Why Experience Can Stop You Seeing Clearly Michael Henderson

Recently, I recorded a conversation with Michael Henderson from Cultures At Work.

Michael is a corporate anthropologist who has spent over 30 years observing how people work together. His work explores:

• How culture forms
• How behaviour patterns emerge
• And how organisations actually function beneath the surface.

What drew me to this conversation with Michael was not a particular framework or model, but a deeper question about experience.

• How does it shape what we notice?
• How does it influence the way we interpret situations?
• And what happens when that interpretation begins to break down?

Enjoy the recording as your chance to see a conversation between two people reflecting on their experience.

What We Explored

This conversation moves across several ideas, including:

• The difference between observing and assuming
• How experience can both sharpen and distort judgment
• Moments where we realise we may have been seeing something incorrectly
• How identity is tied to what we believe we know
• And the role of questions in returning us to what is actually happening

There is no fixed structure to what follows. It unfolds as an exploration, moving between ideas, examples, and reflections as they emerge.

Chapters and Points of Interest

To move directly to discussions that you might be of special interest, here are some approximate time points in the recording.

• 00:00 — Opening: Entering the Conversation
• 02:30 — Seeing vs Interpreting
• 10:45 — The Trap of Experience
• 19:30 — When You Realise You’re Wrong
• 30:00 — Identity and What We Think We Know
• 43:30 — “You Are Not Living Your Life”
• 57:00 — The Power of the Right Question
• 01:08:30 — Observing vs Shaping
• 01:20:00 — Closing Reflections

A Thought That May Resonate…

What I’m still thinking about from this conversation is not a single idea. Instead, a growing awareness of how easily experience turns into assumption. And how rarely we pause long enough to notice it happening.

I’ll continue exploring some of these ideas in future writing and conversations.

For more on this topic, download and read The Myths of Experience.