Which is Better, an Author or a Reader?

An executive recently expressed a lot of pride in the author/consultant they had engaged to speak to and consult with their telecom company. "They've written a book!" is given as the definitive justification for choosing this particular person. Yes, published authors are naturally embued with credibility; they become our go-to heroes, the guru of their particular area of expertise. We want to believe that this author, this consultant, with their straightforward, focused approach will be able to fix our issues.

Yet, this same executive, with a little more conversation, readily admitted that the issues they were dealing with were complex and far-reaching. They didn't even really understand what their problems were, yet they were confident that an expert (an author no less!) would be able to fix them.

When problems are complex, when causes and effects are widely separated in distance and time, when problems are emergent, arising out of your underlying systems and policies - in other words, in the real, messy organizations that we work in - there are NO experts. Nobody "out there" knows how to fix your problems.

As a leader, you are far more effective if you have read and integrated the wisdom of eighty books, than if you rely on someone who has written one.