On the perils of quick thinking and the benefits of slow thinking, as described in Guy Claxton’s book ““Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind,’’ a Cleese favorite:
In corporate and business life today, hurrying has become a sort of mind-set. We do it automatically. Doing everything faster is not necessarily the answer, nor, paradoxically, is it very efficient . . . Imagine a situation where two people are contemplating a marketing problem. One likes to sense how the marketing campaign might work, feel what’s going on based on years of experience with the firm’s customers and previous campaigns. It may be a long time before the Tortoise Mind comes up with a hunch that the marketing campaign will work or won’t–and it will be even longer before the person can articulate the feelings underlying the hunch. On the other side of the table is an articulate young person thinking about the same marketing campaign in Hare Brain mode. This person may have joined the company last week. May know nothing of the company’s customs or previous campaigns. Yet this person, having read three whole books on marketing, and having verbal facility, may sound much more persuasive. This kind of executive can fall into a category of manager known as the Articulate Incompetent.
They’re very good at manipulating words and phrases and ideas. The danger is that they’ll sound better than someone who does know what’s going on.
On what to do when your creative thinking seems to lead nowhere:
You start thinking, I’m uncomfortable. I’m anxious. I can’t do this. I should never have started to try. I’m not creative. I was never creative in school. I’m a complete failure. I’m going to be fired, and that means my spouse will leave me and–in other words, you start enjoying a real, good, old-fashioned panic attack.
Just sit and wait and try to get interested in the problem for its own sake. After all, if time does run out and you still haven’t come up with anything very innovative, you can always switch into Hare Brain again and see what tried-and-tested old solutions you can lash together into some kind of a decision. But you’ll be surprised, I promise you, at how seldom nothing comes up . . . The more you sit there, the more fresh and unusual ideas will pop into your head.
On how best to stamp out creativity in an organization:
One, always behave as though there’s a war on. Two, strangle curiosity at birth–it may spread. Three, open all meetings by reciting the magic mantra, ““The problem has not yet been born that cannot be cracked with more data and newer technology.’’ Four, defend your preconceptions with your life! Five, if you spot a colleague engaging in unfamiliar activity such as wondering out loud or gazing thoughtfully into space, poke them with a sharp stick and accuse them of wasting time. Finally, six, make the questioning of deadlines a capital offense. If you’re in a state which does not allow capital punishment, relocate to Texas.
On what U.S. companies may find as they merge with Europeans:
We are one continent, but we’re all completely different people. Basically the Northerners are pretty straight and the Southerners are crooked. I’m not sure the Germans will be happy to work as hard as the Americans expect them to. The English used to be quite honorable and decent, and they’ve been utterly corrupted, largely by Rupert Murdoch, and they’re now a depraved bunch of scoundrels. People are out to screw each other just as though it was America.
On what Swedes at Volvo might expect from their new American bosses at Ford:
What will happen is that people there who are used to a very sensible, intelligent and well-run socialist society are going to be invaded by these very market-oriented, basically piratical Ford people [from the United States].
On the adoption by European companies of the U.S. emphasis on the bottom line:
When the Puritans first came to this country, they realized there wasn’t a great deal they were able to do. They weren’t allowed to drink, they weren’t allowed to sing or dance. So they thought, there is one thing we’re allowed to do, and it’s going to have to be our fun. And that is making money. They slowly infiltrated this into every corner of American life. So I blame them. The trouble is, you have started to corrupt us.
On the spread from the United States to Europe of dressing casually for work:
It’s almost an improvement in England. We’ve always dressed so badly that to become slovenly has smartened things up. The only place I’ve been where people dress worse is New Zealand, and they’re still basically in skins.
