The
term “pearls before swine” comes from the Sermon on the Mount, a
famous speech given by Christ to his disciplines. It means that people
should not waste pleasant or good things on people who will not
appreciate them.
In the time of Christ, pigs were regarded as unclean animals in the
Jewish faith, so in a sense, the term refers to giving great things to
beings which are not worthy. The fact that pearls would be essentially
useless to pigs has also been pointed out, as the term illustrates that
it is rather foolish to give things to people who cannot or will not
use them. Pigs are unlikely to realize the value of pearls when they see
them, so tossing pearls to swine would really just be a waste.
Many people use the term to talk about someone who doesn't
appreciate the value of an item or another person, as in Some people
also use this term in a resentful sense, suggesting that they offered
or gave someone something superb, and ended up being snubbed.
Many people who attempt to enact social change find themselves
frustrated by the pearls before swine phenomenon, struggling to
understand why people reject their proposals and ideas when they hold
so much promise.
The Promise of Social Technology
Technology is advancing faster than people and businesses can keep
up. The tidal wave of advancement create new dynamics unforeseen and
unknowable. Who would have thought just five years ago that a young kid
from Harvard would create a global phenomena called Facebook? Who would
have thought that people would engage in "distributed global
conversations" representing 140 characters at the rate of millions per
second. Who would have thought that businesses would need to try to
control these conversations by instituting "social policies" to curb
risk? The fact is and still remains that no one thought about these
dynamics because the very nature of massive human interaction was not on
anyone's radar.
Now the adoption of these technologies permeates everything and
touches everyone, at least those paying attention. The word "permeates"
means to spread or flow throughout; pervade. When something spreads
throughout it surrounds all things and begins to capture everyone's
attention. When something begins to capture the attention of the human
network the draw pulls people's emotions, intellect, spirit and the
reactions create discourse and opinions that further the discourse.
Appreciation of Innovation or Wasteful Use of It?
The human reaction to disruptive innovation falls into two categories of use, useless and useful.
There is a simple, important principle at the core of disruptive
innovation fueled by people's use of something innovative and free:
people innovate faster than companies and entire industries change.
Because of this, most organizations are not ready to respond to the
influence of people's increased expectation for improvement. The
disruption is fueled by transparent communications filled with "pearls
of wisdom" that show people's expectations. The challenge for
organizations then becomes one of listening and responding in real-time
with innovation that exceeds people's expectations.
Useful application of social technology by organizations is the "key"
to unlocking needed innovation expected by the customer (people),
internal and external. Useless application of social technology, and its
related dynamics, by organizations is the age-old reaction of stinking
thinking from the neck up. In this case the swine is represented by
those that "fear" innovation that comes from "pearls of wisdom" offered
freely by the "markets of conversations".
People and organizations fear innovation because they try to frame it
and use it with old knowledge. Thus they use social media or view it as
useless. Useless means having or being of no use and not able to give service or aid. Sounds a lot like "pearls before swine".