I just facilitated a session with a government department here in Australia. In preparing for the event, I interviewed several high-ranking officials to get the “lay of the land.”
What I learned was unsurprising because I see a version of the same thing in almost every professional services (or elite sport, for that matter) setting I work in.
The department did not suffer from a lack of talent. Everyone, as they say, is a bright bulb. Moreover this is a group of highly motivated people who are all keen to “get it right,” be it forecasting, writing a policy paper, or advising the government during public hearings.
The problem is how cultures like these can unintentionally get themselves into trouble. Not “trouble” in the sense of making mistakes. But trouble in terms of making things slower and harder than they have to be.
It starts with what behaviours are rewarded. When individual accomplishments are celebrated, this understandably feeds the individual ego and increases the temptation to keep going it alone rather than engaging with others.
Not only that, but when a group “picks up” on the fact that one of their own is the star, this can actually have a de-motivating effect for the rest of the group. I’ll just defer to them on this…and this…and this. It is perhaps surprising that talented people would do this, but there are a few psychological reasons for this:
- The Halo Effect is when we over-inflate our perceptions of others’ talent when they achieve success, often to our own detriment.
- Imposter Syndrome, that insidious but erroneous belief system that makes even talented people doubt their own skills or accomplishments while internalising the fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”
- The High-Performer Identity Trap. If I’m considered “talented” or a high-performer,” but someone is seen as better than me, that must mean I’m not as good as I thought. Thus dampening my motivation and confidence.
Never mind our very natural tendency to judge other people by their behaviour, while judging ourselves by our intentions. Even talented individuals can fall prey to the misconception that the successful person “made it look easy” when that person no doubt suffered from the very same doubts and worries…and acted anyway. We just don’t get that window into the minds of others, and so the false dichotomy between “us” and “them” is born and perpetuated…often leading to self-doubt and leaky self-confidence.
It is exacerbated by the belief that alone is faster than together. It’s not like the world is getting less chaotic, complex, or pressure-filled, so this “need for speed” with regard to outcomes is, at one level, real and understandable. At the same time, some interviewees reported the disadvantage of this speedy approach, when early consultation could have course-corrected much faster than the downstream repair job that came about as a result of going it alone and leaving any fixes until it was almost too late.
This “faster is better” mentality reminded me of the time when I was in the Olympic Village during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. For security reasons, buildings in the Village are not signed, making the first few days of Village navigation in any Olympics confusing, to say the least. I was walking with some colleagues, one of whom kept pushing our pace while refusing others’ calls to stop and ask for directions. Their rejoinder to the group’s attempts to slow down and figure things out? At least we’re getting somewhere fast! Hilarious in hindsight when the biggest consequence was getting ourselves lost in the middle of the Olympic village.
Not so funny when it means re-doing a major piece of work in the eleventh hour.
Culture, as some say, is like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can feel the effects. This was the feeling I had as I listened to people talk about “the way things are done here.” They could see the effects of this overemphasis on individual champions, as it were, but were less sure of what to do about it.
Interestingly, as dyed-in-the-wool and unchangeable as the department in this story might seem, near the end of the session, a senior manager stood up and called out the group for the part they played in perpetuating the status quo. We have regular stand-ups designed to get people to share their stories…and guess what? You guys are setting land-speed records for how fast you stand up, blurt out an outcome, and sit back down. People in the room chuckled knowingly. Maybe it’s time we all re-thought the purpose of those meetings and start using them to look under the hood of our work and start sharing more.
As this comment points out, this is not a totally invisible problem. The senior manager did the group a favour by “naming the wind.” The key is in getting people to change their behaviours – not just in stand-ups but in all the other scenarios where true, collective high performance is bogging down.
Here’s the thing:
The challenge for high-talent cultures is not getting people to care more or work harder. They are already there.
The challenge is not hiring more smart people. The challenge is in helping the already talented people there not let that label get in their way.
The challenge is not to stop appreciating talented individuals, but to also highlight and reward great process and collaborations.
Because in complex work, the goal is not to have the smartest person in the room.
The goal is to make the whole room smarter.
Stay tuned for more on making the room smarter in my next blog. 🙂
