Tag Archives: Anthropology

My Worthless Degree

Posted on by
9

I came across an article titled, “Don’t Bother Earning These Five Degrees“.   Oh no.  I bet my college degree made the list.  As I read the article I felt better as #1 Architecture and #2 Philosophy made the list.  So far so good …

Hum, there I am at #3, Anthropology.  A Degree that I should not have bothered to earn.

Okay, where to start?  From the perspective of available jobs directly related to Anthropology … they are indeed scarce.  Essentially they mostly are academic and those professors live forever.  I witnessed this first hand at my college graduation.   The undergrads and grad students for the Anthropology Department graduated together.  I found out that none of the new PhD grads had a solid job offer yet.  This is coming from UC Berkeley which is regarded to have the #1 grad program for Anthropology.

AnthropologistsYet, I did graduate and got a job.  Not as an anthropologist directly, but in Corporate America.   To this day 25 years later, I do not regret receiving a degree in Anthropology.  While not directly working as an Anthropologist, the education, experience and most importantly, the world view gained from my education is priceless.  I have written before about how my Anthropology education serves me well in my business / leadership life.

I am a believer in encouraging college students to follow their passion in their studies.  In many respects, an education is an education and so much is transferable to a variety of work pursuits.   I am living this now with a daughter studying conceptual art in college and a son off to college next year with a love of history.

So many people I have interviewed for jobs have standard college business degrees.  From my experience the best business degree is the actual work in business.  Somehow the classroom does not fully translate.  The best business “professors” have been the many managers I have worked for.

Nothing wrong necessarily with a business degree, but what else did these folks study in college?   Where was the intellectual curiosity, the passion?

I have used this during interviews.  Where I see someone with a business degree I ask, “What other college degree did you consider?”  While no wrong answer, I do like to hear a story of what the person enjoyed studying outside of business.   For me there is a difference between (1) “I always knew I wanted a business degree” and (2) “I love history and took many classes, but I wanted the business degree to set me up for a job.  To this day, I still love to read history books through.”

I do not want to live in a world where everyone has a business degree or a computer science degree.  As employers it is up to us to do a complete job of selecting job candidates.  Give me a smart person with energy, curiosity and some depth.  From there the real education can begin.

Sit Still, Observe and Take Notes

Posted on by
5

Early on in my blogger life I wrote about observation (Sit Still and Observe).  In that post I reflected on my educational background in Anthropology to make the case for leaders to use the power of observation.    I still find observation to be a vital tool and process for leaders and thus, today we return to discuss observation further.

“You see, but you do not observe.”  “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

These lines are from Sherlock Holmes and Socrates  and speak to the importance of observation for everyone and certainly leaders – A level of focus, interpretation, and simple excitement to observe and learn.  Clear the mind (good luck with that) and sit still and observe what is happening now around you.

Observation for the leader start with the external and easily seen.  Observations can also be internal and unspoken.   By sitting still and observing the external you create the space where you can observe your own thoughts and feelings.  Your observations can then extend to what is unsaid with the group around you.  What are we avoiding and what remains unspoken?

I will not dive into specific skills to improve one’s observation skills.   For today I leave it to intention.  Do you intend to sit still and observe the seen and unseen around you?  If you answer yes, you are on your way.  Yet I will point to a tool to aid your ability to observe and interpret what you observe.

As a leader do you use a notebook?  An observation – these days many people I work with do not use a notebook.  For those who use a notebook, it typically has only a list of tasks and reminders.

I have always been obsessed with notebooks and shifted my approach many times on how I capture information.   I went through a time when my business notebook was an artist sketch pad and I used colored markers to capture notes.   Recently I use ruled paper and a black pen.

Well, I got to be me – I am shifting back to adding color to my notes.   The colored pens remind me that my notebook serves a purpose beyond just listing tasks and reminders.   With that anthropological mindset, the notebook transforms to a Field Notebook.

The Field Notebook.  My field Notebook will  contain descriptions and even drawings of my world as I observe it.  What do I find important?  I capture in my notebook what I find important.  A random observation one day has meaning once I take the time to check my notes and connect the dots.   Meaning is rarely directly evident.  Observe, take notes and review over time. That is the power of the Field Notebook.

There are details and patterns all around me.  Side by side with my work notes (yes, tasks and reminders), will be notes on what I observe, both seen and unseen.  It is my world.  I will learn from it and my Field Notebook is a powerful tool to aid my observation.

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
―    Marilyn Vos Savant

Midnight Archaeology

Posted on by
Reply

Where is my flashlight?  Oh yea, the office lights work; I am good. It is late at night and I am the only person in the office.  This can also be a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning – either way, I am alone in the office.  The work is done and I am thinking about my leadership writing and it hits me.  What can I learn about my environment by walking around and studying the artifacts, structure and symbols embedded in my workplace with no people around?  Hey, I studied Anthropology – it is time for some office archaeology.

I am not trying to be silly here – there is much for a leader to gain by seeing his or her environment through the lens of an Anthropologist.  A leader needs to recognize the importance of culture and the interlinked role of the leader in setting and developing culture.  A core resource for me has been the writing of Edgar Schein and his classic, “Organizational Culture and Leadership”.  This book is included in my resource page and I highly recommend it for all leaders.  Early in this book he provides an important message for leaders, “Try to understand culture, give it its due, and ask yourself how well you can begin to understand the culture in which you are embedded”.

There are many ways to define and work with culture and I will certainly write more on the topic in future posts.  For today Schein provides me with an accessible definition as I perform my “midnight archaeology”.  He defines culture with three levels.  The first level is the realm of the archaeologist – artifacts.  As Schein points out these are the offices, work space, furnishings, visible recognition, the way that its members dress, how each person visibly interacts with each other and with outsiders, and even company slogans, mission statements and other operational creeds.

The second level is the shared values of a group.  The third and deepest level is the tacit assumptions of the group.  For a leader each of these levels, from the directly observable to the deeper values and assumptions, are very important.  Once again I will circle back to these concepts down the road, but do not wait for me – explore these topics yourself.

As I return to my midnight walk through my empty office space I focus on the available artifacts.  How would I describe this workplace to outsiders using the language of an anthropologist? What did I discover as I walk around the empty office space?   Well, I will hold those observations for those I work with each day, but all good.  One observation that I will share with you is my team’s recent work to create a centralized gathering spot.  The layout of the workspace does not naturally allow for this, but folks are working with what they have to create a central gathering spot.

These observations are from my own workplace where I am a participant.  Imagine having the same observer mindset as you visit other locations where you are an outsider.  Look around you.  Look at the details. Look at the whole.  What does it all mean?

A key concept for an anthropologist is holism.  We work to pull together all the artifacts, shared values, and tacit assumptions to see the larger system at hand.  Remember culture is a learned way of being and as such it can be adjusted and changed as you, the leader, see fit.  That is a big responsibility and beyond today’s topic.  For today I want you to take away the following:

  • Understanding culture is important for the leader. An interesting point by Schein is that leaders create and change cultures, while managers live within them.
  • Work to understand your own work culture through observation and discussing with others living within the culture; work to define your work culture.
  • Remember the importance of holism – stepping back to see the larger context; if it helps, see the leader as pulling back to see the whole while the manager drills down to analyze the details ( see my post, Two Sides of the Same Coin).
  • Observation is such an important skill for the leader – both as a participant in your own workplace and when visiting other locations.  I invite you to read my post of Sit Still and Observe for a related discussion.

Let’s end with a little fun.  I remember this cartoon from years ago.  While I am a big fan of what archaeologist do, they need to be careful on how they interpret what they dig up.  How can they possibly look at workplace cubicles as a prison? :)

Sit Still and Observe

Posted on by
3

At the core of my view on leadership is movement and I speak to it in other posts. Today though I ask you to sit still and observe.

In your organization what is happening around you at any given moment? Where is the staff – quiet in their workspace, grouped together in the hallway, or talking with co-workers one on one? As a leader your power to stop and observe the people and activity around you can serve you well to understand and take proper action.

Your ability to treat the familiar as unfamiliar will serve you well.

My thinking here was born from my studies as an Anthropologist. The ability to observe, document and understand group behavior is at the core of what a cultural anthropologist does. Imagine standing in a corner with a good view of your workspace. Stay there for a while and make mental notes of what you observe. You can learn much from this approach. Of course, standing for a period of time may come off as odd, so do the same as you move about the office. Focus on what is going on around you and understand that everything has meaning. With your anthropological approach to observation, you see the parts and work to pull them together to understand the whole. This holistic view from anthropology serves the modern leader to understand and take action.

I recently visited a very large company and ate lunch in its cafateria. For me it was a foreign land and I could have stayed there for hours sitting at a table and just observing the employees around me. You can learn a great deal about the culture from watching these employees in how they dress; how they sit and converse with each other. Try to point out who the big bosses are at the tables (good luck).

The power of observation is not just for group behavior. It serves to help with process improvement too. From my experience it helps to get away from the conference room where we typically discuss process improvement and walk into the workplace and just observe the flow, direction and interplay along the route a business process takes.

As a leader you need to be interested in group behavior and tap into the approach and toolbox used by an anthropologist. The ability to sit and observe the movement around you and effectively interpret and take action as a leader is part of We Move Together.