Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Alone and palely loitering ...

I finished The Wisdom of Crowds. Ironic, non?

It got a bit technical towards the end, with lots of information about spread betting, politics and finance. However there were interesting insights to be found, for example on the empowerment beloved of management. This has to be genuine for it to work: you can gather all the opinions of workers that you like, but if it is management which uses those to make the ultimate decisions, you don't get the benefit of the "wisdom of crowds" (decisions made by diverse crowds have been shown to be the best decisions). Also your workers feel distinctly used and unempowered!

Day 251; Book 239