Published on Oct
03, 2014, MYPAPER, OPINION.
Losing common sense in the information age
DAVID MASON
IS COMMON sense
that common any more?
Common sense is
a term that is bandied around in all walks of life. In business, it implies
sound and prudent judgment and, indeed, this is the usual dictionary
definition.
The term is
ancient and the original definition is bound with the five senses: we see,
touch, feel, hear and taste things and form an opinion on them accordingly.
In short, we
experience something and learn from it. The commonality comes from other people
experiencing the same thing and sharing their interpretation.
Sharing
information is just communication - as humans, we do this in three ways. The
most basic is body language and we all have an innate perception of what
others' displays mean. It can be confused by culture - raising your middle
finger means different things in different cultures. Body language also
includes general conduct, such as timekeeping, dress and cleanliness.
Advanced forms
of communication are speaking and listening, and writing and reading.
Verbal communication
used to require physical proximity, but is now often remote via phone or
screen.
Written
communication is almost always remote, so we cannot see the writer and,
therefore, cannot make a judgment on them with our five senses.
We do make
judgments, of course, but they are based on pictures we put in our heads and
tones that we apply to the language we are reading.
Writing started
on paper (or parchment or stone, if you want to be pedantic), but is now most
frequently accessed on screen.
It is dominated
by the Internet and includes things like e-mail, messaging systems (such as SMS
and Twitter) and, for business, databases of what the leaders think is relevant
to their employees.
The written word
allows us to learn about every idea had by anyone under the sun. I cannot
remember who said it, but a good definition of our age is that there are no new
ideas to be had, only the application of existing ones.
Fine. This all
sounds good - we can access information on any subject, anywhere, and apply it
to our own lives and to situations at work. But, hang on, does the information
we receive lead to the application of common sense?
To have common
sense means you have to have experienced the current situation or something
similar to it, not just read about it, or been told about it.
If you don't
have the personal experience, you are applying someone else's experience, which
may not be relevant.
If you do not
see the person who is telling you something, you cannot make a personal
judgment on the quality of the information. You just take it "as
gospel".
So what?
Modern systems
of communication give us access to information that we would never have thought
possible even 20 years ago. They stuff us with knowledge.
But do we learn
from them and do they give us experience? Are we better at our jobs for it? Are
we better people?
My rather
pessimistic conclusion is "no". We are losing the art of talking to
each other, debating with each other and forming personal conclusions.
SMS and e-mail
mean we don't see each other as much as we should. We don't look into each
other's eyes, we don't evaluate honesty - we take things for granted far too
much.
Methodologies
and templates are replacing original thought and expression. Granted, they mean
that we should not forget to do something, but what use is that if we didn't
understand the importance of it in the first place?
My first job as
an "in charge" auditor was a simple manufacturing audit in North
London. I forgot to request a stocktake at the year end. If you are not an
auditor, this is a pretty basic error. Having to conduct one in arrears and
reconcile back to the right date taught me everything I know about stock.
I had a business
partner who banged on and on every year about the importance of the bank
reconciliation in an audit. The staff used to hate it, but we encouraged it
because if you want to steal money from a company, it has to show up in the
bank reconciliation sooner or later. All the major Singapore frauds were caught
that way.
The availability
of information, no matter how good, is no substitute for finding out for
yourself. Databases on an auditor's laptop are wonderful aids, but only when
they are adapted to actual conditions, because they are designed to be generic,
not specific.
Adaptation
requires experience. Experience means personal experience. Personal experience
means using the five senses and, for human communication, this is mainly seeing
and hearing.
Modern
communications cut us off from these natural tools. We are losing common sense.
THE BUSINESS TIMES
The writer, a business communications consultant in
Britain, was a Price Waterhouse Singapore partner for 18 years in the 1980s and
1990s.
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