EXPERTS
This page centres on a talk given by the Professor and Economist Noreena Hertz.
At the present time the world has become dominated by the thoughts and attitudes of experts. We as a people have become addicted to them and take what they say almost without question. We feel reassured by them, we are certain that they make the correct decisions. But:
Experts do get things wrong: doctors 40% of the time
mis-diagnose
financial experts get it soooooooooooo wrong!
There are continually stories of surgeons operating on the wrong areas of the body
So you might think the reason for writing this page is just to highlight that
experts more than sometimes get it wrong. There's another reason though:
research with MRI equipment has shown that when listening to an expert the
decision making part of our brain switches off - we are biologically abdicating
to the expert! This has to be disastrous!
So we have to redress the balance and we can do this by:
1. Taking experts on! persist even when they get annoyed. Try and encourage them to explain in everyday language what they are meaning. Dig behind their graphs and terminology. Ask the questions like these:
What are the assumptions that underpin this?
What is the evidence upon which your theories are based?
What has your investigation focussed on and what has it ignored?
2. Make space for, "Managed dissent."
It is very important that differing views are discussed. Destructing ideas can
bring knowledge. Having a discord of ideas can do the same. Do not
surround yourself with people who always agree with you. The CEO of Google, Eric
Smicht actively looks for people in his meetings who exhibit negative body
language and draws them in to the discussion.
3. Democratise Expertise
"Best Buy" an electronics company actively gets EVERYONE in the company to
become involved with decision making: cleaners and all. They get everyone to
place bets on company decisions. One example was the senior management
intended to open a new store in China. The Finance Department, "To a man" betted
against them. It was proved to be right - the company had overlooked a
technological aspect.
So to conclude, we shouldn't ignore the opinions of experts.
However its not wise to treat what they say as the, "Gospel truth" for the
reasons outlined above.
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