Something often talked about on places like LinkedIn is the ‘Iceberg of Ignorance’. The concept is simple, the image of an iceberg is submerged in the water is shown and used as a visual aid. According to the theory, 4% of problems are known and understood by top management, 9% of problems are known by middle management understand 9% of problems, supervisors know 74% and 100% is known by front line employees.
It sounds like a nice theory and it is accredited to a consultant Mr Sidney Yoshida who presented the paper “Quality Improvement and TQC Management at Calsonic in Japan and Overseas” to the 2nd International Quality Symposium in Mexico in 1989.
The first question I asked myself is why are these figures still being thrown around in 2023, 34 years after the paper was published – surely the figures have changed?
Then I decided to do a little research with the help of Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a search engine for academic papers and publications and is built on the vast databases of publications held by libraries and academic institutions worldwide.
Guess what? There is no evidence of a paper entitled “Quality Improvement at Calsonic in Japan and Overseas” in the database. Likewise there is no evidence of the 2nd International Quality Symposium in Mexico in 1989 or any other year. Finally, no evidence exists of a consultant by the name of Sidney Yoshida. (Yenice, 2018)
The highly respected Shingo Institute, at Utah University conducted a deep dive into this question and confirmed that they could find no evidence.
So what is it all about?
Well, of course senior management don’t know all the problems going on at the front line of a business, I would have thought that was obvious to anyone. Likewise, for example, people on the shop floor would see many more of the problems as they had to deal with them on a daily basis.
But where did this ‘theory’ and data come from? Who knows. It seems like the Iceberg of Ignorance is one of those Urban Management Myths. The problem is, many management consulting, training and even learning institutes teach this as if it were researched fact. It isn’t.
Yenice, S., 2018. Organizational Culture and Managing Change. Rejuventing Pathology. International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
