Stop Measuring Leaders by Their Titles

Phenomenology is where what you're interested in is what was the experience someone was having or what was the experience that several people were happening.

What was it that actually happened, and what was the experience of it? I discovered phenomenology when I did my dissertation some decades back now, and I wanted to look into what's it like for senior execs, what's it like for them when they use external consultants.

And I did a lot of research to find out about preexisting research on this question, and there was none.

I couldn't find any.

I found a lot of information on, um, what, what are the best ways to be a good consultant, um, what are the best ways to choose consultants and use consultants, um, what, what sort of, um, results are achieved by consultants, that kind of thing.

All very pragmatic.

But there was nothing about what does it actually feel like for the client.

And at the time, I was doing a master's degree, and I looked at the various different research methodologies, and the one that fitted for me was one called phenomenological research.

So if you're someone who's interested in, um, how does, how does somebody f- how did somebody feel when something was happening, what was their experience, what was their inner landscape, uh, you know, as they were experiencing what was happening, then that is phenomenology, that you are being a, a phenomenologist.

You may not be able to say it, but you are interested in phenomenological inquiry when you're doing that.

And I think some of us are very drawn to that because we feel like the experience we have of something is, is of prime importance.

In many ways, it's more important than the outcome or the tangible benefits or results of it, the, the experience along the way.

This is another...

People who say, "Well, you know, the, the purpose of life is to live a good life, to enjoy your life," that's a phenomenological perspective on it.

Whereas someone who says, "Purpose of your life is to earn a lot of money, have lots of children, um, have lots of relationships, or have one perfect relationship, or have a big house, or have a fast car, or have 20 fast cars, or..." You know, these are not phenomenological perspectives.

These are much more, uh, tangible, objective, um, outcomes that someone is focusing on, which are not bad or wrong.

It's just that some people tend to focus more in that direction, and some tend to focus more in the experiential or the phenomenological direction.