I thought much the same when I read this Dilbert. The corporate world is full of make-believe. For years, Philip Morris had me travel the world showing people what we did in Asia for information/knowledge/records management. Always to great acclaim but no-one outside of Asia ever did more than listen to the presentation and take the materials. I went to Switzerland for 2 years and tried to setup similar processes at the global HQ and they fired me. It's a common tale. Absolutely do not rock the boat if you want to survive as a corporate warrior.

I think there may be a link with this report (of a study) http://sivers.org/jam - when offered 6 jams, 40% of people stop and taste, when offered 24 60% stop and taste. However, of those offered 6 jams, 30% bought some, whereas of those offered 24, only 3% nought them - so, the greater the seal show, the more the customer is attracted - but when it comes down to delivery you offer less choice. This works on some web sites - for example, I'm looking for a new printer and am attracted to sites with large ranges and reviews, but at the end of the day I like a site that gives recommendations.

I found much the same experience in corporate research labs, which I called the "Leonardo effect", after the apocryphal story that Leonardo da Vinci spent much of his time at the Sforza court arranging spectacles and entertainments when he would have preferred to be building helicopters and siege machines. The role of the artist in the court is to enhance the prestige of the rulers, practical benefits are extra.

All this begs the question of why the clients weren't more insistent on getting their hands on these new ideas. Were they only ever bargaining chips to be given up when getting real about the money?

When brainstorming the corporate world wants to see and feel cutting edge, but when the final product is implemented they want to see the familiar. I retired and my white blood cells are getting back to normal.

Made me shudder. He's even got my name and my red tie. For me the limbo cube was the Library Team.

It's a similar refrain from my working life too. There seems to be a culture of organisational lassitude among key decisionmakers about exploring ideas, let alone converting good ideas to action. It's probably a function of the organisational reward system that promotes people based on their ability not to think and to just follow the organisational status quo.