Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.
― Isaac Asimov, Science Fiction Writer
Episode Summary
Banned Books Week is an annual effort to call attention to censorship and intellectual freedom. This year it runs from September 18th through the 24th.
While Banned Books Week is mostly marked by libraries around the country, the drive behind it is something that all adults need to understand. Banned books are the physical representation of banned ideas. The idea of banning (or burning) a book, may send a chill up your spine, but are we taking the steps that are needed to protect the more abstract but just as important freedom of thought.
In this week’s Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner – who holds a Masters Degree in Library Science from Simmons College in Boston – extends the mission behind Banned Books Week to the free exchange of ideas that is REQUIRED to succeed in the face of today’s procurement and supply chain challenges:
• Having the stomach to participate in a world with diversity of thought
• Maximizing the ROI of ideas by letting them all crash around together… with the best coming out on top
• Giving the benefit of the doubt to a colleague who disagrees with you or who shares an opinion you find unpleasant
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:01):
Welcome to dial P for procurement, a show focused on today’s biggest spin supplier and contract management related business opportunities. Dial P investigates, the nuanced and constantly evolving boundary of the procurement supply chain divide with a broadcast of engaged executives, providers, and thought leaders give us an hour and we’ll provide you with a new perspective on supply chain value. And now it’s time to dial P for procurement
Kelly Barner (00:31):
In 2022 band books week takes place from September 18th through the 24th. This annual event is a primarily librarian driven effort that was started in 1982 by librarian Judith fru. Now, when you think about what books or band I’m sure everyone has different titles that come to mind, I’m a lifelong avid reader. And some of my favorite books commonly appear on band books lists. The first one that comes to mind instantly is to kill a Mockingbird, but those lists also include Lord of the flies, brave new world, the color purple beloved and 1984. These are important books with important ideas in them that challenge us. And in some cases they apparently challenge some of us so much that people will try to make sure that others don’t have the right to read them. Now, from my perspective, the right to read books is sort of like the mirror image of free speech, just like people have the right to speak and express themselves, albeit to own the consequences of what they say.
Kelly Barner (01:47):
Each of us also has the right to decide what ideas and information we expose ourselves to. In most cases, ideas should work like the free market system. More exchange of ideas, more access to ideas should generate more ideas and any constraints that we place on that save for legal considerations like libel and slander also threaten our ability to innovate the bigger the problem we have to solve. The more ideas and intellectual freedom will be required to find the best solution. So in this episode of dial P for procurement in honor of band books week, I’m going to review the role of intellectual curiosity and open exchange of ideas in the business world. We’ll look at some of the supply chain challenges we face today and how the ability to speak freely factors into our ability to solve those problems. And then finally, let’s consider how to listen for message and inspiration rather than perspective or bias and make the most of the best ideas no matter where they come from.
Kelly Barner (03:01):
But before I go any further, let me pause and introduce myself. If you’re new to dial P my name is Kelly Barner. I’m the co-founder and managing director of buyers meeting point. I’m a partner at art of procurement, and I’m your host for dial P here on supply chain. Now I am constantly scanning the news for complex articles that I think it’s worth our time to discuss. Many of these are interesting, and you may catch a headline, but in a lot of cases, we don’t have the time to dig deeper. I also follow these stories beyond those headlines, and I look for connections between nons supply chain related topics like band books week, and the important work we are doing for companies and organizations every single day dial P releases, a new podcast episode or interview every Thursday. So be on the lookout for future episodes.
Kelly Barner (03:58):
And don’t forget to take some time to check out our past episodes as well. Now, if you find value in the time that we’re about to spend together, please find a way to engage, click a reaction button on social media at a comment or some stars on a podcast platform, maybe most importantly comment or forward this episode to a colleague I’m incredibly grateful for everyone’s interest and attention. And I think these conversations and topics are important to all of us. All right, let me get back to band books week today. My professional focus is on procurement and supply chain, but like many people working in that field. That wasn’t my original plan. I also happened to have a master’s degree in library science from Simmons college in Boston. Now with a library background, the idea of band books week hits really close to home. According to the American library association, 607 books, films or newspapers were banned in 2019.
Kelly Barner (05:04):
That was a 14% increase year over year. And you might be surprised to know that dealing with challenging ideas is a standard part of professional library, science training. Where do you put books that refute the moon landing? Where do you put books that deny the Holocaust? These are incredibly sticky issues. I also happen to be a student of history and although I wasn’t there, I know the Holocaust happened. I wasn’t there, but I believe that we landed on the moon. Now that doesn’t mean that I get to take a book that objects to the moon landing, or says that the Holocaust didn’t happen and put them in fiction. It also doesn’t mean that I get to, to tag those books as potentially upsetting or damaging or wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we’ve put them in, uh, the nonfiction section, but we all know they actually belong in fiction.
Kelly Barner (06:09):
That would be considered professional malpractice within library science society has always, and always will struggle to deal with complex topics that push us outside of our comfort zone. And I think the thing that’s so important about this particular week is that band books are really the physical version of prohibited and silenced ideas. This is something that I experienced firsthand in a very real way. Earlier this year, as a member of the first class of LinkedIn’s creator accelerator program, I conducted 60 interviews over three month period about supplier diversity. And I heard one phrase more than any other. It was, I can’t say this publicly, but.dot. And there was always something different at the end of that phrase in the moment, it made me feel sick to hear that phrase. And yet in most cases I understood the apprehension of the person speaking. They weren’t looking to cause trouble.
Kelly Barner (07:18):
They just knew that their question, their idea was going to challenge sort of the conventional discussion on the topic. But every single one of those things that quote could not be said was a question that wasn’t being answered. It was a concern that wasn’t being addressed and there may be other people participating in the conversation that also held back. There is fear in going against the tide and asking the big questions, but given all of the things that were up against in business today now is not the time to lose courage. And freedom of ideas is not just an academic consideration. Intellectual freedom plays a critical role in innovation. It’s so important that it’s in the us constitution. The framers made protection for inventors and authors, absolutely explicit article one, section eight clause, eight of the constitution states that Congress has the power to enact laws, to quote, promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Kelly Barner (08:35):
And this notion that they had a right to own these ideas and discoveries for a certain period of time, confers value onto them. We don’t want a situation where a scientist, for instance, I always think about Galileo with this is put under house arrest because he or she, she challenges status quo thinking. And it’s okay for us to laugh at this idea. Now. I mean, he was effectively put under house arrest because he challenged church teachings that said, no, the sun rotates around the earth. Well, we all know now the earth rotates around the sun. And so it seems silly to look back 400 years and say, oh, they didn’t know any better. Well, I won’t be around to collect on this bed, but I would be willing to wager that 400 years from now, people just like you and me are going to look back at something we did today and laugh and think about how archaic and closed-minded we were.
Kelly Barner (09:40):
They’re going to see us as backwards too. Now ideas can make us uncomfortable and I’m sorry, but in the grown up world that we live in, that is just too bad. We have to have a way to deal with them, but we can’t have people policing thoughts. Although I will say for the sake of this episode of dial P I’m confining all of my comments to adults, I’m not waiting into the mind field of who gets to teach what to other people’s children. At what age, my expertise is grown up idea exchange. I’m not qualified to comment on anything for people under the age of what would be working in a corporate setting. One of the visuals that always comes to mind for me on this is that scene from the movie Apollo 13, the astronauts are all stuck up there and they’re worrying about getting them back.
Kelly Barner (10:32):
And, you know, I can picture the look on Tom Hank’s face as they’re all a little concerned about it. So back on earth, the engineers have this whole bucket of parts that they just dump out on the table. They say, okay, this is what they have access to. And they start using all of those pieces to see what they can R together to build up a solution. To me, this is a representation of having access to all ideas. Now, imagine if those engineers were given all of the parts except the hoses or all of the parts except adjustable filters, and they were trying to come up with a solution, but there was something that those astronauts had up there that they didn’t know, they could factor into their solution. That’s what banning some ideas does. It handcuffs every single one of us, as we attempt to solve problems, we need everyone to dump all of their ideas on the table.
Kelly Barner (11:31):
And that doesn’t mean that all of those parts are gonna end up in the final solution. Being exposed to ideas does not mean that we have to agree with them. It does not mean we have to adopt them. We don’t even have to like them, but you never know when one piece of information or an idea will spark another. We need to, to see every combination, especially when the going gets tough. And where has the going been tough recently? Oh, I don’t know how about supply chain? We can’t even discuss basic elements of our jobs anymore without running into huge instances of disruption and instability and even sensitive geopolitics. So let’s talk about some recent supply chain issues that are going to take courage to address. We’ve covered it. No numerous times here on dial P the human rights abuses in places like China, are we willing to do what needs to be done to eradicate force labor from the supply chain?
Kelly Barner (12:37):
And in this I’m referring specifically to the Uighurs living in Xinjiang. What about the Olympics that took place in China? There are companies with large consumer bases or manufacturing capabilities in China that also loudly proclaim the virtues of their ESG programs. I’m specifically thinking about Coca-Cola in this case, they sponsored the Olympics, but only marketed that fact in China. They weren’t sure how that was gonna be received at home. What responsibility do we have as supply chain professionals, and even as consumers to challenge how that system works. And some of this brings into question the involvement of international organizations like the world trade organization, the United nations. We’ve also covered here, the issue of the UNS decision to waive the COVID vaccine patent. And excuse me, that’s the world trade organization. The world trade organization all voted including the United States to waive patents on COVID vaccines.
Kelly Barner (13:45):
The United nations has gotten involved more recently around the condition of the Uighurs. So they’ve released this report, which they don’t consider an official action. It does agree with what’s been reported by Western countries and companies, as well as by human rights, watchdog groups, but will any action be taken in the sustainability movement? People are called out for greenwash where you pretend to be more sustainable than you actually are in practice. People have to have the courage to be whistle blowers. And in order to do that, they have to know they’re going to be given the benefit of the doubt. If it could make a difference for people living under bad conditions in China, or if something is brought into question that challenges, basic fairness and investment in ownership of ideas, shouldn’t someone be able to raise that point. Even if longer term, we make the decision, that’s not the way to go, or we got more information and it changed our perspective.
Kelly Barner (14:49):
Now, one of the key areas, especially for procurement, where intellectual freedom comes up is in the supplier diversity movement. And I mentioned this earlier, people will often hold back making comments because they’re not sure which words the person they’re talking to expects to hear around things like gender, race, and ethnicity. So they self censor. Those conversations don’t happen. Stakeholders who are ultimately the ones who make contract award decisions, they might have questions and want to make sure that certified diverse businesses aren’t just being considered because they’re certified diverse. They may want to know more about how those businesses operate. Do they feel that they can challenge a supplier’s performance without being accused of bias? Are we creating a space where people can ask those questions and then even beyond the traditional categories of diversity, there’s the very important idea of intellectual diversity. You and I are together in this episode right now, but we walked very different paths to get to this point.
Kelly Barner (16:03):
We even walk different paths today to get here. We each see the world differently, and if we can merge those images together, we’re gonna have a much more robust understanding of what’s going on in the world around us. And we’re gonna have the opportunity to broaden our perspectives through candid discussions, by bringing in more ideas, we potentially get more potential solutions to consider, and therefore, hopefully better selected outcomes. We can’t overlook the importance of being able to constructively disagree. I think it’s important to read books. You don’t like I was an English major in high school and, and in college. And I remember being told you don’t have to like the book, but you have to learn to understand and appreciate it for what it is. Doesn’t have to be a book that you pull off the shelf and reread every year. And the corresponding idea with an intellectual freedom of that is learning to listen to under and understand the perspective of people you disagree with freedom of speech.
Kelly Barner (17:10):
And then by extension, I would say the right to read books does not exist to protect the majority opinion. It doesn’t need to. That’s already the majority it’s accepted. It exists to protect minority opinions. As hard as that is freedom of speech also acts sort of like a safety valve systems that don’t have, it may boil over or just plain fail because there’s no other outlet for diverse opinions. They’re self constraining. I would be willing to bet that there are all kinds of situations where a project or a business fails. And gosh, everybody just sits around the table afterwards and says, why did this fail? And every single person probably has a different answer in their head, but it is so much safer to just sit there and shrug and say, geez, who knows? We did everything we could. We tried as hard as we could.
Kelly Barner (18:10):
We worked long hours, but if people aren’t being honest, you don’t get the opportunity to head off failures or to learn from them once they’ve happened. The last thing, and this is one that I can never get past. Whether we’re talking about books or ideas is if some content is not okay, whether it’s thoughts or writing or books or films or newsletters, it means someone has to be the arbiter of that. Someone has to be the master curator, who do we want to be? The boss of which ideas are okay. I’ll tell you right up front. I don’t wanna be that person, but I also don’t want someone telling me what ideas I can and can’t expose myself to. So many of us are self censoring in the workplace. And that is not the same thing as expressing complex ideas and opinions with respect supported by data in a constructive way.
Kelly Barner (19:13):
Although we can ban books, nobody yet, thankfully has figured out a way to ban thought. So the ideas are there. They aren’t going away. They’re just not being brought into our solution process. So those ideas are there and they’re influencing people’s choices, whether they remain silent or whether they’re expressed out loud, I’ll just speak for me on this. If you ban a book, I wanna know why, and I’m also going to want to read it because if it’s so powerful that you think we shouldn’t read it, I need to know what’s inside that cover. If you tell me an opinion, can’t be voiced. I wanna know why I wanna know more about the perspective behind that opinion. And I’m certainly not going to trust anyone that positions themselves as qualified to become the arbiter or curator of others’ ideas. But as I always tell you, that’s my point of view.
Kelly Barner (20:17):
And in keeping with the spirit of that episode, I welcome constructive disagreement. Tell me I’m wrong. Add a different thought here. Let’s make this a discussion. I want you to join the conversation in whatever channel or avenue is easiest for you. And let me know what you think. Do you have the stomach and the commitment to participate in a world with a wide range of conflicting ideas? Can you think of a time that you held back an idea or a question because you weren’t sure how it would be received or you weren’t sure about the right language to use, or you weren’t sure how people were going to think of you after you said it? How can we maximize the ROI of our ideas by letting them all crash around on that Apollo 13 table with the best ideas coming out on top? And are you willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a colleague who disagrees with you or who shares an opinion that you don’t like and instead find any piece of truth or value in what they said? This is a tough one, but it’s one that we have to work together to figure out. Maybe more importantly, we should go find a band book and discover just why it was taken off a shelf somewhere let’s work together to figure out the best solution, happy band books week. I think I can say that. Thank you for listening. And until next time, I’m Kelly Barner on behalf of dial P and supply chain. Now have a great rest of your day.
Intro/Outro (22:04):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of dial P for procurement and for being an active part of the supply chain. Now community, please check out all of our shows and events@supplychainnow.com. Make sure you follow dial P for procurement on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to catch all the latest programming details. We’ll see you soon for the next episode of dial P for procurement.
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