PSFK Conference Speaker Interview: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken will be one of the speakers at our upcoming PSFK Conference 2010, taking place on April 9th. Grant is an author, teacher and anthropologist who studies the intersection of culture and commerce. He recently published Chief Culture Officer, a book that “argues that culture now creates so much opportunity and danger for the corporation, that we need senior managers who focus on it full time.”

PSFK talked with Grant recently to see what he’s been doing lately.

What are you working on right now?

I am doing client work. I am on the speaking trail in support of Chief Culture Officer (35,000 miles since Jan. 1). and I am working on the follow up for Chief Culture Officer. Which I may call Chief Culture Officer, the sequel.

What has been the most interesting response or reaction to your project?

The most heartening reaction is emails from people who say something like “this book is my career compass!”

What projects, people or ideas are currently inspiring your thinking these days?

My biggest inspiration is the Times Literary Supplement. It’s messages in a bottle from the academic world. Some substantial part of the academic world continues to punch well below its weight in terms of intellectual productivity, but the TLS is a joy cover to cover.

What developing trend, idea or technology makes you most excited or hopeful for the future?

One of these is qualitative and ethnographic. How to do better ethnography in culture to capture culture. I just did a project with Mark Earls and Andrew Barnett that helped me see new ways of collecting data in the field. We were studying cocktail culture in the Northeast The other is quantitative. I keep hoping for better metrics for culture, better visualizations of these data for the C-Suite. But no real movement here. Frustrating. A couple of companies have taken an interest in building these systems so I am hoping for some progress soon. (The trick is finding someone who is prepared to do this on an open source basis.)

Thanks Grant!

Grant will be speaking at the PSFK Conference 2010 – a Gathering for our Future. Come listen to likeminds as they share their ideas to make things better on stage and off. Find out more about the full line of of speakers at the PSFK Conference 2010 here.