Organizational Survival: Profitable Strategies for a Sustainable Future

Chapter 7ARGUMENTS FOR THE RELUCTANT MAJORITY

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

—HERBERT SPENCER, BRITISH SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER (1820–1903)

GREG—“Contempt prior to investigation”—I should have that as a placard above my head to remind me. It is a principle that breeds frustration in any negotiation, a personal characteristic that can stop successful change in its tracks. Contempt for novel ideas arises from a variety of causes: uncertainty, fear of failure, lack of control, and more.

One of my most personal stories about how this affects decision making happened in the mid-1980s. ...