Business Breakthrough Coach RobinTones has been drawing peoples’ attention to some interesting research. UCL researcher Dr. Tali Sharot has conducted experiments which show that 80% of us are genetically programmed to be optimistic. The study showed that under an MRI scan, not only did the optimists not take adverse information to be relevant to themselves, but that their brains did not even process the information.
The research implication is that even if you try on your own to be “realistic” your own brain is working against you. In other words, you don’t “consciously deny” bad news, threats or hazards – you simply just do not recognise them. However, the use of the word “optimistic” then implies this is a matter of your personal attitude. We are certain that this really is not helpful.
We guess if we were all hard wired to be pessimistic (e.g. Marvin the robot in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) the human race would have died out years ago as we would have concluded it wasn't worth getting out of bed! So we view this study and many others that are similar as an exercise in the bleeding obvious. This is not to do with whether the findings are right or wrong, but - are they any use?
We have long argued that if managers manage on the basis that it is equally likely that things will go wrong rather than go right, they will find that most things go right. Even when things go wrong these "Forward Facing Managers" as we call them become mentally attuned to quickly fixing the problems and then using the learning to stop them reoccurring.
When experts label these things as optimism/pessimism this infers that the problem is a mental attitude (of course it is "your mental attitude" that is the problem not mine!) Consequently these psychological studies may be interesting but are of little use in providing practical answers to the practical problems we all face in our work and life in general.
The man who ran around that Italian cruise liner shouting "there you are, told you this would happen" would not have been popular or helpful at the time. What would have been helpful was lifeboat and evacuation drill and coherent situational leadership, starting with the captain. What would have helped before the event was sticking to the course that for very good reason had been programmed into the ship's navigation systems.
So what do Forward Facing Managers do that is not about whether they are naturally optimistic or pessimistic? They deal with "realistic" and use a management process to do this. The Achievement Process is a "process for managing" that does not have to go near mental attitudes. It provides a simple, yet comprehensive process for getting more things right first time more often AND enables individuals to connect to the process and manage their own behaviour differently to get different, better results - fast. It is the only tool available from anyone anywhere that can do this.
However, as Robin Tones so rightly is pointing out to his audiences, you may need help to step outside your “genetically pre-conditioned” reactions. Even without the UCL research, this is a human behaviour commonly seen whenever any individual’s current reality is under threat (today’s news about the nurses and midwifes in the NHS, for example?).
It does not need labelling, it needs to be dealt with - that is why we think two things are essential
- A robust way of thinking about how to get things done that is free from attitudinal and judgemental distractions
- An independent person with whom to discuss situations and to help you apply your process based thinking.
This is a key element in what we do.
The Cost of Behaviour is brought to you by Steve Goodman, Tony Ericson, Terry Murphy and Barbara Craven, the founding partners of Achievement Coaching International where we help businesses to learn different thinking to enable different actions that deliver the different resultsthat Make the Big Differences that Transform Results.
This series looks at the corrosive and far reaching effects for business profitability, and even survival, of failures in behaviour. It challenges all those that believe in “don’t rock the boat”.
You might also be interested in our "Excellence Quartet" of blogs promoting the cause of Excellence as the key to prosperity. We publish regular articles using a recent business/financial topic to highlight different perspectives and conclusions to those obtained by conventional thinking and techniques. You can read the other four blogs at our web site link page.
