In LO17591, the observation was made that ideas are often judged not only
on their merit but also on the "force of personality" of the person
presenting them. Simon replied that "In theory, ideas alone should be
able to succeed..." He added that "In practice, whether or not ideas
without charisma succeed depends on the media you are communicating the
ideas through."
I'll add another consideration. The notion that ideas should be judged on
their merit presupposes qualified judges. Sadly, the structure of our
social systems do not support this otherwise grand notion. All too often,
those to whom ideas are submitted are not qualified to judge them. Often,
those to whom the ideas are submitted know they are not qualified to judge
them. For this reason, they rely instead on their knowledge of the
quality of the judgment of the presenter -- coupled with their perception
of the presenter's enthusiasm for the idea. In venture capitalist
circles, this shows up as the business case taking a hind seat to the
track record of the entrepreneur seeking funding.
Ideas, then, are rarely judged solely on their merit -- not because they
shouldn't be, but because they can't be. There simply aren't enough
qualified judges to go around. Even if there were, we'd still be faced
with the problem of matching them with the judging situations. That
presents a problem all its own.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
nickols@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
--Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>