This is the first part of a two-part review of Matthew Syed’s book Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking. (Part 2) It was first published in 2019 as a hardback and is now available in paperback.
Strictly speaking it is not a business book, but in my view it is a book that everyone in business should read. It addresses some of the biggest issues today’s leaders face— in organisations of all types and in all sectors — issues they are failing to deal with.
Let us get straight to the core problem Syed addresses. The problems we face as organisations and societies are increasingly complex. Solving them is beyond the capabilities of any individual. Collective wisdom is needed. But collective wisdom comes from diverse thinking, without that we are collectively blind.
This problem has long been recognised by some. Syed quotes the nineteenth century English philosopher John Stuart Mill. “It is hardly possible to overrate the value, in the present low state of human improvement , of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar……Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.”
Elsewhere he quotes Aristotle and Plato. Both recognised the dangers of surrounding ourselves with people who think the same way, who make us feel smarter and validate our world view. Aristotle recognised people love those who are like themselves. And Plato saw that similarity begets friendship. Syed notes the phrase “birds of a feather flock together” comes from Plato’s The Republic. And he records “the danger of intellectual conformity is an abiding preoccupation of Greek culture”.
