By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
One of my favorite shows on CBC
Radio is “Ideas”. It is a wonderful show
that discusses “ideas” with a variety of truly interesting people (and that
thankfully does not include the Kardashians).
Last week one of the guests was the noted primatologist (amongst other
appropriate labels) Jane Goodall. The
scope of the discussion was wide-ranging and centered on a talk titled “Hope”
that she was giving.
Host Paul Kennedy is a wonderful
interviewer with great insights and a curiosity to look beyond the obvious. The conversation got around to Ms. Goodall’s
lack of a formal education. Perhaps a
rude topic to bring up, but also likely a safe one as I suspect Jane Goodall
has accomplished so much that she has enough self-esteem that she does not need
to be kowtowed to by an obsequious host.
When Paul Kennedy asked what the effect was of Ms. Goodall not having
any formal education when she started studying the chimpanzees her response was
that a lack of a formal education was an “enormous advantage”! She continues to state that she was “very
glad” that she was not at all formally trained.
I thought it was interesting to
contrast that with today’s insistence of only hiring those with the proper
formal credentials. I realize this is
something that I have written about many times before, but the points are worth
repeating. You do not need formal
credentials in order to be able to think.
The second point being that a formal education can be very limiting as
it produces one way of thinking that is often at the expense of other more
novel or more appropriate ways of thinking.
Good insights and instincts – whether they be for studying chimpanzees
or for managing risk - do not necessarily need formal education in order to
exist.
For those who are interested in
hearing the full Jane Goodall interview with Paul Kennedy on Ideas, the link is
here.
