The Gladwell Approach: One Story Does Not a Theory Make

The Gladwell Approach: One Story Does Not a Theory Make
By Bruce Waltuck, Director, I-Open

Everyone loves a great story, and the story cited by Malcolm Gladwell, of Mr. McLean, is a fine example of persistence and reframing.   

But the problem is in the suggestion (apparently Mr. Gladwell's), that we generalize a theory of disruptor success from this one (or even a book's load) of cherry-picked stories.

Wikipedia-Malcom Purcell McLean (born “Malcolm”; but later in life he changed his given name to its historic traditional Scottish spelling), born in 1913 in Maxton, North Carolina, was an American transport entrepreneur who was central to the widespread adoption of the shipping container which revolutionized transport and international trade in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is hardly a representative sample, and may not be sufficient to really find the true underlying drivers of success.  We have seen this in other well -known (and highly successful) books.  

Examples include, , the international bestselling book written by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and , a management book by James C. Collins.

It is true that deep and valuable insight is embedded in our stories.  But we must resist our own attribution biases in seeking sets of stories.  

Our use of narrative inquiry, whether the Grounded Field methods described by Brené Brown, or the signification analysis of Dave Snowden's SenseMaker software, need broad samples, best interpreted by those within the system itself.  

Mr. Gladwell's approach, however useful each story may be, is rooted in the assumption that his pattern-recognition and sense-making are accurate and sufficient.  He should check with Messrs. Peters and Collins about this.  Put simply, "what worked for McLean, may not work for you."

Here is the link to the accompanying story that triggered my response:

• Malcolm Gladwell on What Really Makes People Disruptive
  

Got a comment? Add it below in the comment section or email Bruce at 

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Bruce Waltuck, President, Freethink, LLC and Director, I-Open

Author, Bruce Waltuck, M.A., Complexity, Chaos, and Creativity
President & Owner, Freethinc. . . For A Change-Services on Organizational Change, Employee and Labor Relations, Collaborative Dialogue, and Story-gathering for Insights and Action. Bruce currently serves as a Director, The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open).
Box 15,  08561
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(C) 2014 Bruce Waltuck, All Rights Reserved. Non-commercial use granted to Betsey Merkel and I-Open, to be distributed under a Creative Commons license with attribution, for non-commercial use

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