How to call bullshit on a guru

The longer I’m in this profession of lecturing and writing, the more I worry about becoming one of those guru asshole types. You know who I’m talking about. People who talk as if they’re always right, never wrong and lecture to people as if they are morons and are too stupid to do in a year what the guru could do in a day.

Frankly I hate these people. I always have. And it’s ironic that this is what I do for a living now.

I do my best not to sound or be like one, but I admit I can use your help.

When I’m hired to speak or teach, people want me to be the know it all genius expert, even though I’m not.Â I’m an expert, yes, but I’m far from perfect. But since I get hired to be a know it all expert all the time, it’s easy to eventually believe your own PR. Â I’d rather not have this happen.

Here’s my list of ways you can help me detect bullshit, my own or in other expert/guru type people. I promise I’ll never get mad if you do. Having good people ask tough questions forces me to think about what I’m saying and learning to be wise is essentially what I’m in all this to do.

Here’s my list:

Ask “have you done this yourself?” Most gurus haven’t been practitioners in a long time. It’s easy to forget the difference between giving advice to do X and actually doing X.Â And the longer its been since they’ve done X, the easier X will seem to be. Of course, just because a guru hasn’t done it doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it just means they might need to ease up on the arrogance, or seek out more examples.
Ask “How do you know what you know?” Phrases like “studies say”, “I have seen”, “the leading theory is” are all possibly bogus phrases. What study? Where did you see this? Who says it’s the leading theory? Don’t let an experts assumptions not sound like assumptions.
Ask “When is the theory you are advocating wrong?” Nothing works all the time. A smart person is aware of the limitations of any idea or practice. Ask them to explain the alternative of their position, and when they might take it.
Look for admissions of mistakes and failures. Someone who never admits they are wrong is dangerous. If they’re so smart, and they’ve never failed, it just means they’re a coward. But if they’ve failed and never talk about it, they project an unreal image of what is to be a human being. It’s harder to learn from aliens than humans, I think. Ask for stories of mistakes and failures, their own or others. This will force any true guru into open and honest territory where they can be of greater use to you.
Ask “Why do so many people fail at this?” A wise person will answer this with some acknowledgment of how hard the thing is to do.Â But there is an ego trap in this question: I once heard a famous software consultant say, in response, “because not enough people follow my advice”.

Things not to do:

Find a factual error and treat it like discovering gold.Â Factual errors are everywhere. Many good books contain them and it’s hard as a writer to sort through the origin of every statement or fact. The existence of a mistake does not mean the theory or premise of the author, or lecturer, is wrong. It indicates a mistake in research, which just about all popular research has. It drives me nuts when someone finds I misquoted someone, or got a fact wrong, and jumps to assume all of my quotes and dates are wrong. You can criticize someone’s research but still buy the premise and theory, as some facts are less important than others. More important, look for gurus who make changes to their work when they learn of mistakes and that their work grows from it. (Just fyi, there is a list of mistakes from Myths of Innovation up here, that will go into the next edition).
Use an expert as your negative stepping stone. This is the definition of a heckler. They want to steal thunder and use someone else’s platform as a launching point for their own.Â This rarely works as it doesn’t earn real fans. Critiquing, especially harsh venomous criticisms, is always easier than creating. I think in life you score points for being insightful and building on what people say, not tearing it town. If tearing something down is necessary to build your theory, that’s fine, but people passionate about tearing down often forget that second part.

What other points would you recommend to authors and experts who want to avoid becoming jerk gurus?

Posted Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 10:29 am

in Teaching/Training | 12 Comments » |

D. Simms - March 9, 2009 at 11:13 am

I do like the first (personal experience, if in a separate field) and third (mistakes).

Another way to tell is, “how interested is this guy in understanding my problem(s)?”. If they’re not, then they’re a hammer looking for nails, or you should just buy their book or read their blog or such. The shorter-term the gig, the more that this may not be practical. But this is also good question for consultants to ask too. First, this is one of the primary ways that consulting is fun and interesting. Second, if the client isn’t interested in this, then the engagement is a lecture (and not so much consulting) isn’t it?

This shows up in other areas too, say in architecture, where often designers will treat users purely as lusers and discount their views (which is well on the other side of healthy the opposite problem: users designing themselves).

Matt Moore - March 9, 2009 at 1:12 pm

I like this Scott, I think I’m going to have to pinch it (with full attribution).

Three additional things:
- How do they talk about their peers? (i.e. other gurus in the same or related fields) Is it to acknowledge their ideas or just to put them down?
- Do they ever answer a question with “I don’t know, I’ll have to think about that someone more”. If they have an answer for everything then either the questions or the answers aren’t that great.
- D. Simms’ point about be interested is pretty gosh darn important as well. “Interested” = “Listening” + “Valuing”. Some gurus don’t listen (bad!). Other gurus listen but don’t seem to value what other people have to say (also bad!)

I think why you call BS on a guru is also important. If it’s just to score points then that’s a bit sad (as your two “what not to do” examples indicate). It should be because you want them to be better at what they do and how hey do it.

Daisy Lowe - March 9, 2009 at 2:18 pm

As long as you keep on making blog posts like this one, I don’t think you’re in too much trouble of becoming an asshole. ;-)

To relate my own experiences, a few years back I was caught in a company that was desperately trying everything in the agile book to rescue its failing productivity. World-renowned consultants were drawn in from far and wide, but the one common trait was that they were all, in hindsight, “guru asshole types”. Each had his/her own angle to push and each refused to acknowledge that it might not work in all situations. I knew in my gut that I was being asked to do things that flew right in the face of productivity and yet that’s what I was being asked to provide. Eventually, I quit the company.

Around that time, I also attended a number of agile conferences (3 consecutive years of one particular conference), initially as a believer, but later as a skeptic. The final one of these was, however, the best; more of the attendees were starting to question the techniques being espoused and the claims being made. They were calling bullshit on them. The visibility of the gurus’ blinkeredness was much more apparent. And yet, at that same conference, they had easily the best keynote I’ve ever seen. It was given by Tim Lister and the sense of balance he demonstrated was a major contrast to that in other talks. I’ve got a lot of respect for him from that. Maybe one day I’ll get to check out one of your talks first-hand too.

Anyway, keep it up. Enjoying your honesty and pragmatism.

Shel Horowitz - March 9, 2009 at 5:16 pm

Yeah, that smugness, that arrogance of never being wiling to admit wrong is extremely dangerous. Look at the mess we got into in Iraq–how much of that was because George W. was unwilling to admit that he could make mistakes? Or how many people got taken by Madoff and his ilk because they never thought to question his guru-hood.

I’m currently revising a book I wrote in 2003, and I realize that even in that short time, plenty of things have changed. The day I stop learning and growing is the day I die (I hope). Constant learning mode is fun, if tiring. :-)

What does amaze me is how much of the advice I’ve given out over the years, all the way back to my first marketing book in 1985, is actually still relevant. A surprising number of the basic concepts are still sound; it’s just a matter of adding more in the arsenal (e.g., blogs, Twitter, Facebook) and of tweaking the recipes for things that no longer work in the same way–but the basic idea of give-to-get that I advocated in 1985 still holds, as do the fundamentals but NOT the specifics of (for instance) how to get media publicity.

OTOH, the way I think about copywriting now is completely different than it was in, say, 1990.

Kerry - March 10, 2009 at 5:59 pm

What gets me is when you try to talk to a consultant after a conference presentation and ask deeper questions about their experience on what they presented and all they do is try to push their business card on you without listening to you.

Drew Boyd - March 10, 2009 at 6:44 pm

My favorite question for innovation “gurus” is: “Do you know how to innovate?”

If they say ‘yes,’ then I follow it with an even better question: “How?” That usually does the trick.

Scott, thanks for putting the “moose on the table.”

Life is Sales; and other thoughts from the Blogosphere | Are we falling or flying ... - March 10, 2009 at 11:34 pm

[...] Leadership, Theory, Work, business. Yesterday Scott Berkun wrote a very interesting blog post onÃ‚Â How to call bullshit on a guru; equally interesting was the reader discussion which followed. [...]

Kirkistan - March 11, 2009 at 7:54 am

Scott,

I find myself recommending your blog to more and more people, so thought I would thank you for writing. Thanks for sharing your insights. I learn something from every entry, including this one. Plus–I love your lecturing style. I start next week teaching college students about writing and I covet the energy you bring to the lecture hall.

Kirkistan

Jen Harris - March 11, 2009 at 9:08 am

Guru’s and Experts.
Very few exist in SM…literally a handful have the right to say they are this.
We have a few people here in town that have been successful with their SM efforts for their business & I applaud them…but don’t tell me you are now an expert after 6 months when I have been pulling teeth for 3.5 years w/this “stuff”.
I have NEVER called myself an expert – why? Because I have missed a four hour window here and there of being “on”.
Cheers!
-jen
@jenharris09

090807 Culture Links | johnsumser.com - August 7, 2009 at 1:17 pm

[...] How to call bullshit on a guru Scott Berkun is an amazing thinker about building cultures of innovation. In this piece, he helps pull the feathers off the typical guru. The ones that hate this piece are the target. There are a few “gurus” who hope you’ll try to debunk them. They’re the real keepers. Think of this as a guide to knowing which blogs to read. [...]