Merging My Worlds

I received my doctorate degree in organization development after a long career of working in various businesses, mostly in the creative industries. Over this time I have become attuned to noticing the misperceptions academics have of working people and conversely, I’ve realized the misperceptions working people have about academics. I now see that each of these groups represents a different “system” and these systems have different purposes, different ways of communicating with each other, and different ways of organizing.

Something else I’ve noticed is that these two “systems,” for lack of a better term, are skeptical of one another. Academics tend to view the working world in terms of how things “should” be, and people working in organizations will often dismiss the work of academics as being, well, academic, which could be code for irrelevant.

I have also found that there can be a lack of respect between these systems, which I experienced while writing my doctoral dissertation. Concepts like mindsets and integrated thinking that originated from outside the academic literature were dismissed as being from “pop literature.” And my interest in stakeholder theory, the foundational thinking for stakeholder capitalism, was criticized for being “an ethical focused offshoot of most theory of the firm research.” These comments were intended to undermine my academic work and weaken the legitimacy of my scholarship.

Another difference between these two systems is the concept of time. Academics tend to study phenomena over relatively long time periods and pay close attention to isolated variables and relationships. This is because extended observation and testing of hypotheses is an important aspect of social science theory building. By contrast, the day-to-day decision making in organizations tends to be more short-term and reactive, responding to external events, and driven by financial performance.

It takes a significant effort to navigate between these systems, and not surprisingly, these differences make it difficult for the two systems to learn from each other. Yet the Grand Challenges we face as a society are complex problems that require the best thinking from both of these systems. Efforts are needed on the part of both for finding better ways of working together.

Few people are as lucky as I am, to have the privilege, in the best sense of the word, of being in a position where I can access ideas from both of these systems and propose new ways for problem-solving that synthesize the best what each has to offer.

Aristotle had a word for this, he called it Phronesis – the creative integration of knowledge based on theory, practice and experience. Musicians have a name for it too. It’s jazz. Whatever you call it, it is about a creative and active use of different types of reasoning and a merging of the worlds of scholarship and practical experience.

Now it’s up to me to make the most of it.