Bullshit: beyond the Peter Principle

I imagine readers of this blog are familiar with the Peter Principle:

People in a hierarchy tend to rise to a level of respective incompetence

I.e. someone is promoted depending on their doing well in a role, but will eventually get to a point where a role is beyond their capability or skill set. At that point they are relatively incompetent and unlikely to be promoted beyond that role*.

A similar and more positive version is:

What got you here won’t get you there

This is the title of a book by Marshall Goldsmith, who recognises that the capabilities, skills and behaviours that make you successful in some types of roles — often “lower” in an organisation — are quite different from those that are needed to succeed at a “higher”, executive level. In particular, being a good leader requires far more focus on (a) your behaviours and how you carry yourself, and (b) supporting other people (rather than yourself) to be successful.

Both of these are valuable principles and adages, and are largely accurate. Having spent a lot of time in large organisations / bureaucracies / institutions, I would like to modestly contribute my own principle:

You rise to the level of bullshit you can take.

This represents three connected observations:

1. The higher up an organisation you go, the further away you are from actually doing the interesting work. Instead you concentrate far more on staff, stakeholders and dealing with problems that haven’t yet been addressed. These are all one form of bullshit: stuff that has to be done, but isn’t what you might typically call work
2. The more elevated you are, the better you are at dealing with circumstances that are wrong. These can be making the best out of a bad decision or wrong choice, or being willing to accommodate the way some people act (be they staff or stakeholders), because they have to be kept on side or they’re mates with the top dogs. This is a second form of bullshit: showing more of a willingness to go with things that aren’t reasonably acceptable
3. The more senior you are, the more comfortable you are with saying or doing things that , to the common worker, make no sense. This equates to being able to say things with a straight face about, for example, the latest corporate innovation, saying things that seem to make sense but actually mean very little, or making sure there is a response to an unreasonable request (sometimes for content, sometimes for something that’s urgent, or often both). These are all the final form of bullshit: stuff that no one thinks stacks up in any way, but that carry on irrespective because the higher-ups create and maintain the logical facade.

The bullshit principle (as we may call it) therefore recognises that, all else being equal, people will climb a hierarchy until they are not willing to demonstrate the types of bullshit that are necessary to operate at that level.

I should stress: I recognise the language of “bullshit” as flippant and a little vulgar. It does not mean that I think we can get by without it. I don’t. I think it is probably necessary for any organisation to succeed, and I don’t underestimate or undervalue its practice by effective senior leaders and executives. I am instead trying to recognise that it isn’t for everyone.

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• I often think about Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary between 2001–2002 under Tony Blair. In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister she wrote:

I’m good at dealing with the issues and in communicating to the teaching profession. I am less good at strategic management of a huge department and I am not good at dealing with the modern media. All this has meant that with some of the recent situations I have been involved in, I have not felt I have been as effective as I should be, or as effective as you need me to be.

You were kind enough to say you wanted me to think about it further overnight and be absolutely sure that this is what I want to do. I have done so, and it is.

This still strikes me as brave: she thought she couldn’t do the job that needed to be done and so stood down. I can think of no other person who has voluntarily done the same: been promoted, recognised they aren’t quite up to the job, and decided to move aside.