Dear company owner: In which direction do you want your Dunning-Kruger loop to run?

(Version 1.0, released 20240426)

This article should be seen as part 3 in a trilogy starting with this contribution and this contribution. Especially the former is heavily drawn upon.

Here you will find a version on my own website which enables navigation within the article itself.

Contents

1. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is rarely considered a king
2. The Dunning-Kruger effect
3. Three Dunning-Kruger directions: forward, neutral and backward
4. Dunning-Kruger neutral
5. Dunning-Kruger forward
6. Dunning-Kruger backward
7. All Alfa-Laval stakeholders should ask themselves these questions

1. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is rarely considered a king

I claim that I have a knack for pattern recognition, but that seems to be no blessing in disguise. As a matter of fact, it seems to be no blessing at all. Even though I in October 2015 authored what may be the optimum rule set for a company with Scripture, it was not greeted with cheer. It was explicitly dismissed and has probably been so until now.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is generally considered insane as he constantly talks about things other people cannot see. DPNC systems, for instance.

2. The Dunning-Kruger effect

is a well-known psychological concept for instance described here. If you want to piss people off, you could describe it as identifying certain people as ”so stupid that they do not know that they are”. Find a humorous take here which introduces the notion that such a person is somehow locked inside her- or himself.

I have made up those terms:

• A Dunning-Kruger carrier is a person of inflated self-esteem. I have chosen the term ”carrier” to indicate that the person is basically a poor organizational performer irrespective of the possibly high organizational charge bestowed on her or him.
• A Dunning-Kruger victim is a person supposed to be close to a carrier but whose performance (and frequently general quality of life) is inhibited by this – possibly job-related – closeness.

You may be a carrier in some aspects of life only. For instance, you may have been brought up to believe whole-heartedly in das Führerprinzip (a no-questions-asked command hierarchy) without having ever had the beautiful and deeply satisfying experience of working with others towards a common goal on terms that are equal with respect to dignity.

If you each day leave your workplace with a feeling that your manager is a shithole, you may be a Dunning-Kruger victim. On the other hand, you may definitely be a carrier and a genuine troublemaker. I have met carriers and victims both as managers and subordinates, even though a manager victim is probably a rare thing (if you feel like that, issue some commands and you should be just fine).

3. Three Dunning-Kruger directions: forward, neutral and backward

Just yesterday, I was from the podium of the Alfa Laval General Meeting met with the notion that this way of thinking is not for ordinary people. I beg to disagree, especially as you may become so absorbed in a Scripture-based team that you interact with it intuitively without thinking at all (several Alfa Laval departments worked like this, also departments with a lot of different job functions). Please continue reading as you may realize that top-level managers are exactly the ones who should take an interest in such matters. Anyway, I will continue my home-spun terminology with three additional terms describing three different ways of organizing a company.

4. Dunning-Kruger neutral

This is the default and unproblematically associated with a command hierarchy – that is, the condition which most people know and feel comfortable with. My professional career ended up consisting of two Dunning-Kruger-neutral employers while the last – Alfa Laval of Sweden – was a Dunning-Kruger-forward employer.

My experience with my first two employers was that the ”intellectual vapor pressure” was pretty high, largely due to a sense of pride naturally installed in every employee. I fondly remember my collaboration with the HR manager of company number two. Without ever talking explicitly about it, we had a tacit agreement that the one with the best argument always won. As I recall it, the final score was in my favor, but the whole experience was great fun and deeply rewarding. When Alfa Laval on February 23, 2017, sent me on garden leave, I spent the afternoon crying, partly in shock and partly missing that guy (who had prematurely died).

Scripture was never an important subject in these workplaces, which happened to be entirely Danish.

5. Dunning-Kruger forward

This is (probably) still the condition of my last employer, Alfa Laval of Sweden. Keeping this article of mine in mind, Alfa Laval emphasizes Scripture but has (to my knowledge) not installed any DPNC system yet.

This simply means that in particular the best performers with the best business understanding may have the guts to Speak Up and for that reason end up having their heads chopped off in one way or another. At the same time, managers who are Dunning-Kruger carriers are upconcentrated to a higher share than would be the case for a Dunning-Kruger-neutral company.

One of the upconcentration mechanisms that I recall was managers from ordinary, scriptureless companies who invited each other in. At least one of those had had a career of many short employments before ending up with a final resting place at Alfa Laval (he is still there on his 10th year).

If I were a top-level company manager, I would rush away from this condition as soon as at all possible. I am, however, not a top-level manager, but I feverishly dream of some day becoming the advisor of one.

6. Dunning-Kruger backward

This is – surprise! – the condition which I expect a company with Scripture and a DPNC system to end up with. I have some small-scale experience with managing a truly Scripture-based organization. The business principle was ”Reward diligence” (inspired by Alfa Laval, I made it up myself). As expected, diligence was the outcome of my leadership (and has outlasted my tenure with more than 11 years). Keine Hexerei, nur Beh?ndigkeit. One of the tricks is that if your gut feeling pulls you in one direction and Scripture pulls you in the opposite direction, you must walk the talk and go for Scripture.

The flip side is of course that repeated DPNC instances may chop off the heads of managers who are also Dunning-Kruger carriers. This (is not an error, but a feature and) may be alleviated by the beautiful Alfa Laval tradition of corporate social responsibility as well as, I guess, some education. Education is always a good thing.

Let me in this respect admit: I am a bloody Darwinist and proudly so on behalf of Alfa Laval’s shareholders (who may also be employees and Dunning-Kruger victims in that context). Both parties cannot win at the same time – if they could, they wouldn’t have battled and would instead have collaborated towards a common target as defined by Scripture.

7. All Alfa-Laval stakeholders should ask themselves these questions

1. Does any of this ring a bell? Does it, for instance, ring a bell with the countless HR managers whom I remember to consistently sigh deeply and babble about ”supertankers which are hard to turn” (my nemesis did, too)?
2. Could I myself possibly be a manager who is also a Dunning-Kruger carrier? If so, I would try to anticipate the coming of new times (see above).
3. If a low-level employee dreaming of filing one or more DPNC tickets, do I then have the ability and grit to pull it through? Otherwise, keep off the grass.

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I guess that’s more than enough for now. Stay tuned and mentally healthy...