Why are most of the technology experts eventually transferred to management?

This is the famous Peter Principle, one of my treasured articles. The specific content is as follows. I think you will be interested in:

“In a hierarchy, everyone The employee tends to rise to a position for which he is not competent."

Peter pointed out that every employee will be promoted to a higher-level position due to good performance (competence) in the original position; thereafter, if he continues to be competent, he will be further promoted until to a position for which he is incompetent. Peter's inference derived from this is, "Every position will eventually be occupied by an employee who is incompetent for his job. Most of the work tasks in hierarchical organizations are completed by employees who have not yet reached the incompetent level." Every employee will eventually be occupied. Will reach Peter's Heights, where his Promotion Quotient (PQ) is zero.

As for how to accelerate to this high ground, there are two methods. The first is the "pull" from above, that is, relying on nepotism and acquaintances to pull from above; the second is the "push" of the self, that is, self-training and progress, etc., and the former is commonly used.

Peter believes that due to the introduction of the Peter Principle, he "unintentionally" created a new science - Hierarchy. This science holds the key to the mystery of all hierarchies, and therefore to the understanding of the entire structure of civilization. Everyone in business, industry, politics, administration, military, religion, and education is closely related to hierarchical organizations and is controlled by the Peter Principle. Of course, the assumption of the principle is that the time is long enough and there are enough layers in the five-level organization. The Peter Principle is considered to be related to Parkinson's Law.

Peter’s Reversal Principle

In his research on hierarchical organizations, Peter also analyzed and summarized the Peter Reversal Principle: An employee’s competency is determined by the people in the hierarchical organization. Superiors judge, not outsiders. If the boss has reached a level of incompetence, he may judge his subordinates based on the value of the system. For example, he will pay attention to whether employees comply with norms, rituals, forms and the like; he will especially appreciate employees who work quickly, neatly and politely. In short, it is similar to a boss who judges his subordinates based on their input. Therefore, for those professional mechanical actors who have reversed the relationship between means and ends, put more emphasis on methods than goals, put more emphasis on paperwork than predetermined goals, lack the autonomy to make independent judgments, and just obey without making decisions, they will be organized They are considered to be competent workers and are therefore eligible for promotion. Only when they reach positions where decision-making is required, the organization will find that they have reached the level of incompetence. From the perspective of the customer, client or victim, they are inherently incompetent.

The endless promotion ladder

The modern hierarchical organizational system always fills the vacancies caused by promotion, resignation, retirement, dismissal and death from below. People have always regarded promotion in hierarchical organizations as "climbing the ladder of success" or "climbing the ladder of power."

Hierarchical organizations are often compared to ladders, because ladders and hierarchical organizations do have some similar characteristics. For example, the appearance makes people climb up, and the higher the annual profit, the greater the risk.

A person with a fixed income can usually control his money reasonably. But once he inherits a huge fortune, his financial management skills will become incompetent.

In military or government-level organizations, a competent follower may suddenly become incompetent when promoted to leader.

A competent scientist may become an incompetent manager when he is promoted to the director of a research institute.

The reason why the above types of promotions are incompetent is that they require the person being promoted to have new abilities that are not required in his previous position.

An employee who has always been responsible for quality work may be promoted to a supervisory position for which he is more qualified. Then, he may be promoted to a management leader. Although it is a bit difficult to do, he works hard. If other conditions in the hierarchical organization are favorable, he may reach a state of incompetence - becoming a department manager. This may be It was the highest ladder he could climb.

At this time, he needs to spend a lot of time doing his daily work. If he has the support and help of a group of competent subordinates, he can still get the job done.

Because he seems to be quite competent, coupled with the prestige of the leader, he may be further promoted, that is, promoted to general manager-he has now reached the maximum state of incompetence.

As a general manager, his main responsibility is to make decisions closely related to the company's goals and policies. From being responsible for quality work to dealing with long-term goals and more abstract concepts, he increasingly feels empowered. It is difficult to do so, which not only brings losses to the company, but also causes great harm to him personally.

Some people observe this fact rationally and may decide to withdraw from this fierce competition and start a new and more valuable life.

Today, many people have begun to doubt this "endless" game. They see older generations as victims of the Peter Principle, who are no longer interested in building hierarchical organizations and are trying to make their own way of life work.

Unfortunately, most people do not take action, but enjoy it.

[Edit] Is the higher the seat, the better

People always think that the higher you climb, the better. But looking around, we see that this kind of blind climbing Victims abound.

To facilitate analysis, we divide employees into three levels: competent, moderately competent, and incompetent.

Ockerman is an outstanding technician at Lyme Auto Repair Company. He is quite satisfied with his current position because he does not need to do too much planning work. Therefore, when the company wanted to promote him to administrative work, he was tempted to refuse.

Ockerman’s wife, Emma, ??is an active member of the local Women’s Association. She encourages her husband to accept promotion opportunities. If Oakman is promoted, the social status and financial ability of the whole family will also be promoted. In this way, she can run for the chairperson of the Women's Association, buy a new car, buy new clothes, and buy a mini motorcycle for her son.

Ockerman is unwilling to trade his current job for the boring work in the office. But under Ai's persuasion and nagging, he finally gave in. Six months after his promotion, Oakman developed a stomach ulcer and was told by his doctor to stay alcohol-free. Ai also began to direct Oakman to have an affair with the new secretary, and put all the responsibility for losing the title of chairman on him. Oakman worked long, unfulfilling hours and was grumpy when he came home from get off work. The Oakmans' marriage failed completely due to constant accusations and arguments.

Another opposite example is this. Harris is Oakman's colleague. He is also an excellent technician at Lime Company, and the boss also intends to promote him. Harris's wife, Lisa, knows very well that her husband likes his current job very much, and he must not be willing to spend more time sitting in the office and take on more responsibilities. Shah didn't force Harris into a job he didn't like. So Harris continued to work as a technician, leaving the stomach ulcer to Oakman's exclusive care. Harris has always maintained a cheerful personality and is a popular figure in the community. Outside of work, he also serves as a leader of youth groups in the community. If the car needs repairs, it must be sent to Lime Company to repay Harris's usual enthusiasm for public welfare. Harris's boss knew that he was an indispensable and valuable asset to the company, so he provided him with generous bonuses, a stable job, and all salary increases allowed within the system. As a result, Harris bought a new car, new clothes for Lisa, and a bicycle and baseball gloves for his son. The Harris family leads a comfortable and happy family life, and their happy marriage is the envy of their relatives and friends. The reputation they enjoyed in the neighborhood was the ideal Mrs. Oakman could only dream of.

Each hierarchical system is composed of different levels or categories, and individuals in the system belong to each level. If a person is very capable, he will make the following contributions to human society, and his outstanding performance will give him the opportunity to be promoted. In this way, he will be promoted from the level at which he was originally competent to the level at which he is incompetent.

Every job in the world will encounter people who are incompetent.

As long as sufficient time and promotion opportunities are given, this incompetent person will eventually be transferred to an incompetent position, and he will remain in this position and make a mess of his work. His performance will not only undermine the morale of his colleagues, but also seriously hinder the effectiveness of the entire organization.

More importantly, these "Mr. Nanguo" themselves will fall into a trap of looking for trouble and be unable to extricate themselves, just like the above-mentioned Oakman.

Queue Puppet and System Depression

When we shift our focus from individuals to organizations, we will find that every emerging hierarchical system has a lot of achievements at the beginning, but in the end it fails It will inevitably become a stagnant bureaucracy.

Every organization has a golden period before it reaches its final destination. The postal and telegraph agencies, railway bureaus, telecommunications industries, airlines, natural gas companies, electric power companies and other institutions all had a glorious time in their initial stages of development and development.

In an emerging system, it will show a high degree of efficiency because of its rapid growth, vitality, and constant creativity. The flexibility of the emerging organization allows employees to use their talents in appropriate places.

During this period, each employee's work performance will contribute to the performance of their respective positions. If an employee's abilities remain strong, his performance will continue to grow. If most positions in the system maintain good performance, then the performance of the entire system will also increase accordingly. This is how most organizations develop in their early years.

As the system matures, the symptoms mentioned in the Peter Principle will appear one after another. Bureaucratic pollution limits the performance of good employees but ensures that incompetent employees ascend to higher-level positions. Every incompetent employee will have an impact on the work, and a group of incompetent employees will make the work chaotic. Before long, the entire system will enter a period of depression. We call this phenomenon "system depression."

Adapting to the environment, exerting one's talents and freedom of choice are all characteristics of human nature, but "system depression" has made it increasingly difficult to express human nature.

Human behavior is deeply restricted and controlled by the hierarchical system to which it belongs. Human beings are less like caterpillars and more like puppets. The appearance of the puppet resembles that of a human being, but its actions are completely controlled by external forces.

The poor human beings under the "system depression" can be described as "queuing puppets". They will go through stages of survival, punching in, filling out forms, and performing meaningless rituals. Today, "Queue Puppet" has formed a huge social force. They include ordinary people, the silent masses, the majority, ordinary people or consumers.

The "queue puppet" is a functional person who is indifferent to the content of the job but extremely enthusiastic about inventing new and better bureaucratic procedures. He devoted himself to the study of the methods of carrying out his duties, rather than the substance of them.

"Puppets in Line" places a strong emphasis on personal belonging. On a broader level, he may be proud of his nationality, religion, or affiliation with a majority group.

From a mid-level management perspective, he may belong to large organizations, business clubs, and fraternal societies. From the perspective of senior management, he is particularly willing to join private clubs or become members of high-end institutions. If the status of "Puppet in Line" is improved, he must be forced to face a painful choice - whether to be a puppet who makes a difference or to be an incompetent wretch.

When "queuing puppets" are in power, they will use their own limited understanding to interpret social phenomena. He often said: "We can do it, so let's do it." He engaged in space exploration because all the necessary technology was readily available; he invented nuclear weapons that could wipe out the world's population hundreds of times; he built hundreds of Each can of bacteria has the power to wipe out 1 billion people, and the number of people in the world who may become victims is only 6 billion.

What causes this phenomenon? Because he suffered from mental depression, which led to a lack of emotions. Although he suffers deeply from it, he will not propose an effective solution to the problem, because any response will involve responsibility and humanitarian values.

The problem he faces is not a choice between guns or cream, nor is it a decision whether to build an express transportation system that will benefit millions of citizens, or to spend three billion yuan to develop a plan to land on the moon. Unable to get out of the trap of hierarchical organization, he was pushed forward blindly by unintentional people.

A paradise for mediocre people

After many people become "queuing puppets", they have no sense of crisis and continue to indulge in the queuing behavior pattern. Educational circles, legal circles, industrial circles, government departments, etc. all advocate mediocrity, personal contribution no longer exists, mediocrity becomes fashionable, and then becomes a model style. The "mediocre society" led by mediocre people is fully managed by "queuing puppets".

But some worried people suffer because of their awakening. These people who do not adapt to the environment speak out and advocate change, but the silent masses have become hopelessly "conformist."

"Followerism" is a standard unit without individual characteristics. It is a typical representative of public taste. It is an integral part of popular culture, popular fashion, and popular morality.

Technology has created a standard society without individuality, exempting followers from the responsibility, so that they no longer need to make decisions, and also makes them feel that as long as they maintain their following behavior, they can receive education safely. , laws, products and government mediocrity.

Followers have no doubts about the great progress of technology. He was fetishized by the electroplated decorations on cars, refrigerators or other items. As a consumer, he sees himself as one of the agents of progress. He was involved in major events and was proud of successes such as the space mission, even though he had nothing to do with them and only half-understood them.

If left unchecked, the spread of conformity will eventually corrode the structure of the entire society, creating a situation in which thousands of people are in silence.

Another typical example that is completely different from the follower is the "Humanite". His material is to cultivate spiritual life, benevolence and self-realization. Such people give full play to their potential and gain satisfaction from creativity, self-confidence, and talents.

If everyone strives to be a humanitarian, we can not only save ourselves from incompetence, but also reverse the escalating depression of the system

A society where mediocrity reigns supreme

The ideal "queue puppet" is systematically deprived of imagination, creativity, talent, dreams and personal distinction.

Since entering public school, he has been instilled with knowledge of different subjects and used this knowledge to deal with life problems. People who come out of this education system will become mechanized roles in a mediocre society. Once he entered the "mediocre society", he was oppressed by overwhelming forces, and the remaining true feelings in his heart could not be faithfully expressed. The mechanized way of working that deprives him of his individuality will cause him to further lose himself. In the end, he can only feel satisfied if he plays the role of "queuing puppet" in a formulaic manner.

In a society where mediocrity is paramount, everything is popularized and popularized. This trend makes the whole society have a low taste and the quality of products is no longer excellent.

In a society where mediocrity is paramount, various departments within administrative organizations tend to be self-aggrandizing and perfunctory. The rules, regulations and regulations within the organization not only restrict individual actions, but also seriously violate personal life.

As a result, the employee begins to contract a morbid mentality, and his sense of security becomes increasingly dependent on rules, regulations, routines and records related to his job. Gradually, he revealed his ignorance, rigidity and even vicious organizational paranoia. He attaches great importance to the structure, procedures and forms within the organization, but is indifferent to work performance or the quality and efficiency of public services.

The "mediocre society" puts pressure on officials, requiring them to use correct methods and a cautious attitude to maintain various routines in the organization. Therefore, he blindly adhered to the rigid official style and did not know how to adapt to the established procedures. He just blindly obeyed.

Because he devoted all his energy to obeying regulations, he had no time to care about his work performance, let alone providing services to the public.

The bureaucrats who rise up in hierarchical organizations often benefit from their negative materials. Being "competent" means not breaking the rules or making trouble. Sluggish, secretive, and suspicious are the nature of bureaucrats and are also their "three S's" tricks.

In this way, each queuing puppet gradually develops the mentality of "only sweeping the snow in front of one's own door and not caring about the frost on other people's tiles". He would camp out and do his job well, but he would stand by and ignore his department, his company, his society, his country, depression and corruption.

Peter's Prescription

In order to prevent people from becoming queue puppets and reverse the decline of "system depression", Dr. Peter proposed the "Peter's Prescription" and provided 65 tips to improve the quality of life. The secret allows readers to realize their greatest potential through self-expression, and constantly move forward to pursue a better life, instead of climbing up to a position that they are incompetent for.

Peter’s Prescription 1: Peter’s Warm-up Exercise - Revitalizing vitality lies in exercise.

Peter's Prescription 2: Peter's Meditation Technique - Take a spiritual vacation every day.

Peter’s Prescription Three: Peter’s Principle of Comprehensive Review—List your favorite activities and implement them selectively.

Peter’s Prescription Four: Peter’s Cleansing Plan—to clear away the shadows caused by past lives.

Peter’s Prescription Five: Peter pursues the Dharma—become the hero in your own mind.

Peter’s prescription six: Peter’s sense of pride—reward yourself from time to time.

Peter’s Prescription Seven: Peter’s Pragmatism—Always serve others.

Peter’s prescription eight: Peter’s motto—affirm yourself again.

Peter's Prescription Nine: Peter's File Method - Looking back on personal history.

Peter's Prescription Ten: Peter's Quest - Examine the reasons why you are satisfied with your current situation.

Peter’s Prescription 11: Peter’s Extension Method – Understand the pressure and rewards of the position above you.

Peter’s Prescription Twelve: Peter’s Release Method—Freedom from the influence of irrelevant forces.

Peter's Prescription Thirteen: Peter Polka - Overcoming obstacles is the first step to success.

Peter's Prescription Fourteen: Peter's personality - describe an ideal self.

Peter’s Prescription Fifteen: Peter’s Method of Specialization—Focus on your areas of proficiency.

Peter’s Prescription Sixteen: Peter’s Priority Method—Choose lasting fun.

Peter's Prescription Seventeen: Peter's Potential Method - Find practical alternatives.

Peter’s Prescription 18: Peter’s Prophetic Method—predict the scope of your abilities.

Peter’s Prescription Nineteen: Peter’s Prediction Method—predict the consequences before doing something.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty: Peter’s Possible Method—If possible, try to change careers.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty-One: Peter’s Asylum—Refuse “Promotion”.

Peter's Prescription Twenty-Two: Peter's Skit Method - If your boss forces you to accept a position that you lack interest in, pretend to be incompetent.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty-three: Peter’s Avoidance Method—Don’t take the “people upstairs” too seriously.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty-Four: Peter’s Art of Speech—Use words to clarify rather than confuse concepts.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty-Five: Peter’s Anticipation Method—Recognize the goal.

Peter’s Prescription Twenty-six: Peter’s Motion Method—Establish a standard for measuring achievement.

Peter's Prescription Twenty-seven: Peter Discussion Meeting-Involve employees in the process of setting goals.

Peter's Prescription Twenty-Eight: Peter's Policy Method - Make group goals compatible with personal goals.

Peter’s prescription twenty-nine: Peter’s positioning method—understand the goal from the perspective of needs rather than form.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty: Peter’s Practicality—Set feasible goals.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-One: Peter’s Goal Expression Method – Putting goals into words and actions.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Two: Peter’s Participation Method—Involve others in the process of establishing phased goals.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-three: Peter’s Precision Method—express the specific connotation of the goal in a clear, visible or measurable way.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Four: Peter’s Principle of Peace—treat others in a friendly manner.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Five: Peter’s Method—Use Reason in the Decision-Making Process.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Six: Peter’s Time Limitation Method – act decisively and promptly.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Seven: Peter’s Balancing Method—Strike a balance between fear and impatience.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-eight: Peter’s Streamlining Method—taking problem solving as the guide for decision-making.

Peter’s Prescription Thirty-Nine: Peter’s Separation Method—use problem solving as a decision-making guide.

Peter's Prescription Forty: Peter's Principle of Commitment - Beware of making a decision that no one agrees with.

Peter’s Prescription No. 41: Peter’s Method of Efficacy—Have the courage to act.

Peter's Prescription 42: Peter's Probability - Scientific methods and the gift of prediction can only outline the outline of things.

Peter's Prescription No. 43: Peter's Clarity Method - Before selecting or promoting each candidate, first understand the nature of the job.

Peter’s Prescription Forty-Four: Peter’s Proof Method—Try before you buy.

Peter’s prescription forty-five: Peter’s rehearsal method—test in secret.

Peter’s prescription forty-six: Peter’s drama method—simulating future situations.

Peter's Prescription Forty-Seven: Peter's Petition Law - Try a temporary experimental promotion.

Peter’s Prescription Forty-eight: Peter’s Propaganda Method—cultivating new competent candidates.

Peter’s prescription forty-nine: Peter understands the method—listen with the third ear.

Peter's Prescription Fifty: Peter's Teaching Method - Strengthen all humane behaviors in children.

Peter's Prescription 51: Peter's Pairing Method - pair effective reinforcing factors with expected reinforcing factors.

Peter's Prescription No. 52: Peter's Salary Law - As long as you perform well, you will get a salary.

Peter's Prescription Fifty-three: Peter's Promotion Method - When the candidate for promotion is qualified enough for the new position, he will regard the promotion as a reward. .

Peter's Prescription 54: Peter's Status Method - Systematically improve the status of outstanding employees in order to encourage them.

Peter's Prescription Fifty-Five: Peter's Efficiency Method - Encourage employees to use efficiency as the basis for compensation.

Peter's prescription fifty-six: Peter's reward and punishment method - clear rewards and punishments based on performance.

Peter's prescription fifty-seven: Peter's profit method - let all employees share profits together and make employees become a harmonious team.

Peter’s Prescription 58: Peter’s Protection Law – Welfare should provide employees with substantial security and meaningful enjoyment.

Peter's Prescription Fifty-Nine: Peter's Gourmet Shop - Give each employee the right to choose the compensation he or she wants to receive.

Peter's Prescription Sixty: Peter's Purpose Method - If you want to encourage and strengthen employees' performance, clearly tell them their work goals and provide a reward mechanism that is sufficient to reward their contributions.

Peter's Prescription Sixty-one: Peter's Participation Method - Reward group performance.

Peter's Prescription Sixty-Two: Peter's Law of Empowerment - Provide opportunities for those with ability to express their creativity.

Peter's Prescription No. 63: Peter's Praise Method - Convey your appreciation for the outstanding performance of your employees.

Peter’s Prescription Sixty-Four: Peter’s Reputation Method—Communicate with outstanding employees at all levels.

Peter’s Prescription Sixty-Five: Peter’s Approach Method—Through reinforcement methods, a person’s behavior can be transformed by constantly moving closer to an ideal goal.

The impact of the Peter Principle

For an organization, once a considerable number of people in the organization are pushed to their incompetent level, it will cause the organization to be overstaffed and inefficient. It leads to mediocre people getting ahead and development stagnating.

Although we must pay attention to the growth possibilities of managers and stimulate their potential by providing greater space for development, etc., the Peter Principle can serve as a warning: do not select and promote lightly. There are three main measures to solve this problem: First, the standards for improvement need to pay more attention to potential rather than just performance. The standard should be based on whether you are qualified for future positions, not just whether you are excellent at your current position. Second, being able to move up or down must not be just an empty talk. Such a benign mechanism must be truly formed in the enterprise. A person who is not qualified as a manager may be a very good supervisor. Only through this mechanism can we find the role for which each person is most qualified and tap out the maximum potential of each person, can an enterprise "make the most of everyone's talents". Third, in order to carefully examine whether a person is qualified for a higher position, it is best to use temporary and informal "promotion" methods to observe his ability and performance, so as to try to avoid the negative impact of demotion. . For example, create the position of assistant manager, give him greater responsibilities in organizations such as committees or project teams, let him take an acting position under special circumstances, etc.

The employment strategies of successful companies include: 1. Appropriate introduction of foreign talents. The advantage is to use ready-made talents and avoid the consequences of the "Peter Principle"; 2. Gradually improve within the company and pay attention to potential. , most important positions are filled by qualified people