• Less Diagnosis, More Scalpel

    Posted on March 22nd, 2011 by and currently 13 commenting.

    Wondering why no one listens to your good ideas? Start making them happen and you’ll have people’s undivided attention. –Jesse Gardner (1)

    Have you noticed a proliferation of diagnosticians in the last few years? Think about it – if the fans at the sports bar were coach, they wouldn’t have made that horrible substitution. If politicians could just understand the oh-so-simple solutions touted by blog commenters, our country’s problems would be righted in short order. And if that self-made social-media-blogger were in charge of social media for that Fortune 100 brand, they wouldn’t have made that big mistake, and fans would flock to the brand’s conversation by the thousands. Right?

    This is an age old problem – people have always had opinions and shared them in some form or another. As communication has become faster, shortened to soundbites, and shrouded by anonymity, though, it seems that people have taken to their soapboxes en masse to make their stance known and vie for their share of audience. They are creating a vast sea of digital diagnosis.

    How many diagnosticians does it take to fix a problem, though?

    In my experience, diagnosticians aren’t the ones who fix things. Surgeons fix the actual problems, diagnosticians define them. (Many surgeons do both.) The role of defining shouldn’t be downplayed – accurately understanding the problem is crucial to a safe and successful procedure. But if it stops at diagnosis and a skilled professional doesn’t wield a scalpel at some point, the problem isn’t really addressed.

    Many of the most talented and successful people I know don’t pay much attention to their soapboxes because they are simply too busy using good diagnosis to fix problems or implement solutions to be overly concerned with what people think of their perspective. At the end of the day, their beliefs will be clearly evident in the trail of solutions they create as they move forward.

    In 2011, my goal is less diagnosis and more scalpel. A lot more.

    —————-

    (1) See the original quotation from Joshua Blankenship’s blog here.

  • http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/ john moore (from Brand Autopsy)

    Dodds … I am so borrowing/using/stealing your “Less Diagnosis. More Scalpel.” line. Nice.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Eric Dodds

    Why I’m flattered, John! Were you able to enjoy any good prezos or tunes at SXSW? Any plans on a visit to the Upstate in the near future?

  • http://www.adventurati.com Dave Aidekman

    The best articulation that I’ve seen of this notion — act, don’t criticize — came from Theodore Roosevelt in his Sorbonne speech in 1910: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

  • http://facebook.com/outback Dan

    Dodds – love this. love it.

  • http://www.threadsnotdead.com Jeff Finley

    Awesome Eric, yeah makes total sense. And great analogy. Does this relate to the cyber-bullying that Rebecca Black has endured? Everyone has an opinion and it seems web is being created to encourage more short, simple-minded critiques on the content we all produce. You know, comment forms are on just about everything. Brands are encouraged to interact with their audience, so the Monday morning quarterbacking – or scalpeling I should say, will only be getting more prominent.

  • http://mbrewergroup.com Mike Brewer

    Eric

    Nice work! I like the scaple as it relates to filtering out the noise. Back in the day, I followed anyone and everyone. Today, I invest a bit more time on the front side to limit the noise. I’m sure I miss some good stuff and in the same respect it leaves time to focus on the major point in your post.

    Hope your day is compelling. Thanks for taking the time time to pen a quality read.

    M

  • http://brainsonfire.com Eric Dodds

    - Dave:

    “…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” One of the best quotes I have read in a while. Thank you so much for sharing that wonderful excerpt.

    - Dan:

    Thank you, sir.

    - Jeff:

    I think the diagnostic trend applies in many situations – criticism is the easiest thing in the world. Actually producing something is very difficult, and many times the results aren’t earth-shattering. Which is why it takes making something over and over again to become really good at it.

    You bring up a very interesting point that I’ve been thinking through of late: the mechanics of communication online seem to facilitate the issues of diagnosis, which, as you point out, is an increasing behavioral pattern. Very, very interesting stuff. As always, thanks for stopping by and sharing – any updates on WMC?

    - Mike:

    Thank you for the kind comments. Filtering is a battle, but I agree with you that it is one worth working at. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.twitter.com/jamieplesser Jamie Plesser

    Terrific post Dodds. It’s so easy to behave this way. I try to keep myself in check by remembering a saying that one of my former managers used to have: “The price of criticism is a suggestion.” No better words, especially in the workplace, have been spoken.

  • http://lobenstein.posterous.com/ hubertus von Lobenstein

    The observation is spot on! On the other hand sometimes it takes some public diagnosis to create the awareness where to use the scalpel. The question is: Do the people who diagnose have to be the same people who use the scalpel (at least in hospitals they have specialists for both….)? Or is it a question of one motivating the other?
    But one thing is for sure (as you´ve so brilliantly pointed out in your book): Movements happen in real life. If they only exist digitally, they will not last. The same is true for any interaction with brands. If it doesn´t lead to a real life experience it is not worth the effort. The same is true for any blogged diagnose. If you can´t at least suggest how to apply it practically, it is not worth the digital space used up for it.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Eric Dodds

    - Jamie:

    Always great to have your voice around here. Thanks for the quote – that’s two from the comments that are going into my ‘quotes to remember’ document. Thinking through this reminded me of our ‘talker VS doer” conversations.

    - Hubertus:

    My perception is that much of the time, the lines aren’t clearly drawn (many of the marketers we work with are highly skilled at both diagnosis and surgery). It becomes excruciatingly clear, though, when someone stops doing surgery, and the effect is usually felt by the entire team. Great thoughts – and good food for thought in the comment about the relationship between the two roles. As for the movement piece: music to our ears. It’s great to have kindred spirits around the world. Have you had a chance to check out the book?

  • Stephen

    Dunno, Dodds — I’m going to have to question your diagnosis here.

    In real life — as opposed to the blogosphere — I’ve seen ten times as much thoughtless hacking at undefined problems (in the name of practicality) as groundless theorizing. Most of these (often talented) hacks are just as busy doing and have just as little time for the soapbox as your successful nose-to-the-grindstone talents. They “don’t have time to philosophize,” and they are proud of it.

    I imagine them reading this post, clapping delightedly, and loading “Less diagnosis, more scalpel” in their holster for the next time some smarty-pants planner or researcher tries to tell them something.

    My diagnosis is that there’s too little integration between diagnosis and treatment. Too little thinking is oriented toward eventual doing (and is therefore impractical), but too little doing is oriented by critical thought (and is confused and equivocal if not altogether empty).

    I see this disconnect everywhere in business. The C-suite hands down idealistic core values, mission statements, mottoes, and assorted blather that changes nothing about how employees feel or act or relate to customers. The employees continue to follow procedures and chase their success metrics with no regard for big-picture impact. Or agencies win work with presentations full of principles, methods and secret sauces, and then throw the work at a bunch of juniors and hired guns who just do it the way everyone always does it. I call this the bullshit-chickenshit problem.

    Here’s my grief with this post: Any hint — especially if the hint is fortified with a snappy slogan — that diagnosis is superfluous or a distraction from the real work of doing — even if it is carefully qualified — is only going to make this bullshit-chickenshit disconnect worse.

    And, frankly, next to the bullshit-chickenshit problem, the “proliferation of diagnosticians” is a fucking mirage.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Eric Dodds

    Stephen:

    Always welcome questioning. It’s one of the best ways to grow. I think we agree more than we disagree – I love your point about the integration between diagnosis and treatment. Very well said. Thanks for your thoughts, and thanks for stopping by to read.

  • http://lobenstein.posterous.com/ hubertus von Lobenstein

    Eric:

    Read it. Loved it! Recommended it! Working on a blogpost about it….;-))