I’m a fan of the RSA, not least for the breadth of conversations that take place through this rejuvenated 250 year old institution. Matthew Taylor writes in this blog post about one of this week’s events: Stan Cohen talking on his book States of Denial.

Stan uses his experience in South Africa for what Matthew describes as an:

“exploration of how it is people deny their responsibility for terrible things happening in the society around them. Stan’s analysis is based on a library of sociological and psychological research but also his own experiences as someone who was brought up in apartheid South Africa and lived for many years in Israel.

Stan sees denial as a necessary human capacity to enable us to cope with suffering in the world. The question is less why deny, but what shakes us out of this state: ‘Why people don’t shut out is more interesting than why they shut out’ he says.

Stan described four ways in which we deny responsibility; obedience to superiors, conformity with society, necessity and splitting of the personality.”

Stan is writing predominantly about denial of cruelty on a terrifying scale. But those reasons why we give ourself permission to deny apply at many levels. It is common for team members to deny that change is coming or perhaps that their approaches to work are flawed. So what Stan’s comment remind me of is that leaders need to think about how prone they are to remain obedient to superiors at the wrong time, or conform to the prevailing culture when it’s become a barrier to progress.

When the housing market is sliding, the banking business model is based on a lax understanding of risk, the businesses that are mature enough to spot denial early will be the ones that thrive.

Image courtesy of narek781.