Anchored and blinkered
Attachment to the past stops us seeing our way to the future
“The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of eternal youth, lies not in seeking new lands but in having new eyes” — Marcel Proust 1
Until the 1860’s, people throughout Europe and beyond simply accepted that food went off and wounds became septic.
The prevailing orthodoxy held that these things happened due to spontaneous generation — the idea that living creatures could arise from non-living matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. 2
But where others saw spontaneous generation, Louis Pasteur saw germs.
Pasteur did not originate germ theory but his experimental demonstrations provided the supporting evidence needed to establish it as the new orthodoxy.
His legacy?
Not just his name familiarly enshrined in pasteurised milk but also the early development of treatments for rabies, fowl cholera and anthrax.
Subsequently, the Pasteur Institute discovered treatments for plague, TB and tetanus, as well as isolating the HIV/AIDS virus.
Pasteur succeeded where others failed. 3
Losing three of his five children to typhoid no doubt spurred him on, but more importantly he saw beyond an orthodoxy that went back to the time of Aristotle.
In doing so, his work fundamentally transformed both food production and medicine.
It revolutionised the treatment of infectious diseases and its unprecedented success established germ theory as the new orthodoxy.
However, this stellar success meant that when it came to the search for a cure for scurvy — a debilitating condition affecting sailors on long journeys — the pattern repeated itself, with researchers psychologically anchored to germ theory and therefore perceptually blinkered into looking for the specific germs assumed to be responsible…
Once again, it took new eyes, this time those of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, to see that scurvy was not caused by the presence of germs but the absence of vitamin C.
Like Pasteur, Szent-Gyorgyi was familiar with the prevailing orthodoxy — but also like Pasteur didn’t allow his outlook to be constrained by it.
He could put the orthodoxy to one side and see what others, still anchored to the past, could not yet see.
Szent-Gyorgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1937 and subsequently described the secret of his success:
“Discovery is seeing what others have seen but thinking what no one else has thought”.
Thomas Kuhn’s seminal work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) highlighted this repetitive pattern of science being anchored and blinkered throughout history:
Most scientific work occurs within the boundaries of an established orthodoxy, or paradigm, comprising theories, methods, and assumptions accepted by the prevailing scientific community.
Over time, the current orthodoxy begins to show limitations and anomalies that, over time, lead to a crisis.
Individuals emerge who see what others do not yet see, challenging the current orthodoxy with different perspectives, frameworks, and methods.
This feels threatening to those whose sense of self is heavily invested in the current mainstream orthodoxy. This “old guard” initially ridicule and then oppose the new way of seeing that challenges the status quo, and their status within it.
Eventually the new way of seeing prevails and becomes the new orthodoxy.
Kuhn’s most disruptive contribution was to recognise the central role that social and psychological factors play in scientific change — challenging the previously prevailing perception of science as a purely rational, progressive process.
Only by escaping outdated paradigms, axioms, and ideologies can the new insights, ideas and innovations emerge that have the potential to change the world.
Some examples of current organisational ideologies — often uncritically accepted as self-evident, and therefore largely remaining unexamined as increasingly outdated — include:
Leadership is something done by top management. 4
“Senior executive” is synonymous with “decision maker”. 5
“Decision maker” is synonymous with “leader”. 6
“Culture” is an organisation’s shared values. 7
Mainstream “Big Con” management consulting firms are a safe pair of hands. 8
What gets measured gets done.9
Our people could never do that.10
You can’t change people’s mindsets. 11
Culture change is complex, messy, and invariably fails. 12
If your organisation is anchored to any of the above legacy perspectives, check out the links in the relevant footnotes to help escape the associated blinkers...
“À la recherche du temps perdu” Volume V “La Prisonnière” (1923)
See this previous article: “Leadership, not leaders”.
See this previous article: “Senior executives must give up their decision rights”.
Ibid - “Leadership not leaders”.
See this previous article: “The toxic myth of culture as shared values”.
When creating future-fit cultures of innovation, agility, and adaptiveness, mainstream “Big Con” firms are Hired Help that Hinders — the fifth and most systemically reinforcing of The Five Fatal Habits that have consistently impeded progress for more than 30 years. Find out more and download my 22-page summary of The Five Fatal Habits here.
The more accurate version of this well-worn saying is “What gets measured gets manipulated”.
If you believe that, then it will be true — as explained in this previous article: “The power of expectancy”.
All deep learning involves the cultivation of new mindsets. To accelerate the shift to a future-fit culture of innovation, agility, and adaptiveness Focus on key influencers.
Not if you know how and where to focus, as explained in this previous article: Seeing Culture.