July 29th, 2003

 

Leadership physics

 

Gene Mage

 

Harry S. Truman, returning home from Potsdam aboard the USS Augusta, took the opportunity to announce to the crew the detonation of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.  While people continue to passionately debate the merits of that world-changing decision, most of us will agree that for the first time in history mankind glimpsed the enormous energy resident within a few pounds of ordinary matter.

 

During the early 20th century, the evolution of thought in the world of physics began to permeate the field of human behavior.  If indeed objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless otherwise acted upon, human beings tend to move in distinct directions with great inertia.  If tremendous energy resides hidden within ordinary matter, extraordinary potential abides within ordinary people.  Those who began to look more closely at the physical world found infinitely more than anyone imagined.  

 

Have you thought about the “physics” of getting your organization in motion lately?  Concepts about how energy flows among people and organization can be a new lens for us to examine what makes organizations “tick”.  So, with apologies to Edwin Nevis of the Gestalt Institute and other great thinkers on this topic, here are a few of my observations on energy in organizations.

 

  1. We tend to look for “closure” too soon.  Pioneering psychologists Kaffka, Kohler, and Lewin observed the principle that we humans work energetically to “close” that which is unfinished.  We are wired, if you will, to see things in their completed form whether they are complete or not.  This tendency to ascribe meaning, patterns, and form to the sea of sensory inputs flooding our minds explains a wide range of human behaviors. 

  2. We see what we expect to see.  We recognize our friend in the office because we expect to see him in the office.  On the street he walks right by unnoticed because he is out of context.  If we go to the office and our friend is absent, we feel uneasy until he returns and completes the picture for us.

    These strongly scripted expectations color the way we view the world.  We see what we expect to see even if the data paints an entirely different picture to an objective observer.  Hence we are often blinded to the information that does not “fit” with our concept of how things should be. 

  3. We miss subtle differences.  As leaders, our desire to quickly “fit” information into comfortable categories can guide us down some dark alleys.  We are prone to apply past learning to new situations without fully appreciating those things that make the new situation distinctive.  So, when counseling an executive, we find him protesting, “Hey, hot shot, my approach has worked great in the past, so why should I change?” 
    The answer, often only grasped through painful experience, is that what made us successful in another environment may be precisely wrong for the current situation.  Instead, we must learn to be learners, continually adapting our approach to the uniqueness of each circumstance.  Instead of quickly forming the answer, we learn to suspend our judgment until the picture comes into focus.  Instead of applying our traditional viewpoints to every topic, we open ourselves to alternative views that sometimes attach an entirely new meaning to the same set of facts. 

 

For those of us who tend to see the answers quickly, we would do well to exercise patience, and allow the group to form their own conclusions about the subject.  Then, as the organization begins to “see” the picture together, we all get energized about making the picture happen.  Exercising that patience means listening and watching much more, and commenting much less.  It means replacing judgment with curiosity.  It means respecting the possibility that our initial impressions about someone or something may be wrong or incomplete.  Then, just as in the world of physics, and every great field of thought, we will discover that there is far more for us to see than first meets the eye.


 Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is author of the book Managing for High Performance.  Send Gene your questions at www.makingitwork.com.