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Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Understanding modern business life, with the help of anthropology

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Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett argues that anthropology can help us better understand modern business in Anthro-Vision. Having earned her PhD in Anthropology from Cambridge University studying wedding rituals in Soviet-era Tajikistan in 1990, Tett is well qualified to look at the meaning behind behaviors in the work space through an anthropological lens. She observes financiers gathered at a European Securitization Forum and notices that they use rituals (exchanging business cards and jokes and playing golf) to “reinforce their social ties and worldview” and to bond much like people did in Tajikistan through elaborate wedding ceremonies. She reveals insights, undetectable through surveys and computer generated metrics that could help professionals gain some “lateral vision” to see “what is hidden in plain sight” and help them stop making avoidable mistakes.

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