Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life

This book should be required reading for all graduate courses in business and the social sciences. It has so much to offer in these divisive times when all around us we see hate. In a kind and yet logical manner, Gillian Tett weaves a fascinating story about human existence being a tale of diversity. To survive and thrive we need to develop anthro-vision that will help us develop empathy and make sense of the world in which we live. What a beautiful lens through which to look at oneself and others.

My friend Al ran a dry goods store in the part of Ohio we now call “The Rust Belt.” People who knew Al thought he was an oracle because he always seemed to know what would happen next. He did, but it wasn’t magic, it was a different way of seeing.Al didn’t base his predictions on sophisticated, quantitative analysis. He checked the parking lots at nearby auto plants. When there were fewer cars there during the day, he knew the company was cutting back preparatory to a big layoff. So, he cut back on his orders.Anthro-Vision by Gillian Tett is about developing a different way of seeing. This is not different, “instead of” it’s different “in addition to.” Anthro-Vision is about using the tools of anthropology to develop insights that help you learn more from quantitative analysis.Why this book is importantThroughout the 20th century, we developed tools that help us examine the world in a logical, quantitative way. They’ve provided great insights, but they’re not enough by themselves to understand the world around us.Qualitative measures can provide context and texture. The problem is that we don’t know how to do them. Management courses are long on quantitative and short on qualitative. Gillian Tett wants us to use the tools of anthropology to provide qualitative insights.The book is divided into three main sections. The first two describe the principles of the Anthro-Vision. The third shares several examples from “the Real World.”Make the Strange FamiliarWe’re comfortable when things are familiar. We’re at ease when the people around us think and act as we do. We shy away from things that seem strange. Increasingly, though we deal with people who have different histories, cultures, and values. We can work better with those people if we understand them. Anthro-Vision is a way to do that.Make the Familiar Strange“Know thyself” was the advice carved in stone at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Centuries later, Robert Burns suggested the way to that knowing.“O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie usTo see oursels as ithers see us!”With Anthro-Vision tools we can turn the lens around and see ourselves as others see us. This also works on an organizational level. When you look at an organization through different eyes, you see things that should be changed more clearly.Listening to Social ScienceAnthro-Vision should add to other analyses, not substitute for them. This section of the book includes examples of specific situations. You’ll pick up insights on the election of Donald Trump, Xerox PARC, working from home, globalization, and Amazon (the company, not the jungle).Anthro-Vision is neither an academic treatise nor a how-to book. It’s about adding a set of tools to your kit so that you can see the world around you more clearly. If you use the tools, you will add powerful qualitative insights to your quantitative ones.This book doesn’t close the learning loop. It’s a broad introduction to using anthropological tools in life and business. To make the most of this book you’ll need to search elsewhere for some how-tos and cobble together your own learning and application program. You may be inspired by the possibilities, but there’s nothing in the book that will help you achieve them.When you finish this book, you have two options. One is to say, “Wow! Great book” and move on to other things. The other is to figure out how to develop an Anthro-Vision mindset. That won’t be straightforward or easy.In a NutshellAnthro-Vision is about a mindset change. You’ll learn how the tools of anthropology can help you become a more effective leader and human being. Alas, you won’t learn much about how to select which tool to use or how to use it. You get a view of the Promised Land, but you don’t get any help figuring out how to cross the river and get there.

There is much of interest in this book, yet on the whole the business case histories are not very exciting, and in a few cases an incorrect stretch. The book did leave me convinced of the value of ethnography, a tool used by anthropologists. Moreover, I can appreciate that studying anthropology, even as applied to “exotic” cultures, provides case histories for the application of ethnography, as well as concepts that have applications in our own culture. For example, use of paper is a “persistent artifact”, used by me even when a smart phone image might be more advantageous. The memoir aspect of the book was particularly interesting. One of several reasons inhabitants of rural Tajikistan were so willing to talk to the author was that they were interested in what other inhabitants had told her. The same motive arose when the author used ethnography in studying bankers. As a highly successful journalist, she points out that it is often more valuable to “focus on the silence, rather than the noise”, e.g. the story of credit derivatives before they led to the financial crisis and seemed an esoteric subject of little general interest, not having the attributes of what journalists consider a good story. Decisions important to the operation of the internet are made by an esoteric organization with the acronym IETF – by humming; yes the attendees hum, or did, in favor of the decisions they approve, and consensus is achieved when the humming is one sided.Of particular current relevance is that bankers found that the trading teams coming to the office did much better than the teams at home: Gillian believes that this is because talking to others, even overhearing phone calls, promoted “lateral vision” and “sense-making”. When the leadership of the Soviet Union in the 1920’s wished to combat Moslem culture in favor of Communism in Tajikistan, they did so by promoting women’s rights. This had success as regards behavior in the public sphere. Compare to China’s mistreatment of the inhabitants of Xinjiang province. I could not appreciate the application of Kahneman’s slow/fast dichotomy to how individuals manage different categories of personal financial assets. Also, when outsourcing application coding, the biggest problem is likely to be that when individuals are working from specs formulated by subject matter experts, particularly those experts who do not know how to code themselves, problems arise unless there is a back and forth which clarifies/improves the specs.

This is a book written by a journalist who is used to 2000 word articles. It thus weaves many threads that are assembled in sometimes erratic ways - from ethnographic work in Tajikistan to ordering trader desks on a Manhattan trading floor, to quite a bit of self-congratulatory comments on how the author predicted events such as the 2008 crisis. A better editor could have helped make this much less meandering. But the message is clear and important- the need to look at “soft” factors in an increasingly turbulent world where especially tech creates unexpected phenomena. If you read the FT daily you will not be surprised by the tone and messages. Regardless, a worthwhile read that encourages you to think more broadly about important phenomena.

Tett has grouped together a number of stories from her time as a journalist with the Financial Times. The subject matter is diverse - ranging from the 2008 financial crash to Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook data to influence political campaigns. The common thread running through each tale is that ethnographers, anthropologists or other social scientists have been able to give consultant advice by looking at a problem from another angle. The success (or otherwise) of this approach is left to the reader to determine, although Tett's PhD in anthropology provides a clue to her bias. The irony is that she is quick to accuse others of being small-minded if they do not agree with her opinions. Readers of Tett's previous works will have heard many of the presented anecdotes about the financial crash and of her predilection for thinking outside one's own silo. Skip to the final chapter for a summary of the book - "anthropology provides a different way of looking at many problems".

I've been fascinated by Gillian Tett anthropological approach she describes in her interviews and bought the book expecting a more detailed insight into her vision. The book offered nothing of sort.The book presents a collection of anecdotes. They might've been a good way to illustrate the concepts the book promises to explain, but there's simply not enough substance beneath them. Many of the cultural and social science approaches from the book have been a part of the mainstream management science for decades, however the book doesn't attempt to build upon it or to arrange the anecdotes into a system.In the end of the book author mentions that it's been motivated by a desire to provide introduction to anthropological methods to a 'layperson'; however, it stops well short of the promised 'wholly new way to understand human behaviour' and won't tell anything new to someone familiar with Gillian Tett interviews and publications and the mainstream management science.

This book was for me the beginning of a new era in the quest for knowledge. It opened such horizons for me that I really could not believe it. Anthropology as a science that can help explain many of the economic and financial issues and more. Ms. Gillian Tett's in-depth analysis of almost every aspect of our socio-economic life, her amazing approach to Covid-19 and her fascinating journey from 1990 to the science of anthropology and beyond, lead me to unreservedly recommend this the book. A book that is fascinating in its evolution and in its knowledge. A book that made us show great interest in Anthro -Vision. I should also mention that the bibliographic references of the book are amazing. I personally thank Ms. Gillian Tett for this book. Yours sincerely

Fool's Gold is arguably the most readable account of the financial crisis and I came to this book with great interest. Full of insight and as you would expect from a top journalist, pacy and fun.

Whatever we do in life, it depends on our culture, the culture of people we work with and making the bridge between them. That is what this book is all about.