Tyranny of the Explicit Following up on yesterday's post, a second of our tyranny coatpegs it the Tyranny of the Explicit. Viv talks about it here and it's something I've referred to a few times before. Bureaucracies tend to be better at adding...

The divided (and interconnected) brain Towards the end of this RSA Animate video, psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist quotes Einstein:The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant.McGilchrist suggests we now honour the servant, trapped in a left brain mode...

We're all talk radio hosts now... Jonah Lehrer suggests thinking can often serve to confuse us. He reports research where students had to rate different jams. They managed to come out with similar preferences to expert jam tasters. Then a similar group got the same exercise,...

Podcast: The tyranny of the explicit Yesterday, I recorded a conversation with Viv McWaters and Roland Harwood on the theme of The Tyranny of the Explicit. We explore how the need for certainty in an uncertain world, the over reliance on metrics and the demand that...

Bureaucracy, targets and pseudo-surveys Mark Fisher picks up some fairly grim examples of bureaucratic bullying in the public sector and the abuse of targets and surveys. Just reading the absurd form-filling required if a student arrives late to a lecture makes me want to...

Tangential creativity Quite a few people have pointed to John Naughton's article: Lasers would never have shone if Mandelson had been in charge. Naughton challenges the government's plans to restrict science funding to applicants that can show "demonstrable benefits to the economy,...

The Tyranny of the Explicit Bob Sutton has an interesting post linking to this New York Times story: After Bankruptcy, G.M. Struggles to Shed a Legendary Bureaucracy. A manager relates how the company's legendary bureaucracy is being cut down to size: his massively extensive performance...

The tyranny of the explicit in marketing I'm continuing to have thoughts in response to reading Herd, probably because Mark Earls' position so often reverberates with mine. There's nothing like having one's prejudices supported. Like me, Mark enjoys taking potshots at market research. In particular, the effort...

Stillness I enjoyed Nick Smith's latest post, Don't just do Something, Stand there! Here's the nub of it, but I recommend the whole thing.By valuing thinking over awareness we mistake knowledge for understanding, and therein lies our downfall. It is...

Mirror, mirror.... A big hat-tip to Stefan Liute for his post The biological hardware for culture. He points to this article from the NY Times: Cells that read minds. Here are a few morsels of the Times piece:"We are exquisitely social creatures,"...

The great return I'm thoroughly enjoying Rob Paterson's bold series of posts on the theme The Great Return. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Well illustrated, forthright, thought-provoking and wise. I was struck by this observation in...

City branding Katherine Stone is underwhelmed by Atlanta's new tagline (Atlanta: Every day is opening day). Christina Maynard at Ricksticks feels the same about the new logos for Toronto and Atlanta. I'm yawning too. My two (maybe five) cents: when people talk...

Group unconscious I've been reading this: The Group Unconscious: A Synthesis Paper (pdf), which its author, Alok Singh shared with me. It's real brain food and not a light read, but it echoes strongly with me. Alok explores the idea that groups...

No Flipcharts I would like to propose an International No Flip Chart Week. During this period, no one will leap up in the middle of meetings and attempt to capture what's being discussed on a flip chart (or any high tech equivalent)....

Pitfalls of explicit learning Reflections on the dangers of making knowledge explicit - how it may actually undermine our knowledge and ability.