Executive Instinct : Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age [Hardcover]

Nigel Nicholson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2000

In this remarkable book, Nigel Nicholson takes a fresh, novel, and penetrating look at human nature and why we do what we do at work.

*  Why we let one piece of bad news drive out 100 pieces of good.
*  Create the "us versus them" problem by immediately classifying people as winners and losers.
* And think we can "tough things out," ignoring clues of disaster staring us in the face.

The explanation of these, and hundreds of other perplexing, frequently unproductive ways that people think and act at work lies in understanding the emotional and behavioral hardwiring that is the legacy of our Stone Age ancestors.

Nigel Nicholson is at the forefront of the exciting -- some would say radical -- new field of evolutionary psychology. While we have to cope with the modern world and the complexities of working in organizations, we do so with brains hardwired for Stone Age realities. Nicholson uses the ideas of evolutionary psychology to challenge many conventional beliefs about human nature with a more realistic picture of what motivates people and shapes their thoughts and actions at work.

We constantly hear that there is no limit to what we can do and who we can be. By force of will and the exercise of our great intelligence we can reengineer organizations and always make rational decisions. Politics, turf wars, rumor, and gossip can be eliminated. Status and sex differences can count for naught.  

It's time to get real and end this kind of utopian daydreaming. Evolutionary psychology shows that we are animals with a highly engineered, genetically encoded design for our bodies and our minds. Nicholson's insights from evolutionary psychology will intrigue and inform those looking to understand our instincts and manage them with skill. Several of the highly practical realizations he provides readers include:

* Why we create problems for ourselves by imagining that the differences between the sexes or their effects can be eliminated.
* How inborn differences in temperament make people either fit or unfit for leadership positions and why organizations get the kind of leaders they deserve.
* Why gossip and rumor are not destructive forces but the lifeblood of communication in the world of work.
* Why there is a limit to the size of organizations as integrated communities, best described as "the rule of 150."

Nigel Nicholson's brilliant and practical Executive Instinct enables you to manage with -- not against -- the grain of human nature.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Evolutionary psychology (EP) is a relatively new discipline that has received more attention in Britain than in the U.S. It has also generated heated debate. Adherents hold that animal--and human--behavior is determined by genetics and that genetic inheritance is a result of natural selection. EP's most controversial tenet is that there are behavioral differences between men and women that cannot be ignored or eliminated. Nicholson is an instructor at the London Business School who believes that an understanding of EP's principles is necessary to improve organizations. He says that only by acknowledging that our brains are "hardwired" for survival can we understand behavior and "manage" our instincts. EP helps explain why we put emotions before reason and confidence before realism. Nicholson lays out the basic concepts of EP, illustrates how these help explain the "dark side" of organizations, and suggests how acknowledging differences between the sexes can help transcend the "male organizational paradigm." He also considers leadership, communication, and organizations as community within the framework of EP. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

In this remarkable book, Nigel Nicholson takes a fresh, novel, and penetrating look at human nature and why we do what we do at work.

*  Why we let one piece of bad news drive out 100 pieces of good.
*  Create the "us versus them" problem by immediately classifying people as winners and losers.
* And think we can "tough things out," ignoring clues of disaster staring us in the face.

The explanation of these, and hundreds of other perplexing, frequently unproductive ways that people think and act at work lies in understanding the emotional and behavioral hardwiring that is the legacy of our Stone Age ancestors.

Nigel Nicholson is at the forefront of the exciting -- some would say radical -- new field of evolutionary psychology. While we have to cope with the modern world and the complexities of working in organizations, we do so with brains hardwired for Stone Age realities. Nicholson uses the ideas of evolutionary psychology to challenge many conventional beliefs about human nature with a more realistic picture of what motivates people and shapes their thoughts and actions at work.

We constantly hear that there is no limit to what we can do and who we can be. By force of will and the exercise of our great intelligence we can reengineer organizations and always make rational decisions. Politics, turf wars, rumor, and gossip can be eliminated. Status and sex differences can count for naught.  

It's time to get real and end this kind of utopian daydreaming. Evolutionary psychology shows that we are animals with a highly engineered, genetically encoded design for our bodies and our minds. Nicholson's insights from evolutionary psychology will intrigue and inform those looking to understand our instincts and manage them with skill. Several of the highly practical realizations he provides readers include:

* Why we create problems for ourselves by imagining that the differences between the sexes or their effects can be eliminated.
* How inborn differences in temperament make people either fit or unfit for leadership positions and why organizations get the kind of leaders they deserve.
* Why gossip and rumor are not destructive forces but the lifeblood of communication in the world of work.
* Why there is a limit to the size of organizations as integrated communities, best described as "the rule of 150."

Nigel Nicholson's brilliant and practical Executive Instinct enables you to manage with -- not against -- the grain of human nature.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812931971
• ISBN-13: 978-0812931976
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,527,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking the plunge back in time, December 4, 2000

By 

P. Christopher Earley (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Executive Instinct : Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age (Hardcover)

There has been much discussion of late concerning the relative importance of heredity and evolutionary forces in the nature of human interaction. Fields including evolutionary biology, psychology, and anthropology have expanded rapidly as researchers have come to show the relative importance of inborn characteristics on behavior. However, few researchers have taken the important and bold steps to move this rather intellectualized discussion into a more practical venue such as the work organization -- until now.

Nicholson's book represents one of the first truly useful attempts at bringing abstract ideas such as evolution into the world of work. Although we have long suspected that our base impulses and motives were tied to ancestral experience, few have been willing to make these connections explicit and potentially open themselves up to the criticisms of social contextualists. It is in this spirit that I believe Nicholson's book has much to tell us about how we behave in the work place. This book clearly breaks from the strong situationalism espoused by current organization theory represented in work by Weick, Daft, Burt, or Donaldson. This is perhaps its greatest contribution in as much as it forces us to re-examine our existing ideas concerning the undercurrent of human action.

An additional point concerning this book is its utility for a managerial audience since it provides numerous useful examples of how our past creeps into the present of our actions. Although a number of these examples will provoke debate and disagreement, they are well constructed and logical with a firm footing in the scholarly literature.

In closing, I would recommend that anyone wishing to understand an alternative new of work behavior put this book on their list of readings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Communities of 150, Stone Age Minds, and Other Tid-Bits, July 25, 2001

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Executive Instinct : Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age (Hardcover)

I liked this book because it flies in the face of conventional wisdom about human relations and organization, and because it provides an alternative perspective on leadership: recognizing that humans have an "animal" nature that is "hard-wired", and that if we accept that rather than trying to "program" individuals, we will be more likely to create a vibrant organization.

The author's "eight point plan" for capitalizing on creative spirit while minimizing irrationality could not be further from the current practices of most government and corporate activities:

1) Watch how you manage errors and mistakes. Zero-tolerance cultures drive out exploration and prevent learning.

2) Train your managers to create a climate of psychological freedom in which curiosity is valued.

3) Give people space to express their emotions and time for reflection.

4) In areas of high information flow and complex decisions, don't trust your instincts. Use decision-making aids and statistics...

5) Make sure that the climate is one in which diverse expertise and opinions get a real open airing.

6) Question your own assumptions and conventional reasoning before making any important decision.

The entire book is valuable, and the above is but a glimpse of some its value. Especially interesting to me was the author's conclusion that the reason most organizational communications programs fail is because they are trying to control behavior rather than create community--like many of the more intelligent writings on military doctrine being more important that military communications, the author makes a compelling case for using communications to create informal shared standards and expectations rather than to micro-manage individual behavior.

The footnotes are especially worthwhile, and serve as a tour of various relevant literatures, all very pleasantly up to date.

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Manager Should Read This!, December 30, 2003

By 

Bill Barbour (Sterling Heights, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Executive Instinct : Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age (Hardcover)

Many managers excel at the minutiae of their technical disciplines but don't understand what motivates or how to manage people. This book would help them do so if they are willing to listen.

Nicholson takes the now-familiar idea of the Stone-Age mind in a modern world and shows its implications for social (group and organizational) behavior. The book resonates with what I have felt and seen in large corporations. It explains well the collision between the corporate desire for economy and messy human nature, the mistakes that many corporate leaders make and why people behave as they do in groups.

A smart manager will use this information to see and act upon the interactions between himself, his people, his colleagues and his bosses differently. This well-written, well-reasoned book is a refreshing change from the vogue of manuals of cold methods for managerial efficiency. I recommend it highly.