Steven Coutinho - Breaking Rank

HAVE YOU EVER SUFFERED from stagefright? That your thoughts about how you were perceived by others induced such anxietyin you that your mind blocked and all you wanted to do was disappear? Well,this book is about peoples perceptions of themselves and others at thesocietal level. Perceptions that have come to block not only peoples minds,but also the economies that they attempt to build.

This book explores an alternativeexplanation of the wealth of nations by looking at what creates wealth in thefirst place: our mind and the stories that shape it. Its the stories about ourworld and our place in it that shape our perceptions of what we can and cannotdo. Its our perceptions that then move us to make choices that either lead towealth or keep us in poverty. Our journey starts in one of my classrooms backin 2005:

Goodmorning Sir ,the class said in chorus. Good morning everyone! Please just call meSteven. I replied.

YesSir.

Um,try that one again.

YesMr. Steven. Oh, sorry Sir, its difficult to call you by your first name. We werenot raised like that.

Ok,I guess theres no harm in that. So Im here to share with you some practicalapproaches to business strategy. Id like to work with you on a real case ifthats ok? Silentnods. At the time I was leading the drafting of Surinames economic development plan, and lecturingwas my way to give back to my community. I continued: So imagine youreadvising a tour operator who has been losing money. What are some of the thingsthat you would want to know first? Silence. Save for the scratching soundof pencils on paper, Im sure I was at a Buddhist meditation retreat. Thestudents were writing down every word I was saying, including the commas! Um,ok, no problem, Ill just call on some of you. Hi miss, yes you with the blueshirt, what would you like to know? And then it happened. After the shockrealization no one around her was wearing blue, her eyes widened like that of adeer staring into the headlights of a Mack truck. Well that was unexpected.

If itwasnt for the desk behind her, she would have fallen off her chair. People,whats going on? I asked. They replied: Sir, youre the teacher, werejust students. Were waiting on you to share your knowledge with us Sir. Studentswerent used to teachers asking them for their opinion. I knew from my ownexperience partially growing up in this country: children are conditioned tosit quietly and obediently, their opinions are not valued, and asking questionsis equated with stupidity. Children who transgress are scolded and shamed publiclyfor all to see. Thankfully tar and feathers werent readily commerciallyavailable anymore when I grew up.

Much laterI became regional managing director in the Caribbean of the Royal Bank of Canada,and started lecturing at a university in Curacao, until recently one of thelast bastions of European colonialism. Different country, different culture,different ethnicities, same fearful reaction. Which one of you aspires to helpcompanies thrive? No hands. You? No Sir, I would be too afraid tomake a mistake. Id rather have someone else make the decisions. What are youafraid of though? Failing Sir. Who told you it was a sin to fail? EveryoneSir. The class nodded in agreement.

The answersof my students kept reverberating in my mind when my work across the Caribbeanrevealed similar behavioral patterns, from employees to politicians: Wecant. Its someone elses responsibility so we assume none. In 2008, the DutchPrime Minister visited a primary school in the Dutch Caribbean and remarkedthat children seemed passive and needed to take more initiative if they wanted tocontribute to their economy. Alternatively he could have asked two questionsthat are central to this book:

First,where did their behaviors come from and how does that influence the economy?This book proposes to answer this question by taking a novel approachtowards understanding a puzzle that has occupied economists for over a century:stagnating economies in the developing world. It is based on more than fifteenyears of research during my work across the postcolonial world as a consultant,economic adviser, bank executive and lecturer to understand this puzzle of stagnation.The picture of the puzzle finally revealed itself when I was willing to do onething: move away from labels of Others in the postcolonial world, towards understandingthe mind of Us as a human species. An understanding of how our emotions, thoughtsand choices in a domain such as work, play or relationships depend on the controlwe perceive to have in that domain and how that control is shaped by the storiesthat shape societies. Its our perception of control that makes all thedifference in thinking I can and taking action, or I cantand remaining passive.

Secondquestion: whatcan be done to improve those behaviors that stagnate aneconomy? If the problem of economic stagnation lies in the mind, there toomust lie the solution. This requires a deeper understanding of our minds mail goal:survival. We achieve survival by forming perceptions about ourselves and othersand then behave accordingly. The solutions proposed in this book help tochange these perceptions.

BreakingRank is a book forthose in postcolonial societies who are looking to bring about change. This changecan come in many forms: maybe youd like to enable your staff to take on moreresponsibility or become more independent. Maybe you would like your studentsto be more undertaking, or maybe you want to take more risks yourself. Theability to bring about change ultimately comes down to your understanding of theminds perception of its control and your ability to change that perception.

Control& Behavior

From an evolutionaryperspective our ability to effectively bring about change in our environment to control our environment meant all the difference between havingcrocodile for lunch or becoming crocodile lunch ourselves. It shouldnt be surprisingthen that our perception of control, the sense that we can make choices to bringabout change, affects the way we feel and behave .

Ourown behavioral habits are gradually formed by all our efforts at takingcontrol, because the results of those efforts inform us how effective we are.Imagine how different you would be today if you would have