anti-intellectualism

December 18, 2007

Driving (or rather being driven) up to Leeds this evening I was asked about different adoption rates for new ideas. I responded that one of the major problems in the US and the UK is the anti-intellectualism of a majority of management. They don’t want to handle a concept, and have an proclivity to simple easy to understand solutions. All these despite dealing with high levels of uncertainty and situations where tradition simplistic recipe book approaches have failed. In Asia if I use a word which is unfamiliar they ask me to explain it, in the UK they dismiss it as jargon. If you speak to French, Italian or Spanish managers they have all studied philosophy at school. At my son’s school the worst insult is swot. We seem to be breeding for ignorance rather than for innovation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

About the Cynefin Company

The Cynefin Company (formerly known as Cognitive Edge) was founded in 2005 by Dave Snowden. We believe in praxis and focus on building methods, tools and capability that apply the wisdom from Complex Adaptive Systems theory and other scientific disciplines in social systems. We are the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world.
ABOUT USSUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER

Cognitive Edge Ltd. & Cognitive Edge Pte. trading as The Cynefin Company and The Cynefin Centre.

© COPYRIGHT 2024

< Prev

Gwlad, Gwald

I have always enjoyed Robert Paterson's blog, but he has elevated his status to new ...

More posts

Next >

The Archers, Flying Saucers and a Commune

Matthew Hodgson has been pandering to my ego of late, and has now put me ...

More posts

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram