{"id":8869,"date":"2026-10-13T08:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/uncategorized\/thats-interesting\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T06:34:39","slug":"thats-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/governance\/thats-interesting\/","title":{"rendered":"“That’s interesting!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My journey toward a Ph.D. began at the start of the month when I read a research article with that title. I plan to share my thoughts and insights from my studies here from time to time and connect them to the issues I deal with in my work every day. After all, that\u2019s why I pursued my doctoral studies\u2014to take a new leap forward in quality by working with managers in a practical setting. <\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m interested in why the same problems keep recurring in leadership\u2014what are these patterns that we would be wise to acknowledge and face honestly? What shapes our decisions and relationships before we even realize it? What drives a leader? <\/p>\n\n

But what makes an approach interesting? Murray S. Davis wrote in that 1971 article that we consider theories to be interesting if they call into question something we have hitherto taken for granted. <\/p>\n\n

If an idea confirms our existing understanding, we say, \u201cThat\u2019s obvious!\u201d If it shakes the foundations of our worldview too strongly, we might say, \u201cThat\u2019s absurd!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Somewhere in between, though, there\u2019s something like this: \u201cWait\u2026 I hadn\u2019t thought of it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Leaving aside the development of theories, this made me wonder how much goes unnoticed in management precisely because we already have a familiar explanation for the situation. Things like \u201cpeople aren\u2019t taking responsibility,\u201d \u201cwe have a communication problem,\u201d \u201cemployees don\u2019t want to go along with the changes,\u201d and so on. <\/p>\n\n

If we accept what is happening without preconceptions, we will begin to seek solutions within the limits of the assumptions we have created for ourselves. For example, how to increase accountability, how to share information more effectively, how to reduce resistance, and so on. <\/p>\n\n

When it comes to responsibility, for example, we might ask: How does our management style influence the amount of responsibility people take on? Perhaps we expect independence, but we want to approve every decision ourselves or are constantly involved in the decision-making process. Perhaps we encourage people to experiment, but when a mistake is made, we immediately take control, and over time, people learn that it\u2019s safer to wait for the manager\u2019s response. <\/p>\n\n

This can lead to a pattern where the manager takes on more and more responsibility, and people leave more and more decisions up to him. Through their behavior, both sides reinforce the other\u2019s existing perception, and we end up with unresolved decisions and an overburdened manager who resists the HR manager\u2019s invitation to attend leadership training because he doesn\u2019t have the time. After all, people won\u2019t take responsibility on their own while I\u2019m away for two days! <\/p>\n\n

The pattern underlying the problem may go unnoticed. For me, the idea in Davis\u2019s article ties in with what I want to explore more deeply: how our taken-for-granted assumptions as leaders direct our attention and leave parts of a situation unseen. <\/p>\n\n

Of course, just because an idea is interesting doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s true. But it can raise a question we hadn\u2019t thought to ask before: when faced with a recurring problem, what might the current explanation and assumptions be overlooking without my realizing it? <\/p>\n\n

Maybe we need to take a fresh look at things, without any preconceptions. Just like this, waiting for visitors Studio MindZ<\/strong><\/a> in Tartu (pictured), where people with such an open-minded approach gathered in my studio last week. <\/p>\n\n

\"Pictured:<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My journey toward a Ph.D. began at the start of the month when I read a research article with that title. I plan to share my thoughts and insights from my studies here from time to time and connect them to the issues I deal with in my work every day. After all, that\u2019s why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8870,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869\/revisions\/8870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivarraav.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}