S4 Ep1: How to look at the everyday: Christian Madsbjerg

Why is having the ability to look in our everyday lives important when trying understanding how we behave and make sense of the world around us?

In this first episode of series 4 I am going to explore how Looking and observing provides us with rich cultural narratives that interweave into each other to produce tapestries of human behaviour. 

To unpack the benefit and power of looking I discuss with my guest Christian Madsbjerg his new book ‘Look’ – How to Pay attention in a distracted world.

For the past 15 year Christian has lived in New York. He is an author, entrepreneur and academic who works on the practical and commercial application of the Human Sciences. He is the co-founder of the global consulting firm Red Associates where he advised executive teams in some of the largest companies in the World on strategy questions based on empirical and organized observation of the human world. Christian is also Professor at the New School in New York that is part of Parsons. 

What I love about Christian’s book is that he explores different ways of looking and seeing – from art, philosophy and anthropology. A core point he makes is once you are able to look at yourself, you can start looking at the world around you.

We talk about watching people playing chess in Union Sq, New York City and discuss how observing chess players in a public space helps one to understand key human questions such as ‘what is winning’. Christian says practicing looking is so important to seeing around you and learning about human phenomena – it should be like going to the gym. 

As an anthropologist these types of conversations and thinking really do provide rich and fertile soil to develop interesting ideas around how culture frames who we are – from ritualised, conscious and unconscious performances.

Before we hear more from Christian, I want to remind you that I have two new training courses starting this year. The details are in the show notes, along with a link to my executive and team coaching.

Also if you find these podcasts interesting and helpful please do feel free to leave a small donation towards the cost of bringing each episode and series together. It would be greatly valued. The donate link is in the shownotes.


Show Notes:

Donation

About Christian
Website
LinkedIn

Look: How to pay attention in a world of distraction

Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the age of the algorithm

New School
The Peregrine
Anthropology and Anthropologists (Adam Kuper....not Simon Kuper)


John's Training Programmes
Leveraging Organizational Culture for Impact: