Dan Erwin

Deep Smarts, Deep Thinking and the Humanities

The 2020s are placing extraordinary demands on workers and organizations. Not just on managers and execs, but also on ordinary workers. A wide range of competencies and experiences are necessary for senior execs. But ordinary workers are also facing strategic uncertainty, new models of business and organization as well as new intellectual demands.

So what's the beginning place for ordinary workers? The answer to that is not surprising--deep smarts. That kind of expertise is always built on a distinct set of competencies: the humanities. It is the kind of stuff that more mature clients are after, especially when they face serious decision making or strategic needs. But it's only in the last few years that firms are really recognizing this need. In fact, years ago one highly placed officer told me he'd keep me busy the rest of my life if I could develop deep, strategic thinkers for his staff needs. I knew that given the intellectual decision making of his staff, it was an impossibility. So at the time I rejected his offer. I knew very few of his people were capable of learning the process, but I didn't know why. One thing was clear: he needed more people with a different kind of education and very few of his people had the right kind of education.

But I also recognized that 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. 

Of course, the real issue surrounding the deep-thinking failure is that a terrific number of business people have little to no background in the humanities supporting their business thinking, thinking which is primarily oriented to scientific thinking models—and not deep thinking. In contrast successful business leadership requires both humanities and scientific models of thinking. Since 2015 a number of business journals have picked up on the fact, including several articles in the Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review. By the humanities I refer to all languages and literatures, the arts (including painting, drama and music), history, philosophy and rhetoric, and the sorely abused English major. These are the required in top schools like Dartmouth, University of Chicago and Columbia University—in addition to whatever you majored in, like say math, statistics and engineering. Unlike my daughters, I didn’t go to any of these schools, but I got a big dose of the humanities in my undergrad at a small Kentucky state college. And even more so in my extensive graduate work.

The American Apocalypse: A Premature Obituary

America’s rule of the globe is coming to an end. Destroyed, we’re told, by China. Fear is a terrific motivator—at least in the short term. So plenty of economists and business people go about earning their stripes with apocalyptic warnings about our soon demise. But, actually, that notion and its underpinnings are all nonsense.

Fear gets to us even when reason suggests otherwise. A few decades ago, the alarmism was all about the Japanese and their booming economy. And you know what happened there. Still the fear is a great vote-getter for some opportunistic politicians.

But Harvard’s Joseph Nye has put a dagger in the hearts of those who like to propagandize about our soon demise. You may not know Nye, but “all roads to understanding American foreign policy run through Nye.”  He’s the one who pioneered...

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...

Thinking Ain't Everything

“Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.”
                --Bertrand Russell

“Why is talent getting harder to find?” Just a few months ago, one of my long term clients, a managing architect, asked that very question. He’d been through the experience over the past two years of hiring 3 new architects, only to gradually let them go because of their ineptitude. But architecture has no unique grip on the problem.

The evidence for failure for newly appointed and promoted executives in both the corporate and non-profit sectors is alarming: Harvard Business School reported ...

The Wasted Attention to Human Foibles

Some time ago I heard David Brooks comment that the American public pays way too much attention to human foibles.  And in an astute Journal article, Joe Queenan argued the same case. The Obama impeachment fantasy is another case in point. 

I learned years ago that paying much attention to a politician's foibles, especially when the person was near genius policy-wise, and the country needed his or her expertise, was often a horrible waste.  Richard Nixon, a documented dissembler, eventually had to go because of the Watergate Scandal, yet his contributions to international relations are among the greatest of the 20th century:  successfully negotiated a cease-fire with Vietnam, opened the People's Republic of China and initiated detente with the Soviet Union.  

In my mind, significant expertise that benefits the the public community usually trumps personal foibles.  Inevitably, therefore, I had no difficulty admitting that Bill Clinton was a sexual jerk with a zipper problem.  And as far as I was concerned, that was his problem, not worthy of censure, impeachment or discussion.  His expertise in many areas of national importance was impeccable--and the nation as a whole would have been better off if Clinton's sexual peccadilloes had been ignored.  As David Gergen, advisor to three Republican presidents, has since pointed out--on many policy issues Clinton was a genius.  Gergen points specifically to ...

Nothing Really Works All the Time

Ten years ago the Wharton School of Business named Andy Grove the most influential CEO of the previous 25 years. Yale’s Jeffrey Garten called him a “superb model for future generations of CEOs.” Beyond his obvious success at Intel, why the accolades? Harvard’s Richard Tedlow answered the question best: “Grove has escaped natural selection by doing the evolving himself. Forcibly adapting himself to a succession of new realities, he has left a trail of discarded assumptions in his wake. “

Discarding assumptions can be very wise. Business proverbs, those single phrase assumptions, often need to be dumped too. Although I occasionally hear it today, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was a mantra in most exec suites 20 years ago. The execs who didn’t break a significant number of their ideas and processes are on the streets today. “Keep it simple stupid (KISS)” is another one that still floats around. It’s being challenged by a chaotic, highly complex global economy.  

Thus far, no one seems to be challenging “Work smarter, not harder.” It, too, is filled with a significant amount of baloney.  

In 2014, it’s only half right—at best!
I first encountered the proverb ...

Intelligence Is Still Alive and Well

Although, on occasion, I doubt it. Still these excerpts from two great commencement addresses are salutary. The first excerpt might be entitled something like “How to deal with liberals who act like the Tea Party.” And the second, “C’mon! Passion is an obsolete concept for careers.”

Of the ten or so excerpts in Sunday’s Times, most began with a warning for faculty and students who would close down opposing viewpoints. That, of course, was a reference to Condoleeza Rice, Christine Lagarde and Robert Birgeneau, formerly UC Chancellor, all of whom were deemed persona non grata after an original invitation to speak at three major schools.

Two excerpts are exceptional.
The first, a satire by the journalist, Bob Garfield, was at Albright College in Pennsylvania, one of those old and classic liberal arts institutions for which the East is rightly famous. For the rhetorician Kenneth Burke, satire always connotes this question: “In the name of God or the Devil, at this stage in our history, where in Hell's name are we?” And satire, with its parody and mockery, is “often the handiest way to make clear just where we are.”

So here’s Bob Garfield:
 “I just can’t tell you how disappointed I am with you...

Does Reading Make You Smarter?

I thought the affirmative answer to that question was both obvious and credible. Until I read some of the irrelevant and stupid responses to Dan Hurley’s recent article in the Guardian in which he discusses the impact of reading on all three categories of intelligence . The nonsense helped me understand why so many distrust science, think climate change is fabricated, believe the world was created 6,000 years ago and despise high intelligence.

The research
Still, for the rest of us the research is immensely credible. And there’s a lot of it. One major group of studies emphasizes the “Matthew Effect” in academic achievement. The term is taken from the biblical passage that describes the rich-get-richer and the poor-get-poorer phenomenon. Children who experience greater difficulty reading, get less practice, read less, and delay their own development—and may never develop anywhere near their actual ability...

On Target: Zakaria's Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address

It’s obvious, says Fareed Zakaria, that the conventional wisdom regarding a college degree is that a student should major in computer science, code at night, start a company, and take it public. Or, if you want to branch out, you could major in mechanical engineering.

What you’re not supposed to do is get a liberal arts education.

So here’s Zakaria, speaking at the quintessential liberal arts school, Sarah Lawrence College. What he has to say is dead center, and particularly for those who can think beyond their first job. Because his speech is “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read), I intend to lay out the relevant excerpts. Zakaria clearly and obviously rejects the conventional wisdom on college education. But as I’ve argued in the past, never trust conventional wisdom without a very, very thorough analysis. In short, following in the path of conventional wisdom is not going to take you very far. But I’ve added an explanatory note at the end of this blog, illuminating the non-liberal arts grad.

Zakaria’s bio and the background for the speech may be necessary to set the stage. . . .

An Intriguing New Role for Climate Change: Threat Multiplier

"Tribes are killing each other over water," said Defense Secretary Kerry in a recent interview. Most of us, with just a half-hearted attempt at informal research, are well aware of the local and national implications of climate change. It's incontrovertible that low-lying ocean-front homes and business on the East Coast are in trouble. But when the Pentagon gets in the business of assessing the problem, that's a different matter.

Here in the Midwest, Insurance companies, food companies and pet food companies have been adjusting strategy and acting on the assumptions and implications of climate change for years. Yeah, that's right--years. Grain buyers at Ralston Purina, the largest dry pet food company in the world, were making assessments and long-term purchase agreements based on climate change issues nearly twenty years ago. Of course, firms like that have meteorologists on their payroll. They recognize that smart grain planning is a significant competitive advantage. Knowing that climate will significantly impact their business, they can't afford to play the political games of climate skepticism to please the stupid and rack up more votes.

Pentagon report
As reported by Coral Davenport, the well-known energy and environment reporter, "The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict," according to a military-research organization.

The impact study is lengthy and detailed:

Climate change-induced drought is leading to Middle East and Africa conflicts over water and food resources. That also includes coastal areas in eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The consequence of that, which is already in play, is increased refugees.

A recent report also indicated that many arable areas of Africa have now been reduced to desert. Not just water, but also food are at issue.

The military is frustrated by the problem, and already planning for sea-level changes and storm surges around coastal areas for their own installations. Norfolk, Virginia, for example is the world's largest naval base and also home to nuclear submarine construction. That would impact jobs, and it would eventually have to go.

But the most significant issue the military will have to deal with is that "climate change is an active, driving force in starting conflict." There's a reason that many terrorists come from water-starved and food-starved areas of the globe.

Of course, the skeptics and crazies are still around. But as David Titley, a meteorologist and co-author of the military report, responded, the facts are indisputable: "The ice doesn't care about politics or who's caucusing with whom, or Democrats or Republicans."

I suspect that more and more it'll be a great time for architects, engineers and the construction industry. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding. And sustainability will factor into projects in unheard of forms.

Dollarphotoclub: Thomaz Kunst