Runaway emotion

Business is not about emotion. That is not to say it has no place for it. Business is about humans interacting to a common and productive purpose, so clearly emotion has a place. But it shouldn't rule us. We make a space for intuition, instinct and passion, but we structure and guide business with rational thinking.

As I said in a recent post reflecting on a passionate, emotionally charged movement in the ITSM world,

There is more heat than light... Hello! It's work. It is the job we do in return for payment... This isn't freedom for Saudi women, or gay rights in Russia, or saving the rainforest. It's computers. It's as exciting and important in the big scheme of things as warehousing. Reality check: if you want to change the world join the Red Cross or Greenpeace, not itSMF.
Emotion is unprofessional. One of the basic tenets of business is to keep emotion out of it: to behave in a civilised manner, to stay objective, to keep it impersonal, to solve things in a rational manner. Of course we are human so we fall short of that aspiration, but it is - or used to be - something we strive for. We understand the emotional cycles and plan for them: anger-denial-grief-acceptance, storming-forming-norming-performing etc. But we do so in order to manage emotion: it is something we deal with not incite. Business is driven by thought and logic.
Cultural change requires cultural events so I accept the need to fire people up, but let's keep it professional and dignified.

Did Deming use emotion to improve business?

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