Let’s try a “fuzzy factor” rating of management practices in law departments

In Chapter 3 of Michael Shermer, Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown (Time Books 2005) at 38, Shermer considers six “heresies” that challenge deeply rooted scientific assumptions. He summarizes his discussion of the validity of the unscientific positions with a range. For “each of these heresies I have ascribed a ‘fuzzy factor’ between .1 and .9, from least likely to most likely to be true.”

Observers of our industry might assay an application of Shermer’s method: for a standard, 10-lawyer US law department, assign to various management practices a fuzzy factor, from least likely to most likely advantageous. Practices abound, so why not try to grade their effectiveness and speak in a quantified way about relative potency?