Revenues from Honesty? (Leveraging Authenticity in a World of Increasing Bullshit)

The Soul-preneur Series Free Issue No. 14

Prototyping an “Anti-Bullshit” app

Can talking about “Bullshit” in workplaces (and beyond) become part of a viable business enterprise and strategy?

I’m thinking about this as I reflect upon some presentations and workshops I’ve delivered in recent weeks.

The first was two consecutive workshops to 4th year students at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. These workshops were focused on leveraging social media and creating content.

All of the 30+ students were nearing the completion of their program and designing business startups. My presentations were about leveraging social media as part of those projects, but also for personal career aspirations.

The second presentations and workshops were two 90-minute sessions with fellow open learning faculty at a university based in western Canada. (I facilitate five Communications courses — from 100-level to 400-level)

Every year the 200-or-so online faculty get together for two days in-person. I was invited to deliver two 90 minute sessions on “Bullshit in Academia and Workplaces”.

Here’s the cover slide from my sessions👇

I was informed ahead of time that the pre-booking for these sessions had been quick. People were keen.

There were several concurrent sessions running, however, the ‘Bullshit’ sessions were 35-45 people in each (out of a total of about 135 at the event). I didn’t even make it through three-quarters of my slides in the second session.

People were keen to ask questions and talk — which is awesome as an image I share right off the top is below 👇

Moving things to the right of the diagram can be a powerful process within institutions and systems. Yet, often in academia, folks get stuck on the left side of this continuum.

In this particular institution I was presenting at, it had just released (in the last few weeks) reports from a $1 million investigation into two senior administrative leaders accused of harassment, discrimination, bullying and more.

This entire crappy and sensitive situation has been playing out for about 3 years. An in-depth investigation found that accusations against one of the leaders were not accurate and against the other, were largely accurate.

Thus my presentation was delivered in a rather fascinating institutional and workplace context.

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A Reflective Realization

I realized after delivering the sessions — at least with more clarity than going in — that this was one of the first ‘more-provocative’ presentations I’ve given in my adult life in which I had no obligations to anyone.

I did not have any concerns with what “my boss might think”. I was not delivering the presentation with some concern about what HR might think, or how this might affect my career-ladder climbing aspirations.

The admin leaders who asked if I would give the presentations had seen a shorter 30-minute version of the presentation the year previous. And, they approved my proposed title and outline for the two 90 minute sessions. (And some sat in on the presentation and were well-engaged.)

One of the core messages I wanted to get at through the presentations was that “Bullshit” is now an ‘academic’ term. There are peer-reviewed journal articles and books written on the topic. For many this often comes as a surprise (and a relief!).

And, that as an ‘academic’ term it’s acceptable to discuss what Bullshit is, what it does, and what to do about it.

Bullshit - in an academic sense

In the years that I’ve been researching it, and writing about Bullshit (I have a section in my doctoral dissertation linking theories of Bullshit and Leadership literature and drivel—with a focus on Education) — I have thought a lot about how to move from frustration and indifference to Bullshit in organizations…

… to doing something about it.

“Calling it” is an option, however, one fraught with pitfalls — especially for those of minority identities, or in subordinate positions where a boss can simply fire them, or make life very difficult for “calling bullshit”.

In these sessions — in a simplified form — I aimed to:

1. Normalize discussions and dialogue about Bullshit in workplaces (what it is, why it’s espoused, and it’s shitty impacts).

2. Run through specific examples — with these presentations I focus on ‘Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity’ (DIE) initiatives. [Most are Bullshit — as they look to largely evade the ‘things’ in which they purport to be addressing]

3. Provide strategies and reflections on what can be done about the ever-increasing prevalence of Bullshit (especially in academia and academic institutions) — with a focus on systems approaches, as well as, approaches to support one’s Self.

For the last, I share some of my approaches and strategies for dealing with Bullshit (a focus on Self in the systems diagram) — such as arts-based approaches like the ‘app’ prototype above and other theoretical tools. 👇

Bullshit Barometer

the Bullshit Early Warning System (BEWS) - a must for every meeting

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Systems Approaches

The other components I share in relation to these dialogues is how important it is to take a systems approach to dealing with Bullshit.

The reason for this is this slide from the presentation below.

Knowledge is relational as it relies on more than one-person to exist. Plus the complex reality of how knowledge is communicated (and how bullshit as pseudo-knowledge is communicated and re-produced, such as through Large Language Modlels and AI).

I share these in a ‘systems-context’. 👇

Knowledge shifts and changes over time, as does Communication.

Knowledge and Communication occurs internally to each Self — And… it occurs in relationship to Others (e.g. family, friend, colleagues, etc.).

It also occurs across institutions and systems — or dictates how communication occurs within certain institutions. From the formal institutions of workplaces, universities, hospitals — to the more informal and fluid institutions of ‘family’ of ‘marriage’ and others.

The link with Structures in the diagram above — includes formal structures such as ‘Official Languages’ that dictate what language is used for Communication in specific areas.

(Language also directs and dictates the ways in which we think and be on a daily basis).

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On Bullshit

Princeton U. Philosophy Professor Dr. Harry Frankfurt was one of the original thinkers on Bullshit and brought it into more common-use through his 1986 essay.

His essay “On Bullshit” was focussed on the discipline of Philosophy, however, relevant to much more. In 2005, the essay was published in book form and became a New York Times bestseller — and one of the top-selling philosophy essays of all time.

The literature has grown significantly since then — with many gaps still to be explored and addressed.

The authors of the paper above — several are located at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC at the Beedie School of Business.

Some of the leading books on the subject👇

Social Psychology Prof. John Petrocelli’s book highlights the many dangers of Bullshit proliferation.

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Bullshit and the Soul-preneur?

In an attempt to draw the circle closed in this issue of The Soul-preneur Series — Below is a slide I included in both the presentations to students in Thailand and faculty colleagues here in Western Canada.

On the left is the number of Internet users globally as of January 2024. On the right is the number of social media users as of the same time.

Facebook, for example, has over 3 billion monthly users alone.

These numbers are staggering — for so many reasons.

With 5 billion people accessing social media there is massive opportunity in this… and… massive dangers.

The sheer volume of content creation required to fuel this is mind-numbing.

And, this is where AI-generated content will only exponentially increase. However, so will the mind-numbing, platitude-filled, pablum-like, empty obvious content.

The Bullshit such as:

• “Follow your passion”

• “Think outside the box”

• “Work smarter, not harder”

• “Everything happens for a reason”

In my near-daily engagement on social media, I am seeing increasing amounts of Bullshit content. I also receive it in direct messages (DMs).

However, in-the-spaces-between I am also finding some pretty awesome content creators that are taking a less ‘obvious’ approach and making conscious efforts to NOT create Bullshit platitude-filled content.

As well as Content Creators choosing to not simply become one more ‘content-creation-guru’ guiding other aspiring ‘content creators’ on how to write headlines, hooks, and bullshit ‘follower-increasing’ posts.

Leading me all the way back around to the opening question:

• Can talking about “Bullshit” in workplaces (and beyond) become part of a viable business enterprise and strategy?

What do you think?

Also:

• Do you navigate Bullshit in workplaces? What are your strategies?

• How about in the Creator Economy? How do you navigate it?

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I have started working on a mini-course related to this presentation and workshop.

Yes, it can be important to post content and watch for signal. When something posted gets a lot of engagement then you may have something to build further.

However, this can also be the case when engaging with folks face-to-face. I often see lukewarm engagement to LinkedIn posts, for example, highlighting the issues with Bullshit in workplaces.

This doesn’t necessarily mean people aren’t interested — it can simply mean they’re worried about what their boss or work colleagues might think if they ‘like’ 👍 the post.

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Would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or otherwise. Please drop a like, a comment, or re-post on channels you navigate.

The next Free issue of Box Cutter Co. will be out shortly.

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