple of traits - but they were no surprise to anyone, especially since I'd been in OMY mode for a while (as in, no more BS no sugar coating what you see is what you get).

 

[Just_Steve]

Myers-Briggs, DISC, Looking Glass, and 360-Degree Evaluations were all taken, so the consultants had to come up with a new money-making scheme. Be sure to post your score on your desk so people will know how to approach you!

This is still the best:

Dogbert's Employee Rating Chart

Gee, thanks for the dilbert link. I just spent the last hour down that rabbit hole.

 

[harley]

Luckily I worked back in the day when it was semi-acceptable to drink at lunch. I made it through many of these types of training that way. Of course, now people just surf the web on their phones, which is probably better for the liver.

 

[donheff]

These fads never end. I remember some sort of strength deployment triangle and some wheel hub deal. I was pleased to be a hub manager who barely budged toward assertion/action under stress. Obama style cool. Whatever your profile you could read positive assets into it like a horoscope.

 

[Amethyst]

Funny how none of these tests ever reveal that So-and-So is a [bodily orifice]. Even though it's their outstanding characteristic, which affects their every interaction.

 

[donheff]

Funny how none of these tests ever reveal that So-and-So is a [bodily orifice]. Even though it's their outstanding characteristic, which affects their every interaction.

We had some type A managers who were accurately pegged far to the apex of the assertive section of the chart I posted. This was not a PC place for a modern manager to be.

 

[eytonxav]

Where's the Malcolm Baldrige handbook?

Oh, I haven't heard Baldrige mentioned in quite a while, was part of team that won the award back in 94.

 

[Which Roger]

I remember when Re-engineering was the latest management fad. They were convinced that it would make us 30% more productive. Then it quietly disappeared when management realized it had no effect. Next they tried something called "People Value Added", which also quietly went away when management realized it had no effect.

 

[donheff]

Oh, I haven't heard Baldrige mentioned in quite a while, was part of team that won the award back in 94.

That was a big deal.

 

[eytonxav]

That was a big deal.

It was at the time, we worked on that effort for a couple of years. I was a HQ employee who was assigned to consult with the winning business unit as a SME.

 

[athena53]

In the 1980s my employer brought in some high-priced consultants to find out why it took us longer than 3 months to close the accounting quarter. (We were a consortium of US companies formed to do business only outside of North America and the companies that owned us reported just reported their % of profit or loss as a line item in their financials, which may have been why we could get away with it.)

What they ended up doing was just putting together a glorified Critical Path chart. It was actually effective and it did shorten the closing cycle. I'd never studied this stuff in college (I was a Math major) but it made sense to me to know which tasks were on the critical path and thus could shorten the cycle if they were completed sooner.

 

[MichaelB]

Oh, I haven't heard Baldrige mentioned in quite a while, was part of team that won the award back in 94.

That was a big deal.

+1

Well done!

 

[Carpediem]

I got an email this afternoon from Megacorp informing me that I've been chosen to participate in a "Strength Finder Quiz." This is all based on a book that has spawned its own web site (https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com) that, as far as I can tell, exists to sell managers quizzes to give their underlings. The results will be compiled into pretty slides to be presented to the group.

Your megacorp is running a little behind because Strength Finder was the latest management fad 3-4 years ago at my megacorp. Today's fad is 'Cultural Navigator'. If you haven't heard of it yet and you're still w*rking, don't worry - you will! We're supposed to go over our group's results in an upcoming team meeting. What a HUUUUUGE waste of time and money.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Ooooo, that's good! I'll have to bring it up in our next group meeting (assuming I'm actually pulling the plug soon).

 

[Yarnstormer]

Last time I took one of those it said I was a sad fat potential drug user?!?! My alcoholic chain smoking coworker with at least one heart attack was labeled as a positive go getter lol

 

[kcowan]

How about Tony Robbins or Dale Carnegie? I remember a trust workshop where an employee had to push a sharp arrow into the soft part of my neck below the Adam's apple.

This demonstrated that I trusted him. And that he trusted the instructor. Then there was falling backward to be caught by a coworker before encountering any damage.

Well I guess it was all a break from w*rk.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Oye. Flashbacks for me. Not good ones, either.

Not the same, but similar enough to share...

 

[growing_older]

trust workshop where an employee had to push a sharp arrow into the soft part of my neck below the Adam's apple.

I would have walked out. I cannot imagine allowing anyone to poke a sharp stick in my neck, trust or not. If that gives me a bad trust score, I'm okay with that.