Stepping off the Ladder of Conclusion

Stepping off the Ladder of Conclusion

A company I worked for were creating standard operating procedures for their workshop and site maintenance employees.  A significant contribution had been made by the engineering team in creating the documentation.  The project had costed over a hundred thousand dollars in billed hours and consultancy fees however it hit a brick wall and literally stopped.

The reason was that the principal engineer in the organisation did not want the documents to be printed for use by the workshop personnel and those out on site.

His concern was that the documents contained valuable IP and he was not prepared to allow them to end up in the hands of their competitors.

The story was that about 7 years ago a former manager had set up a business in direct competition as a result of his accessibility to the company IP.

Interestingly the company IP was commonly shared, in printed and electronic form, with suppliers who manufactured parts for the company.  The principal engineer did not find issue with this.

And so the documents remained in a secure setting untouched for three years.

Does your workplace have someone who makes their mind up and won’t change their views?

These people frustrate others because they seem stuck in the past that no amount of convincing will change their mind, even when you have the facts and evidence that points to a different conclusion to what they expect.  They are blind to their opinion being irrational and so you waste so much time trying to change their mind to no avail.  The loss to the business can be huge.

How much easier would it be if these people had an open mind and were prepared to listen?  It would save so much time and enable the business to be more flexible and adapt quicker.

People react this way usually because the introduction of something new or different causes them to feel threatened or fearful of what might happen.  In the principal engineer’s mind he believed that allowing the documents to be printed would lead to another leak of IP.

These reactions occur subconsciously and take less than 0.1 seconds.  The speed of the reaction is due to the part of the brain that is activated.  It is the old brain that is being activated including the primitive brain; responsible for the fight or flight reaction, and the limbic brain where emotions and memories are located.  This area of the brain is our oldest and evolved to protect us as a species.  At the first sense of threat, the old brain prepares the body to either fight or to flee.  Our response to potential or real threat today is no different to how it would have been thousands of years ago.

Cortisol is the neurotransmitter that is released which prepares the body to fight or flee.  Scientists have recently found that cortisol also closes down the higher regions of the brain including the neo cortex; responsible for language and logic, as well as the prefrontal cortex where trust and creativity are located.

With these parts of the brain shut down people only have past memories and experiences to help them make sense of the new information.  It is an unconscious reaction they won’t be aware of it happening but it has a profound effect on their behaviour.  If the memories are negative, as in the case of the principal engineer, we will have a negative response.

How can you prevent or minimise this occurring in yourself or people you work with?

It comes down to the conversation you have because conflict lies within the story.

When people disagree or refuse to listen is it because of how they have interpreted the situation.  They have used assumptions, personal beliefs and reached a conclusion that they strongly hold onto.  As you have read earlier, this occurs very quickly.

Ladder of Conclusions

Ladder of Conclusion

Drawing conclusions quickly is called going up the Ladder of Conclusion.  Developed initially by Organisational Psychologist Chris Argyris as the Ladder of Inference, later revised by Peter Senge and recently receiving the backing of scientific evidence through the work of Judith E Glaser, The Ladder of Conclusion is a useful tool to use to see how you and others create individual meaning to the situation.

What does it mean to go up the Ladder of Conclusion?

It means that you have selected some of the data out of what you have heard, applied your own memories, experience, assumptions and beliefs to it, and then reached a conclusion or an opinion that you strongly feel right about.  You focus on defending your position which can cause you to become angry, anxious &/or frustrated.

What you can do?

The moment you notice that you have jumped to a conclusion or realised another person has, your best option is to redirect the conversation to why and how the conclusion was made.  The intention is to allow space for either you or the person you are talking to, to calm their old brain activity allowing the higher brains to be reactivated.

Questions that you can use on yourself or to help people move down the Ladder of Conclusion include:-

  • What has lead you to draw this conclusion?
  • What beliefs do you have about the situation?
  • What facts have you used?  What facts have you disregarded?
  • What assumptions are you using?
  • When I say ………… what do you understand it to mean?
  • What feelings are you experiencing?

The process is logical and conscious.  It creates a healthy conversation that leads to outcomes that all parties have contributed to.  It allows people to express what they are feeling using a common language and a simple framework.  You don’t need a complicated diagram, just a ladder with a few terms.

It is not the topic of the conversation that is the issue; it is how a person feels about it that matters.  Effective conversations provide the space to express and share thoughts and feelings.  Unfortunately in our time poor workplaces, we forget to provide this hence we end up dealing with miscommunication and misunderstanding.

We assume so much.

Some say its because of the amount of information that is available to us that our brains cannot process it.  Instead our we limit this by relying on what we already know and understand.  In today’s world, where creativity and flexibility can be the difference between success and failure, this limiting mindset is one to be aware of.

Practice using the Ladder of Conclusion on yourself when you find you are racing up the ladder.  Journal your thoughts and seek to identify patterns in your behaviour.  This will lead to useful insights that help you remain open rather than fixed and shut down.

Conversational Intelligence and the art of Priming

I attended a conference last week.  That isn’t noteworthy in itself except for the big learning I got from it.

 

You see I experienced first hand the value of priming.

 

So what is Priming?

 

It is a technique that is used heavily in Conversational Intelligence ® that is proven to increase the levels of trust with and between people.  When we prime people we open them up to higher order thinking, sharing what’s on their mind and curious to understand other perspectives.  It is a fantastic technique to use when you have to deal with an unpleasant situation.

 

The priming that I was subjected to was not intentional; in fact I see it as accidental.  It happened as a result of a meeting the state presidents attended the day before the conference.  We got to know each other and spent an afternoon sharing, suggesting, challenging and understanding.  I left feeling that I belonged to the team.

 

How often when you attend conferences do you know many people there?  Do you find it hard sometimes to find people who you connect with and share your point of view?  How does this impact what you absorb from the presentations?

 

As a result of the presidents meeting I had a very positive outlook on the 2 day conference.  We found ourselves touching base regularly during the conference and we talked at length about the topics.  We didn’t have to spend time getting to know each other because we had already established the team.  Instead our time was spent discussing the concepts and contexts and gaining a deeper meaning.  I felt involved, respected and trusted.

 

Priming, as a technique, is about engaging people’s higher order thinking.  It does this by down regulating their fears and uncertainties about the situation.  Only when this happens can people move into higher brain thinking.  This is because fear and uncertainly release cortisol which would otherwise shut down these parts of the brain.  Priming helps move people out of their default protective behaviour patterns that create distrust and insecurity.

 

How can this be achieved?

 

Supposing you need to speak to your team about a new cost cutting requirement sweeping the organisation.  These discussions are never easy and you know that it will result in them becoming upset &/or insecure about their jobs.  Teams become demotivated, their performance drops and bickering increases.

 

Priming offers a different outcome.

 

The intention of priming is for you to gain an understanding of what your team members are thinking about the situation, what their top concerns are, and what they need out of the meeting.  Your role in priming is to ask questions, clarify points and to listen without judging.  This works by settling their anxieties, giving them a space to open up and be understood.  We feel better when we have had a chance to share what is on our minds but we can only do this when we feel safe.  Therefore it is critical not to judge, crticise or defend your opinion.  Your goal is to reduce their anxiety and cortisol.  Conversational Intelligence ® is focused on brain activity and learning how to manage your own and that of others.

 

Now when you have the team meeting, your team will be ready to tackle the issues rather than become inwardly focused and operating out of their primitive brain.  To maintain the energy you continue to ask questions and listen without judgement allowing the team to digest the requirements and talk.  You will find the team more engaged as a result.

 

The key to all the suggested techniques that I offer is to experiment, fail, reflect, tweak, and experiment again to find a way that works for you.  Unfortunately there are no magic spells or quick fixes to this technique or any others in the Conversational Intelligence ® portfolio.  Practice will make improvement and you will see the benefits from the changes that take place.

 

If you would like more information on how to use the priming technique, please connect with me.

How to Engineer Conversations that Deliver

Did you know that up to 70% of your conversations fail to deliver the message or the outcome you expect.

 

What could this be saying about the way you lead, collaborate, and work?

 

Conversation is the foundation of what it is to be human.  Together with a few birds and whales, we are the only species to have the FOXP2 gene that enables us to use language to communicate.  We have been given a great gift.

 

So why is our communication so poor?  Let me show you.

 

Science is now providing rich evidence on how conversation impacts us at a neurochemical level and explains why we so often transmit the wrong messages.

 

Whilst the science is complex, the explanation isn’t.

 

Join me on my next webinar as I show you the impact of conversation on the brain and teach you how to structure your conversation to get great outcomes.  You will be able to change the way you communicate immediately after the webinar is over.

 

The 90 minute webinar will be held on Friday March 10 commencing 9.30am WST.  Please click here for the registration page and webinar link.

Self Awareness is not a dirty word.

I was talking to a friend yesterday.  I hadn’t spoken to her in a little while and so I asked her how her company was going with the downturn in the mining sector.  The company she works for supplies to the sector.

 

The good news was that she felt her company had sufficient alternative markets that they can focus on these until the local market improves.  The bad news was that the need to move quickly to secure markets elsewhere has negatively impacted the culture of the organisation.  She said that there is a lot of blaming and conflict between teams and it is getting worse.  The GM’s persona has changed considerably, so too the behaviour of the leadership team. She said that over the past 18 months motivation and enthusiasm across the organisation has plummeted.

 

So what has happened here?

 

Much of our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings are the result of unconscious processes in our brains.  Think about it.  You spend most of your day doing and saying things that you don’t consciously think much about.  From your habitual morning routines of breakfast, exercise, and getting to work, to how you do the tasks you do at work and how you react to others.  Pretty much all of this uses stuff we already have stored in the brain.  We rely heavily on our past experience, knowledge and skills to do the activities we do and we act and behave as a result of what we have stored. Our brains allow these processes to occur knowing that they will not harm us and generally will be safe.

 

This is a good thing for our brain because the amount of processing of incoming sensory information from our eyes, ears, skin etc that it would otherwise have to do in order to interpret our world moment to moment, would surely cause the brain to explode.

 

Imagine waking up every morning and having to decide your next move based on what you saw/heard/tasted/felt.  You would certainly feel that everything and everyone was a potential threat.  Your anxiety levels would be high and you would be on edge all the time.  This could not be good for your heart!!

 

When we come across a new or different situation, this is exactly what happens.  In my friend’s workplace the down turn in the mining industry has meant that the reliable and trusted ways of working no longer apply and this has put significant strain on the business and people.  Everyone’s brains are reacting to the situation in their most primitive way: Fight or Flight.  This is a normal reaction but it causes so many problems in an organisation when this is not recognised.

 

Research has shown that the brain prepares us for the threat by releasing cortisol and testosterone to ready the body for high intensity activity (either fighting or running away). This is our fight or flight reaction.  It is our default response to anything new or threatening.  Interestingly, the brain does not differentiate between real or perceived threat so both result in the same reaction.

 

The cortisol shuts down the higher order thinking and executive parts of the brain and thus the brain relies solely on memory and past experience to remove the threat.  This makes sense because you already know how to escape or how to fight given you’ve survived previous threatening situations.  You really don’t want to be using you higher level brain to develop a new skill or decide on potential options for survival in the face of the threat.  You want to react right now.

 

The level of actual threat in our day to day lives is significantly lower than it was in primitive times however our brain responds just the same. Our brains do not know the difference between life and death situation and the minor threats we encounter day to day so our reactions are similar internally.

 

Going back now to my friend’s company, the GM and the leadership team will have responded to the situation as any brain will have done ie defaulted to primitive responses.  Their brains will have perceived a threat and triggered the release of cortisol and that will have closed down their executive and thinking brains.  The changes in their behaviour indicate that they are now trying to protect and defend rather than seeking out solutions to the problems.

 

A big problem is that this primitive system is self sustaining until the threat is removed.  As a cave man/woman, you would have fought or fled the threat and either lived or died.  The threat would normally be short lived.

 

In today’s business world unfortunately, a threat can last months or years depending on the situation and the person’s mindset.  During this time the brain is constantly releasing cortisol and therefore shutting down the parts of the brain that would be most helpful for removing the threat.  Responding in a defensive protective manner becomes your normal persona.

 

Whilst our response to threat is normal, it is what happens next that defines the leadership team.

 

A leadership team with high self awareness will know what they are feeling and why.  They would consciously work on decreasing the cortisol in their brains and increasing the use of their executive and thinking brains.  They would be building trust in others and involving them in finding ways to improve the situation.  Where threats release cortisol, trust releases oxytocin, a hormone that, amongst other things, promotes creativity, strategic thinking and good decision making.

 

Leadership teams with low self awareness spend little time reflecting on what they are thinking or feeling.  They lose their ability to listen and share instead becoming opinionated and addicted to being right.  This is why disagreements and communication breakdowns occur.  Leaders can suffer amygdala hijacking causing outbursts and poor decision making.  As the situation continues their anxiety causes them to be sensitive to the nuances of others or their surroundings, both real and perceived.  Leaders become distrustful of other and begin to micromanage.  Many conversations that should be had, remain unsaid.

 

Most leaders have attended leadership development programs and self awareness is an important topic in such programs.  Yet I see and hear time and again of senior leaders and CEO’s behaving without much self awareness.  The situation where my friend works is not unusual.  I do believe that leaders and CEO’s have the best intention however without self awareness they have no understanding of the impact they have.

 

It is clear that training courses alone don’t prepare leaders well enough to deal effectively with stressful situations.  Self awareness is a journey of discovery that occurs best when you have a trusted advisor.  Someone who can help navigate and keep you heading in the right direction.  Mentors and coaches are ideal because they have nothing other than your best interests at heart.

 

When you are next confronted by a situation that threatens you or makes you fearful, how will you respond?  Remember that to feel threatened and feel fear is normal, it is what you do next that defines you.

 

Want to understand more about your brain and how to manage it effectively?  Call or email me to arrange a time for a chat.

Collaboration: How is it working in your company?

10 Signs that Your Organization Could Use a Collaboration Tune Up

 

Many organizations lose productivity, quality, morale, and customer satisfaction due to poor collaboration among teams, units, and employees.  It can stifle decision making when their is a belief that everyone has a right to have input and they have to agree.  When trust is low, collaboration isn’t able to penetrate the silos and the belief systems leading to discontent and frustration.

 

Teams don’t form naturally.  Add to this that many teams today don’t work out of the same building let alone the same state.  Our hierarchical organisation structures define functional boundaries and our comfort zones. We become protective of our turf.  All these things work against effective cross functional collaboration.

 

To find out whether your organization might be suffering from the consequences of poor collaboration, take this simple assessment.

 

Circle any of the following statements that seem even a little bit true….

 

  1. There is a general sense that it is hard to get things done in your organization.

 

  1. Decisions are frequently delayed by the friction of working across units or silos.

 

  1. Projects are frequently over budget due to the friction of working across units or silos.

 

  1. Projects frequently don’t achieve their desired level of quality due to the friction of working across units or silos.

 

  1. Products or services sometimes do not go out with the desired level of quality, and this may be due to the way that teams or different units work together (or don’t).

 

  1. Managers and employees seem to lack the skills required to collaborate effectively.

 

  1. When a project misses a milestone, people point the finger at other teams or units.

 

  1. There is resentment or a dysfunctional working relationship among two or more business units/teams in your organization.

 

  1. There is resentment or a dysfunctional working relationship among two or more high-level executives in your organization, and this dysfunction ripples through the organization.

 

  1. Employees spend too much of their time on unproductive activities related to coping with the stress and hassle of pushing things forward, instead of the productive activities of creating things, making things, selling things, and serving customers.

If you circled even one of the above statements, we should have a 30 minute phone conversation. Remember: You get what you tolerate. Why tolerate the kind of hassles related to poor collaboration? Believe Achieve Coaching & Consulting might be able to help. Contact us today at success@nullbelieveachievecoach.com.au.