Human Ventures

Filed under: culture

Is Haiti's Problem Its Culture?... Response to David Brooks NYTimes Article

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the 20th century theologian, popularized the term "God of the Gaps" to refer to the belief in a god that takes over where science stops. It's an unsustainable faith, he argued, because the role of "god" in the world keeps getting smaller as science progresses.

When it comes to economic development, the concept of culture seems to be our "God of the Gaps" equivalent.  What economists can't explain, we blame on "culture."

David Brooks falls into this trap in a recent NY Times piece on the tragedy in Haiti. He says:

"As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book 'The Central Liberal Truth,' Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.

We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them."

Don't get me wrong...I would be the first to say that cultural influences, social norms, levels of trust, etc. play a vital role in economic development. However, there is nothing scientific about Brooks' argument here. It is a God of the Gaps explanation. Even worse, he dumps all of these potential impacting factors into a bucket that he amorphously calls "culture," when culture itself is a concept that does not benefit from a clear shared definition but does carry connotations of inheritance and immutability. That's why comments like these sound ethnocentric at best and racist or xenophobic at worst.

Certainly, let's get scientific in how we understand the impact of cultural factors on development. But let's stop making culture the substitute for that which cannot otherwise be explained.

The Lost Art of Apology - NYTimes

Apologizing has been complicated over the years by the threat of liability. This has led to apologies that have been carefully parsed to remove any real regret or accountability. “So many apologies are constructed by legal or P.R. people” as a defensive mechanism, not as a sincere expression of remorse, Ms. Weeks said.

This can be true for politicians, doctors and business executives, but also for you or me if we’re, say, involved in a traffic accident. Should we say we’re sorry? Is that admitting fault?

In fact, it was a traffic accident in the 1970s that led politicians to try to resolve some of these problems. According to Jonathan R. Cohen, a law professor at the University of Florida, a Massachusetts state senator’s daughter was killed while riding her bicycle, and the driver who hit her never apologized.

The father couldn’t believe that the driver had never expressed contrition, Professor Cohen said, and was told that the driver had dared not risk even saying “I’m sorry,” because it could have been seen as an admission in the litigation surrounding the girl’s death.

When the state senator retired, he worked with his successor to introduce and win passage of legislation that allowed a “safe harbor” for people to offer “benevolent gestures expressing sympathy or a general sense of benevolence,” said Professor Cohen, who has written extensively on the intersection of law and apologies

Now, a majority of states have enacted “I’m sorry” laws — some that address just medical malpractice, while others apply to all civil cases.

via nytimes.com

The acceptance of personal responsibility sometimes seems to be an artifact of the US political past. So Obama's acknowledgements in the State of the Union address of mistakes he and his administration have made were very welcome and refreshing.

But it's not just our politicians who have gone wrong, as the NYTimes article indicates. It's very sad that our society has come so far in its inclination toward litigation and finger-pointing that we struggle to offer sincere apologies for anything but the most mundane wrongs.

Does Your Organization Kill Innovation?

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There are lots of ways to try to answer this question, but here is a great smell test. Look around you and consider to what extent people feel comfortable taking initiative and making decisions in your organization.  Think about yourself, as well. If it's more common, more acceptable, and/or safer to not make decisions and rather do what you're told, you're in an innovation-killing organization.  Get out. Fast.
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