Intersubjective Realities

I’ve just started what looks to be a tremendous work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World. I’m in a section about realities, which starts off quickly discussing “objective” and “subjective” ones. Then:

But Harari goes on to argue that there is a third kind of reality, that this kind of reality is unique to humans, and that this kind of reality explains the dominance (for good or ill) of our species. There are some things that are real simply because we all agree they’re real—things whose existence depends not on any objective reality, nor on any individual’s subjective reality, but rather on our collective belief in them.

Followed shortly after by:

Harari calls these extended, communal realities intersubjective realities, and tells us that they’re the reason our achievements as a species are so different from those of our planet-mates.

And finally, a sentence later:

Our belief in the intersubjective reality of nation, for example, enables us to cooperate with our fellow citizens to finance and build monuments, or to wage war; our belief in the intersubjective reality of democracy allows us to elect governments and to follow their laws.

I can imagine how these intersect in the “real world” of companies, and look forward to how Buckingham and Goodall elaborate. However, what struck me is that, perhaps, the U.S. seems so frayed as a nation right now because what were intersubjective realities…are, in many cases, no longer. That, maybe, there is a battle going on between un-harmonizable group-level intersubjective realities to create new, national intersubjective realities.

Well, this blog is not meant for discussing politics and I fear I am dangerously close to doing that. 🙂

However, Harari and the authors’ explanation of intersubjective reality is worth keeping in mind when you think about how your company works. Are there organization-wide intersubjective realties, or do they vary, contradictorily, by team?

If the latter, what’s likely to happen? If it’s a given there always will be differences, then what does that mean as a leader?

Well…time to find out where the two take the discussion. 🙂