The Curse of Knowledge

I'm sorry, but more NYT fodder for you. This time, it's my favorite section of the times these days, the Sunday business section. I actually just finished reading Janet Rae-Dupree's piece titled "Innovative Minds Don't Think Alike" (awful headline, btw), which introduced me to the title phrase of this post. Basic idea is pretty straightforward: the more you know about a given field or practice, the less creative you tend to become. Knowledge is the box you build that you then have to think your way out of... Like so many business/management concepts, when you summarize it it seems painfully obvious. Rendered as aphorism: to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But it's an idea that has special application in arts & culture non-profits, where so many people running organizations come out of the arts or academia and know vast amounts about their mission and the art they help create, but downplay their roles as business managers. Fundraising is another area heavily encrusted with "givens" and received wisdom that could benefit from "zero gravity thinking." [future note -- is this opposed to "best practice" thinking?]

And as long as you're looking at the business section, look over the top story about the Indiana non-profit that found itself losing money in investments that (they discovered) were tied to the sub-prime mortgage disaster. And one last thing -- William J. Holstein's book section talks about a new management book (The Future of Management by Gary Hamel, Harvard Business School Press) that emphasizes the use of teams with much autonomy and latitude to create, but who are also rewarded based on performance. This is contrasted with top-down, hierarchical management associated with business school MBA's. Or so he says.