When the Experts are Wrong

In the mid-1970s, AT&T was still a regulated monopoly. Bell Labs was the creative research arm, Western Electric manufactured their products, and the Baby Bells sold the wares and cared for the public.  The designers introduced a new phone system, the 770.  As industry and engineering experts they thought companies would be anxious to upgrade to a slick console switchboard, trading in their old-fashioned cords, and enjoy the features that came with changing from rotary to touchtone phones.  The problem was that the 770 was terrible.  Consumers didn’t like it and we who sold, customized, installed, and trained it were disappointed. 

The experts screwed up.  They were stuck in the paradigm that AT&T was the only game in town and that we could tell customers what they wanted and needed.  But times were changing.  Competition in telecommunications was new and others were starting to produce flashy, reliable and modern systems.  January 1, 1984 marked the breakup of the Bell System, and many people thought the experts were wrong to do so, but look at the amazing things that have happened in the communications and telecommunications arena. 

Who were the experts in 1985 that convinced Coke to change its formula?  That was a strategy, branding, and marketing nightmare.

One summer day in 1987 my mother and I were out for a lady’s lunch.  As we enjoyed a cold drink, a salad and some warm rolls in a little tea room outside of Buffalo, she suddenly said, “You know, until the day I die, I’ll regret throwing out your ‘blankey.’  The book said it was the right thing to do, but I hated doing it.”

Now that’s a conversation shocker.  On so many levels.

Aunt Lizzy made this quilt
that hangs in my front hall

Until the day my mother just mentioned there was a handmade piece of quilt about the size of a pillowcase that I hugged as I went to sleep.  It wasn’t anything I carried around, just my comfort object to curl up with. The great-aunts had made it along with other quilts and it had been in my mother’s hope chest for 20 years before it became my blankey.  Presumably there had been one that had been in my brother’s crib.

“You found it the first time I took it away,” she continued.  “You went searching and found it in the Good Will bag in the basement. So then I knew I couldn’t save it and had to really throw it away.  You sobbed every night for weeks.  But the book said at 5 years old you should be able to go to sleep without it.  I wish I’d never paid attention to that chapter in the book!”

The experts were wrong.  On so many levels.  I appreciate that my mother acknowledged that and treasure that she shared her regret.  Do you have an ‘experts were wrong’ story?

As a society, as consumers, we’ve been told a lot, even molded a lot by what experts say.  Too often when we look to the experts in behavior, emotions, culture, finance, we let them have their sway rather than listening to our guts. Certainly there are times we need experts and need to follow their direction.  But our collective and personal histories tell us that experts can be wrong. Let’s have the courage to ignore the experts when what they are saying is not right for us. 

Let’s keep our blankeys. 

Marilyn