Innovative Express
"Improving effectiveness by making the complex simple and making the simple work!"
October 2007
In this issue:
I hope this newsletter finds you well.
This month's newsletter talks about a case study I wrote that appeared in a journal published by the International Society for Performance Improvement.
It also reminds us about minding the gap in our brains and how the "tricks" our brain plays can lead to not-so-subtle prejudices. There is also a “test” at the end if you don't believe that your brain can play tricks on you!
Inspired to agree, disagree, or otherwise comment? Have an interesting or humorous story to share? I hope that you will let me know your thoughts.
Abhay Padgaonkar
President, Innovative Solutions Consulting, LLC
Quick Update: From Training to Performance
I am proud to say that an article I wrote titled "From Training to Performance: A Case Study" appeared in the October 2007 issue of Performance Improvement journal a publication of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). It is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Faced with the prospect of engaging nearly two thousand employees before the situation became urgent, this case study shares why the best interests of employees, customers, and shareholders are neither disparate nor a zero-sum game. It also shows how it takes passionate leadership coupled with proven HPT (Human Performance Technology) principles to unlock synergies. Its hallmarks are high employee engagement, quality customer interaction, and improved profitability.
I got really nice feedback from several people on the article. "Thank you for writing the article. It is so pertinent to an issue I'm working on within my organization," wrote one VP, Training & Development.
"Nice article-very good information and thoroughly documented!" commented a consulting colleague.
A graduate student in training and development wondered "why leadership in the article decided to seek outside help given that they already had an in- house training function?" He guessed the answer himself: "I suspect the answer is that the folks in the training department had previously prescribed an ineffective intervention and/or that management did not have much faith in the training department's ability to solve the performance problem."
Head - Strategy & Projects (Training) at Reliance Retail in India said he liked the article and invited me to join his network on Linkedin.
If you want to see the case study, please send me an email at abhay@pobox.com.
Minding the Gap
In London's underground subway, when the train doors are about to open, the public announcement system starts announcing to "Mind the Gap" so that people don't fall in the sometimes large gap between the platform and the train car. The reminders, painted on the edge of the platform and repeated through recorded announcements, are so ubiquitous that the phrase has entered the modern- day lexicon as well as the popular culture.
But who reminds us about minding the gap in our brains?
As someone once said, "Prejudice is a great time- saver. You can form your opinions without having to get the facts!"
Ironically enough, there is a lot of truth to that statement. As a matter of fact, our brains are wired to do just that. Storing billions, possibly trillions, of intricate details and external stimuli of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures captured through the years is impossible-no matter how much gray matter we have between our ears. So what's the next best thing our brain can do?
It cheats. It cheats by reducing the elaborate details to a few critical elements and storing just the essence of what happened rather than the whole episode. Renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains this phenomenon in his fascinating book titled Stumbling on Happiness. He says, "Later, when we want to remember our experience, our brains quickly reweave the tapestry by fabricating-not by actually retrieving-the bulk of the information that we experience as a memory. This fabrication happens so quickly and effortlessly that we have an illusion (as a good magician's audience always does) that the entire thing was in our heads the entire time."
It's just as well! Without this innate ability of human brains to "fill in the details," we would have disjointed memories and an empty imagination. However, as Gilbert explains, "We tend to forget that our brains are talented forgers weaving a tapestry of memory and perception whose detail is so compelling that its inauthenticity is rarely detected."
And, unfortunately, therein lies the problem too. These labels and handles become the stereotypes and biases without even realizing that we are carrying these counterfeit bills in our own pockets. This phenomenon is true not just for a certain segment of the population but for everyone endowed with a human brain. What is our unique ability in the entire animal kingdom can also become our downfall. Experiments have shown that this ability to "fill-in" is so powerful that it happens even when we know someone is trying to trick us!
And that's why we must be extra vigilant for the various roadblocks that get in the way of conducting sound business. There are many facts supporting the business case for diversity in the minority buying power, wealth of senior citizens, and income ability of working women. But most importantly, only a committed and motivated workforce can innovate, create, and deliver products and services that appeal to today's diverse customer base. The world has, in fact, become flatter and more level. As a sign of how the marketplace has become global, consider this: I had a long and enjoyable conversation all the way to the airport with the limo driver about the emerging major league baseball playoff picture-not in Phoenix, Philadelphia, or Chicago, but in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
Individually as well as organizationally, we must disrupt the automatic and effortless playback of our stereotypes-unthinkingly treating them as though they were an accurate representation of facts. And that's why taking a business-as-usual attitude toward inclusion simply will not get the job done. Our return on investment is reduced when commitment and productivity is lost, when time is wasted with conflicts and misunderstandings, and when resources are wasted on employee attrition and grievances. To overcome the automatic, organizations must expend conscious effort in four primary areas:
- Ensuring equal opportunities to all in recruiting, retention, and promotion
- Promoting inclusion awareness and training
- Assimilating inclusion into all core business practices
- Enhancing communication within and outside of the company
Organizations must mandate a qualified and diverse slate of candidates for every open position and make conscious efforts in their recruiting strategies to focus on a broader mix of competent and qualified people from all backgrounds. There is a need to diversify the approach to include alternative labor pools as a means to enhance hiring opportunities.
Leaders must sponsor national and local diversity teams that represent the ranges of geographies, races and gender that make up the organization. They must insist on having inclusive strategies and goals across all levels of leadership in the organization. Ideally, all employees must be trained in diversity and diversity collateral must be included in every new hire orientation package. Top leaders must show their unwavering sponsorship by participating and teaching these sessions.
Diversity must be considered a core leadership competency and its demonstration within and outside the organization must recognized and rewarded. Leaders must be on the lookout for business practices that sometimes subtly carry the old baggage.
Ongoing communication and progress updates are important. Leaders must incorporate diversity in all employee communication vehicles at the national and regional levels, and ensure that diversity is at the forefront of local, regional, and national forums. Top leaders of progressive organizations demonstrate their conviction through actions-not just through politically-correct rhetoric. They not only recognize that different is good, but that different is highly desirable.
Top leaders and the organizations they lead can fall into one of the following five groups when it comes to embracing an inclusive workforce:
Clueless: They might as well be living on Planet Mars. They have heard of it, but they have no earthly idea what do with the "D-word."
Correct: They know too well that diversity is the latest politically correct bandwagon. So they jump on it, but their private, off-the-record opinions, comments, and actions rarely reflect their public persona.
Compliant: They know the law and do just enough to steer clear of getting into foul trouble by abdicating the responsibility to HR.
Committed: They are not just doing it for show, but they recognize the value of a diverse workforce, and are willing to invest time, money, and effort into systematically building it.
Convincing: These enlightened few not only practice what they preach, but they can establish in a compelling manner a clear link between their diversity- related beliefs, policies, and actions and sustainable results
Bottom Line: Please do mind the gap!
Personally Speaking...
Here is a quick test adapted from Daniel Gilbert's book Stumbling on Happiness (p88-89). Read the list of words below and when you have finished, don't look at the list again.
Bed
Rest
Awake
Tired
Dream
Wake
Snooze
Blanket
Doze
Slumber
Snore
Nap
Peace
Yawn
Drowsy
Done? Now without looking at the list, can you tell which of the following words was not on the list? Bed, doze, sleep, or gasoline? You're right! Of course gasoline was not on the list. What you most likely didn't notice was that neither is sleep! Our brain mistakenly remembered reading the word sleep. Because all the words on the list are so closely related, our brain stored the gist of what we read ("a bunch of words about sleeping") rather than storing every one of the words.
Bottom Line: Don't believe everything you remember--even if the memory feels quite vivid.
Disclaimer: "This written advice is absolutely intended to be used, and if used under expert supervision is known to improve organizational and individual effectiveness substantially."
© Abhay Padgaonkar 2007. All Rights Reserved.