James Drogan

In a 2003 presentation (Barriers and Catalysts in Global Transportation) I concluded that, "Culture is the most significant barrier or catalyst to success."  This was a statement following on from conclusions I was drawing late in my IBM career that, “Information systems are technology plus process plus tools plus skills plus culture” (Some Ideas on the Application of Information Technology to the Freight Railway).

The more deeply embedded I was becoming in the process of helping my clients improve the performance of their organizations, the more critical became the consideration of culture as made manifest by human behavior.  Indeed, in the nine years since moving from IBM to another career, my appreciation, if not understanding, of this "X factor" as being a critical factor in progress has only increased.

This then leads me to The X Factor in Economics from this morning's edition of The New York Times.  The following paragraph from the article lays out the dilemma.

“Pride is not in the model. Revenge is not in the model. Fear is not in the model. Even simple things like the disenchantment of people who are fired from their jobs — the model doesn’t account for how devastating that experience can be,” and what that sense of devastation will mean for the economy, he said.

Here, at the core of our quantitative and subjective models, lies this mysterious X factor.  Like mercury slipping through our fingers, human behavior slips through the neurons and synapses of the mind,  seeming to find those interstices where it lodges to the befuddlement of all.  Yes, human behavior can surprise (Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture, also in today's New York Times) in pleasant and evocative ways.  We can acknowledge that and hope that this sort of human behavior can find its way into the resolution of some of the significant issues of the day.

All this leads me to suggest that there is a need for study of the nature of human behavior by those who are affected by human behavior.  I suppose that's virtually all of us.  Perhaps a course in human behavior ought to be required at the graduate level.

I'm immodest enough to think that my students read this blog from time to time.  If so, perhaps they will be kind enough to give some consideration to the importance of human behavior in their careers and ask themselves whether additional insight on this topic may be of value.