“Red herring” is a euphemism for something that gets put in one’s path to intentionally distract or mislead.
The first known use was in an 1833 essay by English journalist William Cobbett. The author told the (probably fictional) story of using the scent of smoked fish** to distract hunting dogs from the trail of a rabbit they were tracking.
In modern times, people often talk about “red herrings” in books and movies – characters or events inserted by an author to set up a plot twist by leading the audience to focus on things that won’t matter in the end.
“Red herrings” exist in business, too.
They’re rarely planted by nefarious people with intent to mislead, but some fads and fears get so hyped up by the media that people think they’re a much bigger deal than they actually are.
Take AI. Yes, it will have huge impact on how people live, but the vast majority of companies I talk to are nowhere near ready to use AI tools in a meaningful way. The topic warrants attention to learn, think, and imagine the future, but not as much as some people seem to be giving it.
As blasphemous as it may sound, tech selection can be a red herring if allowed to go on too long.
I’ve seen companies succeed and fail with myriad combinations of tool and tech through the years. The biggest driver of success is the organizational change require to enable effective use of whatever new tools are bought.
If companies shifted a fraction of the time they spend nitpicking tech details to work on culture issues, I suspect the ROI from major tech investments would go up across the board.
On a lighter note, I’d also put open plan office layouts, company kegerators, and foosball tables in the “red herring” column.
What distractions have you seen steal attention from parts of a business that really matter?
** Herring is normally silver. Smoking makes it turn red. Therefore using a “red herring” was synonymous with using a smoked herring.
Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/562812/where-did-phrase-red-herring-originate
