How “Red, Amber, Green” metrics are blinding us…Organizational Knowledge and the Illusion of Reification (in Military Affairs)
In the modern, data-hungry era of mainstream society, nearly all of us have experienced that sensation when the organization is unable to see the forest for the trees. We tend to become fixated on invented metrics that render us unable to gain critical or creative insight- and we often scurry down rabbit holes desiring greater metrics to reinforce hidden motives. This relates to the social construction that occurs often before our very eyes, yet we hardly realize it. This is also how social groups apply “reification” (the act of applying additional meanings to things that are lacking those qualities) to steer our organizational sense-making towards some things and away from others.
Reification is applied in multiple disciplines, so I am using it here specifically in a cognitive and language (semiological- how signs are symbolically constructed within our languages) sense, as well as an educational (pedagogical- thinking about how we teach and why) sense. The hardest thing about talking about reification is that it is so hidden from our everyday actions. We do this intentionally- because as humans we cannot waste precious time pondering things that prevent us from seeing a threat (like a saber tooth tiger, or enemy with a club)…
