The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 7

False dichotomy: Oversimplifying the argument by reducing it to black-and-white choices (e.g.

“It’s up to you: We can either approve the plan or go out of business”).

Faulty analogy: Using a comparison that does not support the conclusion that is being drawn

from it (e.g. “Ford saved itself by bringing in an outside CEO, so we should hire an outside CEO”).

Glittering generality: Justifying an argument by wrapping it in an appealing phrase or statement

that allows the argument itself to go unquestioned (e.g. “Well that’s the Six Sigma approach”).

Hasty generalisations: To make assumptions based on insufficient evidence (e.g. “The focus

group didn’t like our prototype, so there’s clearly no market for that product”).

Loaded question: Posing a query that cannot be answered without appearing to advocate

something negative or undesirable (e.g. “So you’ll sleep better tonight knowing that we decided to can

300 of our workers?”).

Middle ground: Assuming a compromise between two extreme points of view is the best option

(e.g. “Rick wants us to double down in China, and Terry wants us to pull out, so why don’t we just

maintain our current investment?”).

Neglect of a common cause: Assuming one thing causes another thing because they are

regularly associated with each other (e.g. “It’s not the discharge from the planet that’s causing that

smell; it’s all those dead fish”).

Oversimplification: Ascribing a single cause to something that is complex and has different,

interrelated causes (e.g. “We’d be hitting our production goals if it weren’t for the union”).

Red herring: Introducing an irrelevant topic in an attempt to shift the argument away from the

original issue (e.g. “Forget the design problems; what we really should be talking about is how

marketing screwed up”).

Slippery slope: Assuming a proposed action will set off a series of undesirable events, even

though the means of preventing that exist (e.g. “If we can’t meet this deadline, our new product line is

dead in the water!”).

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