6 highlights from our Lazy Book Club on 'Watching the English'
For this article, we’re summarising our Lazy Book Club discussion around Kate Fox’s excellent book Watching the English.
Is this a book about strategy? No.
Does it teach us a bunch of stuff we can apply to strategy? YES.
Anyway, here are 6 things that got us all talking.
1. The relationship between physical spaces and emotions
Physical spaces influence our sense of vulnerability, and physical barriers can lead to more emotional openness. This is why, for example, when English GPs want their patients to be honest about a problem, they find an excuse to stand behind them (e.g. to check their breathing) instead of facing them head on. Because apparently, according to the author Kate Fox, the English have a problem with expressing feelings.
2. How to make use of body language
This seems to go against the conventional wisdom of mirroring someone else’s body language to get the most out of a conversation. However, one of our members wisely offered a resolution: that while reducing physical visibility can help open conversation around a hard topic, open body language is a powerful way to sustain that conversation over time. Nice.
3. Our home says lots about our identity
Our personal spaces, which include our homes, are often used to reflect our own identities. Sometimes they mirror the outer self (e.g. how we choose to decorate a room), sometimes they are a way to release your inner self (e.g. a need to keep everything organised at all times). This also translates to pets, whose flaws, according to the author Kate Fox, are something the English often quite proud of. How about that.
4. What anthropology and strategy have in common
There are a lot of commonalities between anthropology (Kate Fox’s actual job) and strategy or consultancy, in that they both thrive on us being some sort of ‘professional alien’. Someone who can come from the outside and explain the rituals of a culture back to that same culture. Because often, if you’re part of a culture, you can barely explain those rituals yourself, as you’re in too deep to be objective. This also solidifies the need for less homogeneity among work groups, which is something we’ll never get tired of raving about wherever we possibly can. In simpler terms: embrace the outsiders, they are good for business.
5. How to use lateral thinking in research
Anthropology also gives us prime examples of lateral thinking around research. The most notorious one in the book comes from finding ways to test a social rule by… breaking it! So if you want to know if the English really do apologise for everything, don’t ask them… bump into them and see if they apologise to you! This is what the author did, multiple times, to test her hypotheses. Apparently it works. Though it must have been so awkward for everyone involved. We still shiver just thinking about it.
6. Some. More. Damn. Awesome. Books.
One of the benefits of Skype is that, while we were going through the book, people could just add questions on the chat and share resources that were relevant for the conversation. Here are a few that you might want to peruse on your own time: Phil Barden’s Decoded, Gillian Tett’s Silo Effect, Pierre Bordieu’s theories on social and cultural capital (those uni days are all coming back now), Christopher Vos’s and Tahl Raz’s Never Split the Difference and the general acknowledgement that wonky animal sub-reddits are the best thing this universe has to offer.
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