Stephen PrenticeThe ICT industry is dominated by engineers and people with a technical background. Business it seems is much the same. Most business leaders have an analytical approach – show me the numbers, let me make a logical decision based on the facts. If the only tool you have is a hammer then it usually means that the answer to most problems is a nail!
So it is no surprise to find that most of the people I speak with in business are looking for a structured, logical analytical solution to whatever their current problem is. Every problem is there to be analysed, broken down and a technological “fix” applied. Every problem is treated as a “Problem of Physics”. But life isn’t really like that. People don’t always do logical, sensible things (although “sensible” is a perception that varies depending on your viewpoint). Why do people climb mountains? – because they are there! Where is the logic in that? That is a pure emotional response to a challenge. And that is something that I think humans are born with. “Don’t Touch” we say to our kids and then watch them do exactly that! It is almost as though they are born to challenge us. But it is part of learning, exploring, of growing up and making their own decisions, of discovering what is possible and what is not.
As we grow up we learn more and more and understand where the limits lie, learn what is possible and, by inference, what is impossible. And therein lies the problem. The smarter we are, the more we know, the more we know the limits – so we stop trying. It was Arthur C Clarke, back in 1961 who best encapsulated this in his second law “To understand the limits of the possible, you need to go a little way past into the impossible!”. That drives logical people nuts! It doesn’t make sense! Impossible is impossible – that’s what the word means! The science of Physics is about absolutes, about certainty, about limits. It has no place for irrational human decisions, for emotional responses that start with “I wonder……”.
Analytical people take great pride in their skills, and continue to treat everything as a problem of physics. But most of the problems today are problems of people, caused by seemingly irrational behaviour, by emotional responses, driven by personal and hidden agendas. Our growing access to technology has only exacerbated the issue and amplified its impact. So we continue to apply technical solutions to people problems, and wonder why they sometimes have unexpected results!
Whilst we (analytically minded business leaders) continue to try to apply technical solutions to people problems as though they were simple problems of physics we will continue to have problems. But that’s what physicists do! The world is predictable, isn’t it?
Sometimes its good to be a biologist!
Category: Behaviour Tags:
1 response so far ↓
1 Nick Jones September 26, 2008 at 12:35 pm
But isn’t this process itself amenable to structured logical analysis? Planned irrationality? Perhaps a bit like the philosophers in Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy demanding rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. And you know, I’m not sure how “rational” some of those darned physicists are. They expect me to believe in quantum uncertainty and anthropic principles that claim the universie only exists because I’m watching it. Perhaps you should have used engineers as an example, they’re a bit more grounded.