2024-02-26 11:30:23
While competence is seen as a pillar of the world of work, incompetence is everywhere. The problem is that it is not only found in subordinate jobs, but is found in the governance of many organizations. Welcome to “kakistocracy”, the world of incompetence!
The word kakistocracy is constructed from two Greek words: kakistos (the worst) and grates (the power). I conducted an investigation for three years to analyze the phenomenon, which is more widespread than we think, and to understand how we might get out of it. We might assume that this type of governance is reserved for a few large public institutions (the bureaucracies), with some tasty illustrations in literature (Ubu Roi) or in cinema (Les Tuche at the Élysée). However, I have noticed that it is also found in multinationals as well as in start-ups or very small businesses (VSE).
If kakistocracies have existed since the beginning of humanity, the subject has found new relevance with the exponential development of digital technology and particularly artificial intelligence (AI), which generates the “presumption of skills”.
But with what consistency? How deep?
Suffering and underperformance
The effects of kakistocracy on company employees are always the same: feeling of uselessness, incomprehension, frustration, with the consequences of absenteeism, disengagement, departure and of course underperformance. Marc*, 41, who works in the IT sector, testifies:
“I worked for years with an incompetent manager. The worst part was that he never questioned himself. We had to do it for him, or fix his shit. I have often reported the information with supporting evidence. Nothing happened. He was protected by management. So, we all left, little by little. It was a lost cause! »
In general, an incompetent manager means doing things for him, at the cost of a lot of time and energy to compensate for his shortcomings. It is also the feeling of shame, shame for the image that this incompetence. Being managed by incompetent people also causes a loss of confidence. It is in fact impossible to have confidence in people who we consider incompetent.
Another shared feeling is that of injustice: there are many testimonies of having the feeling of being trapped by one’s skills, like that of Émile, 46 years old, who works in the industrial sector:
“I have been in the same department for 12 years. I tried to get promotions. I made requests. I went for training… Each time, someone else got the place. Without explanation, not even good ones. It’s hard to live with.”
And then, there is the loss of reference points, because in a kakistocracy, we forget what we have learned since we were very little: success is associated with effort, learning, and above all with merit! It’s quite the opposite in kakistocracy!
How is a kakistocracy built?
When we talk regarding incompetence at work, the “Peter principle (1970)” spontaneously appears: we progress in our functions until we meet our threshold of incompetence. But this is not the only explanation, far from it!
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Another principle is that of Dilbert, invented by the American comedian Scott Adams: “The most incompetent people are systematically assigned to positions where they are likely to cause the least damage: those of managers”.
Then there is the fear of competence. The manager does not want to recruit or promote talents who might quickly become competitors and surpass him.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Another explanation for incompetence at the highest levels of companies and institutions is the development of “consultocracy”, the delegation of complex or strategic missions to consulting firms.
Finally, the company can manufacture incompetence when it does not offer any training.
Kakistocracy is often established by default, by successive shifts, by cowardice, by ignorance, by stupidity, but there are organizations where kakistocracy is not the lot of a few individuals, but an organized system.
These organized kakistocracies respond to three mechanisms:
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the thisbecause by recruiting incompetent people, you ensure their loyalty, since they are indebted to you.
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the negation of the individual for the benefit of the system who decides regardless of competence. This is the case with dictatorships.
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and finally, the clan system. The objective of a clan is to preservation and perpetuation of its interests and its perimeters, not to be efficient or competent. We recruit for loyalty, not for competence: the “boss’s son” syndrome!
How to overthrow a kakistocracy?
A good way to eliminate a kakistocracy is to act on the root cause: incompetence. I therefore propose 4 scenarios, which are not exclusive of each other:
The first is the most classic, it consists of training, to make people competent! The target is therefore business skills but also managerial skills.
Another is to mobilize the name and shame, “name and shame”, to denounce the kakistocrats! In a world where business reputation matters more and more, this can be effective.
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We can also recommend the recruitment of women. As women leaders have had many more barriers to overcome to reach the top, they are more talented than men of equal status. Studies show that they also have a different relationship to competence, which makes them demanding of themselves.
The last scenario is the least intuitive but certainly the most structuring for getting out of a kakistocracy: accepting incompetence, to turn it into something that allows you to get moving, to move forward.
Incompetence, a creative value?
We can indeed put forward the idea that incompetence can motivate creativity, even innovation. When we don’t know, we can bring a fresh perspective and disruptive ideas to solve a problem, like Yacine, 38, from a service company:
“I started listening to the “why? ”. Before I brushed them off with the back of my hand, I answered like everyone else: “because we’ve always done it like that! ”And it’s often exciting. Whatever the outcome, the exercise of why is particularly useful.”
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With this reflective capacity, we enter into this movement of managerial thinking which increasingly recognizes vulnerability. It is no longer a question of opposing incompetence and competence but of seeing them as complementary. After all, we are all someone else’s incompetent person.
But we must not be naive, attacking the kakistocracy means calling into question those who govern. This takes courage! In a kakistocracy, the competent is often the preventer from not working well in the round! The unwanted!
Kakistocracies still have a bright future ahead of them.
But naming them, denouncing them is a starting point. The diagnosis is always the beginning of the cure!
*First names have been changed
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