Dan Erwin

Deep Smarts, Deep Thinking and Metacognition

Whenever I write a blog about a subject like thinking, I inevitably face up to the fact that blogging about thinking doesn’t easily grab readers. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are a lot more exciting, even though they’re not nearly as needful or valuable. Deep thought is the kind of stuff that more mature clients are after, especially when they face serious decisionmaking or strategic needs.

Deep smarts is the engine of every organization. You can’t really progress without them. And you’ll manage a lot more effectively if you understand what they are, how they are built and cultivated—and how they can be transferred to others. In this blog, I intend only to describe deep thinking.

In the new Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (2^nd edition), Keith Sawyer summarizes the differences between “deep learning” and “traditional classroom practices.” His summary was so explicit and so perceptive that...

Making Mistakes with Mark Zuckerberg

In an aside, Mark Zuckerberg takes the issue of mistakes head-on in his second town hall meeting with the public. To a surprising degree he challenges conventional wisdom, demonstrating that he’s done some serious thinking and conversing with his team. In a single nut, he lays out a philosophy of mistakes that’s extremely accurate and pragmatic—and will withstand the scrutiny of research.  

Although he puts his philosophy of mistakes in the context of Facebook, his ideas will travel well. Very well, indeed.

Successful people spend most of their time making mistakes. Consciously or not, this is the kind of statement—and mindset--that dilutes the fear of making mistakes. That fear may be one of the most difficult fears to dislodge in most people...

Leonard Bernstein and the Hebdo Massacre in Paris

I happened to be listening to the elegiac and emotionally laden Andante of the Barber Violin Concerto when I was drawn to an article describing the New York Philharmonic’s response to the Hebdo massacre in Paris. The movement pits the warm brilliance of the violin against the hauntingly beautiful oboe, a never to be forgotten relationship that nearly always melts my heart. What should be the response of musicians to such evil?

Alan Gilbert, the music director, quoted the sadly timeless words of Leonard Bernstein after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963: “This will be our reply to violence...

The Death of the Lone Genius

Slowly, very slowly, the research and some journalists are killing off the notion of the lone genius. You know, that American mythology of individual superiority applied to creativity. Like John Wayne’s rescue before the barbarians get to you, the lone genius is all nonsense. But the myth of the lone genius will require a cruel death of many cuts. It’s one of our most deeply held and cherished beliefs--even though dead wrong.

The latest cut is delivered by William Deresiewicz in The Atlantic. He writes rather bluntly that the “truth is that the geniuses weren’t really quite as solitary as advertised. They also often came together—think of the Bloomsbury Group—in situations of intense sustained creative ferment.”

Does it really matter?
That’s the question. And the answer is a clear-cut affirmative.

Organizations succeed—or fail—based on...