What makes a management technique a fad is not the technique itself. The techniques typically are developed, refined, and successfully employed by organizations prior to becoming popular. What makes them a fad is that business leaders adopt them as panaceas without truly understanding the technique and the context of their situation - and calling what they are doing strategy or leadership.

The management techniques cited as fads are not bad techniques per se - they are just not substitutes for leadership. They also cause more harm than good when misapplied. When the organization is rallied to pursue technique after technique without achieving promised results - it becomes very conscious of the wasted time, money, and energy - becoming cynical as a result.

Fads since the late 1980s --

• Total quality
• Kaizen
• Lean
• Benchmarking
• Best practices
• Flexible manufacturing
• Value creation
• Strategic intent
• Continuous improvement
• Cross-functional teams
• Revitalization
• Restructuring
• Reengineering
• Organizational transformation
• Six-sigma
• Business process redesign
• Organizations as orchestras
• The new organization
• The self designing organization
• The hybrid organization
• The post-entrepreneurial organization
• The post-industrial organization
• Knowledge workers
• Empowerment
• Diversity
• Entrepreneurs
• Intrapreneurs
• Innovation itself is even becoming a fad.