In the mid 1960s, a very extreme/unique thing happened in primatological ethnography.
Jane Goodall radicalized the accepted views on objective anthropology, and began to study subjects, not by the accepted use of numbers and far-off observation, but by methods unthinkable… she walked into her subjects environment… then she lived among them [you can add your own gasp and ominous music here]!
Ethnography is the study of individual populations or groups, using a multitude of differential disciplines to get an immersive, more “holistic” [full] understanding of the subject at hand. Quite simply, ethnographic-minded scientists get their hands dirty and often. They try to make sure they are collecting as much data as possible, and experience the “true” environment of the research population. This allows a scientist to be able to better understand how the subject operates, not just in a lab, but in real time, and real life…
LIVE HARDCORE
Regardless of whether you are a leader in the industrial, consumer, or non-profit market, the decision to “lean” ethnographically is essential to the success and future of your organization!
More than likely, you have experienced the frustration of dealing with people that wanted to give you recommendations on how to get things done – without getting to know you, the background, or the situation. It could’ve been a manager, a religious leader, or even a stranger on the street.
Probably, your most natural thought as they gave their advice was, “you don’t know me, you don’t spend time with me, and you don’t know what I do, so, how can you truly give me advice, or suggestions, or even understand what I’m going through?” Now, Jane Goodall, did not say to herself, “Gosh, if I am truly going to know, feel, and understand these chimpanzees, I have to surgically alter myself and become a chimpanzee.”
That would not haven been scientific awareness, that would’ve been insanity.
No, what Jane did understand was this: “to make sure I truly understand what is going on, I have to put myself in the environment, the natural environment, my subjects regularly move in and out of throughout their daily lives.”
So lets ask a couple questions here: as a leader, what type of relationship do you have with your employees? How about your customers? Distributors? Quality control inspectors, etc? Do you really know what they are going thru, and how they are interacting and reacting within their normal environment?
if you aren’t willing to enter another’s environment, you will never truly know what the people and systems you are expected to lead, sell to, and interact with, are actually going through.
Without this understanding, productivity, customer loyalty, cost of doing business, and the ability to respond to market conditions can all suffer greatly. Storms may be brewing in your organization, and and if you are unaware of what is actually going on in the lives of the people around you… those storms may come like a thief in the night… stealing and destroying everything you have worked so hard to build.
SO HERE IS THE POINT…
There was nothing inherently special about Jane Goodall, or the choices she made. She simply made decisions that were different than the accepted practices of the day. She decided to rethink how best she could learn and develop a greater and more accurate understanding of her subject. Because of that ability and decision to move herself forward, the world has benefited greatly.
Ironically, one of the things that Jane Goodall was most heavily criticized about, was the fact that she used names for the chimpanzees, instead of a standard eight-digit alpha-numerical nomenclature. Her critics stated that this got her “too close” to the subjects, and really would not let her experience any type of true understanding or observation … really?
Treated as a number instead of a name? Hmmm… sound familiar?
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