{"id":839,"date":"2011-04-26T07:49:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T11:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/?p=839"},"modified":"2011-04-26T07:49:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T11:49:02","slug":"temple-grandin-and-the-value-of-diverse-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/temple-grandin-and-the-value-of-diverse-views\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple Grandin and the Value of Diverse Views"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the second morning of the ABA Dispute Resolution meeting in Denver, attendees were privileged to hear remarks by Prof. Temple Grandin <\/a>of Colorado State University’s Animal Science Department.\u00a0 The subject of a fabulous\u00a0BBC documentary <\/a>and a recent HBO biopic<\/a>, Dr. Grandin is broadly recognized as an innovator in handling animals and as a highly achieving and articulate sufferer from autism.\u00a0 Her presentation covered both topics, with surprising and inspirational relevance for\u00a0conflict professionals.<\/p>\n

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“If you take out the social skills stuff, then the brain can develop a lot of other, deeper stuff,” she said early in her program.\u00a0 Displaying cranial cross-sections, Dr. Grandin explained the physiology of autism and some of the implications that have led to her extraordinary success.\u00a0 She self-describes as “one of the geeks, the nerds, the artists” who speak not at all as children, are mercilessly bullied when young, and excel as adults in a narrow range of intellectual endeavor — like Albert Einstein.\u00a0 She distinguished the way she thinks\u00a0(in pictures) from the way others think (in words) and yet others think (in patterns).\u00a0 Her way of approaching problems involves sensory awareness and a proclivity to recall and connect specific past pictures, drawing conclusions and deriving narrative from a storehouse of visual rather than verbal\u00a0experiences.<\/p>\n

This strength found its expression working with animals on a farm when Grandin was a young teenager.\u00a0 “Animals are sensory creatures,” explained Grandin, and language skills can often cover up other perceptual powers.\u00a0 (The BBC documentary is titled, “The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow.”)\u00a0 Why are the cattle reluctant to enter the barn?\u00a0 Grandin sees that there is a flagpole\u00a0behind the barn entrance sporting a red and white piece of cloth\u00a0smacking madly in the wind.\u00a0 What animal would want to go there?\u00a0 And what human could fail to see the connection?\u00a0 One that thought like a human (compartmentalizing cows differently from flags) rather than as a cow (no bright, fast-moving objects thank-you-very-much.)<\/p>\n

Why did the cattle hesitate halfway through the chute?\u00a0 Let’s find out, says Grandin, getting in the chute herself.\u00a0 “You have to see what the animal sees,” she explained.\u00a0 “If you are a visual thinker you have to experience the problem visually, not by talking about it.”\u00a0 Dr. Grandin has consulted for meat companies and other process designers around the world, and most of her work\u00a0consists of\u00a0correcting design mistakes made by verbal thinkers who “can’t see.”\u00a0 Grandin encouraged the use of a “squeeze” mechanism at the end of a cattle run because she got in one and felt the calming experience it induces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Referring to the current nuclear crisis in Japan, she related the experience of viewing that site well before the catastrophe and thinking, “That is a generator building sited next to a sea wall.\u00a0 What if that sea wall is breached, or is compromised?\u00a0 What if water enters the generator building, located right next to the wall?\u00a0 What if the generator is located low in the building?”\u00a0 She inquires visually.<\/p>\n

Here is where some interesting resonances occured with the work of conflict professionals.\u00a0 Animals hesitate at light, at glare, at shadows, at mirrors.\u00a0 Knowing that, what care has been taken to eliminate those things?\u00a0 Animals want to sense they are going back to the barn.\u00a0 Why have a straight chute to the slaughter truck when it could be curved?\u00a0 It’s not that these people are stupid — it’s that they can’t see through the eyes of the animals they are charged with managing, so of course their systems\u00a0will fail.<\/p>\n

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In education and in the collaborative professional world, Grandin is a crusader for inclusion of people with different strengths.\u00a0 She is frequently a member of design teams dominated by verbal thinkers — people who start with a concept and search for data that conforms.\u00a0 She’s there as a visual thinker — someone who starts with data and teases out a design concept that derives from, or is compelled by,\u00a0the data.\u00a0 She is adamant that\u00a0successful projects need both “top-down” and “bottom-up” thinkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schools, too, need to reassess the consequences of emphasizing test-capable verbal-oriented skills to the detriment of hands-on skills that involve handling, measuring, cutting, gluing and drawing.\u00a0 It’s perhaps more prominent in autism, but every person needs to be supported in the strength that she has, not just the skills that the verbal thinkers say\u00a0are socially\u00a0valuable.<\/p>\n

After the presentation I asked Dr. Grandin for some guidance.\u00a0 I earn my living sitting in rooms with people who see a problem differently.\u00a0 The trouble is, I rely on their verbal narrative to give me the information I need to understand the problem.\u00a0 Two verbal people help my process a lot; a visual or pattern thinker comes across as incoherent, and there is a risk I might dismiss or marginalize her narrative.\u00a0 Said Grandin, “If you are not understanding what someone is saying to you, or why they are saying it, ask questions.\u00a0 I sit in meetings with verbal people all the time.\u00a0 They’re not as stupid as the seem.\u00a0 Just probe with questions and pretty soon you will understand what they’re trying to say.”<\/p>\n

Being willing to go where the cattle are; hoping to see what the cattle see; shedding\u00a0conceptual and categorical\u00a0assumptions in favor of what is actually in front of you; asking questions when you don’t follow someone’s narrative… Conflict resolution, anyone?<\/p>\n

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Dr. Temple Grandin offers interesting observations on the opportunities of autistic perception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,26],"tags":[33,23],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-systems-design","category-teaching","tag-public-policy","tag-systems-design"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}