No Silver Bullet – Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix

This hard-hitting new book challenges the status quo of business leadership and reveals the mindset shift needed to lead successful organisational change. Written by an experienced developer of global change practitioners and leaders, it encourages readers to evolve their thinking and develop the reflexivity to truly experiment with change and development solutions.

Often, leaders face a huge pressure to have all of the answers, all of the time. When challenges arise, be they economic, technological or otherwise, the leader is expected to know the fix, the solution, the cure – this is what Steve Hearsum calls The Myth of Fixability. It’s this myth he believes perpetuates a market for so-called Silver Bullets, solutions to complex business problems sold by consultants, gurus and thought leaders.

There is no quick fix to complex challenges in human systems. If there was, all leaders would be buying the same book or going to the same person or vying for the services of one consultancy. Yes, you may have your go-to resources and people, and many are talented, helpful and knowledgeable. The problem is, they cannot guarantee success and what works in one context, at one time, may not work in another. And leaders who seek these silver-bullet solutions to complex problems will fail.

In No Silver Bullet: Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix, Steve explores the psychological phenomenon of seeking Silver Bullets and what we might do about them. He suggests that rather than grasping for a quick fix that simply satisfies leaders’ feelings of discomfort and a need to ‘take action’, leaders should learn to become comfortable with not knowing. The book provides strategies for shifting leaders’ mindsets and experiences, so that they may start to see and experiment with different possibilities, rethink internal capability building and feel a lightening of the emotional load.

For those that buy Silver Bullets (leaders, managers, executive teams) and those that sell to them (consultants, solution providers, business schools), this book is a timely provocation in an age where binary either/or thinking is the order of the day and nuance and ambivalence is eschewed in favour of certainty, when the challenges we face require a more thoughtful and integrative approach.

An important book for all those involved in change or leadership within organisations.