Huainanzi - Entry 80

Trey Smith

[There are three dangers in the world:] To be high in rank but low on ability is the second danger.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

This same general idea was restated in 1969 by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in the book, The Peter Principle. The thesis of this funny book was that, in organizations, people rise to their level of incompetence.

The principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter's Corollary states that "[i]n time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." "Managing upward" is the concept of a subordinate finding ways to subtly "manage" superiors in order to limit the damage that they end up doing.

Since we humans tend to live our lives in one organization or another (e.g., family, job, church, school, government, civic group, etc.), we each will land into our own sphere of incompetence!

Of course, the danger of incompetence in hierarchical organizations is that the poor decisions rendered impact everyone below. So, for example, if the US President makes an incompetent decision, it can jeopardize the livelihood and health of millions (or billions) across the globe!

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.