Listening is like driving.  Everyone thinks they are good at it.  But probably less than half of people really are.  That’s why I was interested by the research of Kate Muir.

Research into how emotions change over time has revealed that negative emotions tend to fade to a greater extent over time compared to positive emotions, an effect known as the fading affect bias.

Talking to others is an important way in which this process can be enhanced: frequent social disclosure of past emotional events can help dissipate negative emotions and maintain positive emotions.  The question is, how and why does talking help?

Kate described experimental research which demonstrates that the degree of responsiveness of the listener during social disclosure is pivotal in how the speaker feels afterwards. Further, merely responding to the speaker is not enough.  This research provides preliminary evidence that there are particular types of listener responses which are associated with the speaker feeling less negative about unpleasant events, and more positive about pleasant events.

She listed three factors that were key for good listening.  Here they are and what they mean:

Alignment

• Participants take turns at talk allowing speaker to tell story
• Smooth conversational flow
• Mutual understanding of story meaning

Emotional Support

• Listener takes role as troubles’ recipient
• Display understanding of speaker’s emotional state
• Express sympathetic concern

Encouraging Positive Focus

• Encourage speaker to build on positive aspects of negative events
• Develop positive interpretation of events
• And you need to demonstrate understanding when someone shares negative events:
• Anticipatory response uses same evaluative term as speaker
• Continuer is in the form of expression of sympathy, i.e. emotional support
• Listener tells related story (self-disclosure)
• More sympathy expressed as part of story assessment
• Story agrees with speaker’s assessment demonstrating understanding of meaning
• Acknowledgement of speaker’s negative feelings as valid emotional reaction
• Self disclosure engenders rapport and intimacy

The suggestions for sharing positive events mimics the research by Gable on Active Constructive Responding.  Fascinating…next time you talk to someone, you know what to do.

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Speaker Bio: Kate Muir is a Research Fellow in linguistics and social behaviour at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Kate’s current research focuses on the factors that influence linguistic accommodation, including differences in power roles and personality traits, and the social consequences of accommodation.

Kate’s other research interests include the influence of social interaction and individual differences upon subjective and objective aspects of autobiographical memories, including reported emotional intensity and memory narratives. In her spare time Kate teaches on the Psychology undergraduate degree for the Open University.

Kate completed her BSc (Hons) and PhD in Psychology at the University of Leeds in the UK. Her doctoral research concentrated on the roles of social disclosure and listener behaviour in the fading affect bias. This work demonstrated that listener behaviour is an important factor in emotional regulation processes which encourage negative emotions to fade and positive emotions to be retained in autobiographical memory, and has been recently published in the journal Memory. Kate lives near Bristol with her husband and young son.

On our January 16, 2013 blog, I gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  We have been exploring how these biases affect the ability to lead and make good decisions.

In the 6th in our series, I wanted to talk about Bandwidth Bias.  This is the tendency to go with the crowd.  It can also be called “groupthink” and when it turns negative, it can be a “mob mentality.”   And this can happen in groups large and small.  It can happen in your family, in your department or team at work, or across an entire culture.

Why does this happen?

We like to conform.  We like to fit in.  Consider the famous experiments by Solomon Asch, psychologist from the 1950s, who conducted experiments where participants were part of vision exercise where they had to gauge line lengths and compare them.   Participants made these assessments in a group with others.  Although these “others” were assumed to be participants, they were not.  They were in on the experiment and would knowingly give incorrect answers.  The result was the tendency for participants to provide incorrect answers as a result of being influenced by the intentional wrong answers of the group. In fact, 75% went along with the group at least one time with answers that were clearly not right.

What else did Asch learn from his experiment?

1. The number of people present had an effect.  The larger the number of people, the more people felt the need to conform.
2. If even one other person gives the actual correct answer, the need to conform is lessened.  Think social support.
3. People cite not wanting to risk ridicule as a reason for conforming or that they doubted their own judgment

How does this impact business?

Teams can jump on the bandwagon to support team members even when they see a flaw.  Or sometimes, it can cause a sudden release of similar products that are not well received in the market.   It can cause the recruiting of candidates that are not as strong simply because their alma mater has prestige.  Or it can cause your company to pass on the perfect candidate because they fear their extended unemployment is more meaningful than it is.

What does this mean for leadership? -

1. Create a culture where employees can dissent
2. Assign someone to be the devil’s advocate – not to be belligerent and petty, but to find logical arguments and unseen consequences
3. Hire people in your organization that do not think like you do
4. In a brainstorm or discussion, stop and ask, what can go wrong here?  What contingency should we prepare for?  What are other alternatives?  Ask these questions even when you all agree you have the perfect answer.  The goals are to get you and your team thinking critically.  

Have other suggestions on how we can lead to avoid this or other cognitive biases?  Comment below. We’d love to hear your ideas.

In the fifth in our series, I am expanding on the Illusion of Control Bias – the tendency to overestimate your degree of influence over external events. The classic example is gambling…think someone who is convinced they have a system for choosing the right random Keno or lottery numbers.

This cognitive bias is a particularly interesting bias to me because unlike other biases, this one has an interesting upside.   It can encourage people to take responsibility or to act on something they otherwise wouldn’t. Consider entrepreneurship, which requires real risk taking – the chances of success are stacked against you.  In this case, overestimating potential control over the successful outcome causes the entrepreneur to act in the first place.  And let’s face it, without trying; you would never get there.

But like all biases, there is a definite darker side.   For decision making to lead to optimal results, the leader must be able to accurately assess the situation.  Bad assumptions can lead to not only negative results, but also less inclination to learn from mistakes and decreased sensitivity to feedback.

Wondering if you suffer from this bias?  Think harder in situations where you are particularly familiar.  Familiarity can increase the likelihood of this bias.  Also, if you are very clear on the desired outcome, you may be especially susceptible.

Power can also contribute. According, to Niro Sivanathan, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School, ”Power can over inflate self-esteem to the extent that people believe they have more control over outcomes than they actually do.” Niro’s work explored how individuals cope with the sudden acquisition or loss of power. What he found is that rapid increases in power can prompt people to overreact to their newly enjoyed power with very negative outcomes as a result of the illusion of control.    Niro found that people in power believed themselves to have control over uncontrollable situations, such as predicting the outcome of a die roll.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could lead to leadership and decision making snafus.   Niro’s studies include concrete examples of companies that have collapsed after the overambitious decisions of those ‘drunk on power’, as well as political leaders whose overestimation of their strength has led them into conflict.

What does this mean for your organization?  Try to be aware, especially in situations where you are familiar or are especially clear on the desired outcome.  Also, think about areas where you are estimating effort, time, money and other resources.   Be sure to listen to the facts and measure results as you proceed.  When appropriate, use analytical and process management tools that can help expose blind spots and weaknesses.  And finally, if you have a culture that encourages open communication, use one of the best overall tools of all – listen (one of my favorite positive business skills).  Because as we have all experienced, often, upon looking back, we will see the information was there all along.

We wanted to give you something that would help make your life a little better next year.   Keep these things in mind when you are crafting your New Year’s Resolutions.

1. Give something away.  It makes you happier than buying something for yourself.  College students were given money to either give away or spend on themselves.  Guess which group was happier.  When we buy stuff, we always think it will make us happier, for a longer period of time, than it actually does.  Think – what did you give for the holidays versus what did you get?
2. Give an experience.  If you are going to give something away, research shows that giving someone an experience versus a thing you can hold, makes people happier.  It also makes people happier to be with others (even if you are an introvert).  For example I gave my husband a trip around a racetrack for his birthday one year.  He’s still talking about it.
3. Stop watching the news.  It’s depressing.  There is a ratio of 27:1 negative to positive news.  So no wonder you’re depressed watching it or reading about it.  You’ll find out about the important things eventually.  And with all that free time you could do something that actually makes you happier.
4. Spice Up That Date Night.  Don’t do the thing you always do – dinner and a movie.  Do something new.  Do something active.  Research shows that couples are happier when they do something novel together.
5. Fight Your Confirmation Bias.  What is that, you ask?  It’s your tendency to always confirm your own beliefs and ignore facts that don’t fit your beliefs.  For example, I will get an email and KNOW someone is upset with something.  When I consult my husband he invariably asks, “What did the email actually say?”  And he’s usually right.  Play the ‘devil’s advocate’ when there is a situation in which the facts are a bit fuzzy.
6. Manage Up.  It’s gotta be done so don’t wimp out on that conversation.  But be saavy.  Learn what makes your boss tick before you do.  Is there a way this person likes to communicate?  Phone/email/instant message?  What are this person’s strengths?  And what is the specific thing you are asking for (within reason)?  Then start with asking their perspective.  Because it’s not a conversation until you ask a question.
7. Sleep More.  This is a ‘duh’ research finding.  But Tom Rath encapsulates loads of research in his book Eat Sleep Move that you are warding off depression, processing things you’ve learned, performing better at work and at home with just a few extra Z’s.
8. Move more.  Like the above, we all know we should get more movement in our day, but did you know you can actually fight off cancer by vigorously exercising 30 minutes/day?  Not to mention people who exercise do better on academic tests.  (Read:  You’re smarter than a couch potato.)  Better than a pill, that exercising thing.
9. Plan Your Meetings Ahead of Time.  A lot of your day is spent in meetings.  We get it.  You barely have time to breathe, nonetheless have time to Google the person you are meeting with.  But in order to make your life more productive, you’ll need to plan ahead.  What topics are you going to cover?  How much time will they take?  Who is speaking to them?  Who is taking notes? Facilitating? Keeping time?  (Hint:  These last three should not all be the same person.)
10. Create a “Grati-do” list – I get stressed out just looking at all the of the things that I need to get done.  Even crossing them off doesn’t make me feel better.  I just replace that item with something else.  So in my phone, I’ve created a list that I add to with all the things I’m grateful for.  And looking back on the list when I open it makes me happy all over again.  Oh, yes, I remember when my daughter first said ‘Mama’.  It’s one list that you can add to forever.  And it helps you know what makes you happy, so you can do more of those things (i.e. being in nature, being with family, etc.)
11. Create your “To NOT do” list – I am very good at putting things on my list.  But not very good at taking them off.  And the more I add, the most stressed I get.  As the old adage goes, “Less is more.”  So go through your list and see (as Julie Morgenstern says) what you can ‘Delete, Delay, Delegate, or Diminsh.’  You’ll never be happier underachieving.
12. Vision Your Future.   Imagine yourself 5 years from now and everything is going just as you wanted it to.  Even better, actually, at work and at home.  What does it look like?  Who is with you?  Take 15 minutes to write that down and be as specific as possible.
13. Ask yourself provocative questions.  Before crafting your New Years Resolutions, try asking yourself this:  What is the smallest change you could make to your life next year (work or home) that would have the biggest impact?
14. If there is one thing you do next year to make yourself happier and more productive, it is MEDITATE.  I spoke with meditation expert Sharon Salzberg and she said the latest neuroscience research shows that all you need to change your brain is 30 minutes/week and it doesn’t have to be all at once.  “Short moments, many times.”  And check out her new book called Real Happiness at Work.

There are many lists for the new year….take a look at the ones on this list that resonate with you.  Choose one or two.  And commit to them.  Change takes about 21 days.  So try them out and let us know how it goes.

On our January 16, 2013 blog, we gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to faulty judgments. So much of positive leadership hinges on good decision making, which, of course, affects company culture and workplace happiness. So, let’s expand the discussion.

In the fourth of our series, I am going to talk about the Anchoring Bias. This bias is the tendency to favor a piece of information and “anchor on” or favor that information when making decisions, even though it may have no logical relevance to the decision at hand. With the Anchoring Bias, the information becomes our reference point to evaluate and make decisions. And, as you might guess, this can lead us astray.

One illustrative example is a series of studies that were done in the Real Estate industry. In these studies, before touring a home, appraisal agents were broken into four groups. Each group of agents were given information about the home including a standard MLS listing sheet and comparable prices of houses in the area. The twist is that each of the four groups saw a completely different listing price. After touring the home, they were asked to write the appraisal and then list the factors that went into their pricing. As you might have guessed, the listing price they saw prior to the tour significantly affected the appraisal price…the higher the listing price, the higher the average appraisal price. And these agents weren’t even generally aware of this effect. When asked to list the factors that were important to them in pricing the property, only 8% said that listing price was a top-three consideration.

So what is a leader to do to minimize the Anchoring Bias?

1. Remember experience is important.  But don’t overestimate historical information as a predictor to a successful outcome. Stop to ask yourself if history is relevant from time to time.
2. Watch out for the classic “business-as-usual attitude” during changing conditions.
3. Stop every once in a while, employ a blank slate, and really look at a problem.
4. Check for anchoring in your budgetary processes. For instance, in new markets, clean slate thinking could help.
5. Expand the team to people who can bring fresh eyes to assess and share their opinions to gain better perspective. This is good for teambuilding as well.

We hope that was helpful.  What did we miss?  We’d love to hear some of your tips to avoid anchoring.

“Don’t believe everything you think.”

On our January 16, 2013 blog, we gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  So much of positive leadership is about good decision making so we really wanted to expand on different biases.

In the third of our series, I am going to talk about Confirmation Bias – the tendency to give more weight to information that confirms we already believe to be true. Fact is, we actually seek information or evidence to confirm our existing beliefs.  And as we hear information that confirms what we believe, we feel good – rewarded and validated.

As it turns out, the confirmation bias is one of the most common cognitive biases.  And it’s not hard to see why.  We like to be right.  And having to retract previously held beliefs can be downright embarrassing.  But this can be dangerous.  Who ever says, “Let’s think inside the box on this problem?” The confirmation bias shuts down creativity, reduces learning, increases entrenchment, tarnishes corporate culture and hinders good decision-making.  And, in my experience, I have seen it show up as arrogance, bad listening skills and even the occasional “knock down, drag out” debates that goes nowhere.

There are multitudes of studies that confirm this bias but I’ll quickly highlight an Ohio State study done in 2009.   The study showed that people spend a whopping 36% more time reading an essay if it aligns with their current opinions.   Now, think about this, in this day and age of the Internet, how easy is it for us to just keep supporting what ever we prefer to believe with a quick Google search, we can feel oh-so validated.

So as a leader what can we do?  How can we create a stellar culture that breeds as much growth and learning as possible?  Here are a few ideas:

1. Make it a practice to ask the hard questions and practice entertaining the opposite of where you stand.  Yes, think outside your own box.
2. Make questioning part of your corporate values and integrate it into your processes.
3. Be open to learning from others – and I am not talking about just the company leaders, either.
4. If you feel strongly about something, attempt to look for evidence to the contrary.  Give it a chance and see if you still feel the same.
5. If you are a manager, don’t just hire “mini me’s” but people from different backgrounds with different ideas.
6. And finally, listen.  Really listen.

So, what did I miss?  I would love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

On our January 16, 2013 blog, I gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  So much of positive leadership is about good decision making so we really wanted to expand on different biases. In the second of our series, I am going to talk about Negativity Bias – the tendency to give more weight to negative information than positive information. When I think about the Negativity Bias, I immediately think of the amygdala, which is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain (specifically, if you happen to be curious, in medial temporal lobe).

The amygdala triggers your emotions faster than your conscious awareness and played a very important role in our past.  Think caveman and a T-Rex  – the amygdala quickly interprets the hints of danger (about 20 milliseconds) and activates the caveman’s sympathetic nervous system….Zog runs and lives another day.  If Zog had waited to become aware (about 300 milliseconds), he would’ve been lunch.

According Rich Hanson, a neuropsychologist, “humans evolved to be fearful — since that helped keep our ancestors alive.” The difference between then and now is that the likelihood of being eaten alive is pretty darn small today in modern times.  So while it helped our ancestors live, for us, it can be a nuisance when we find ourselves overreacting or favoring negative information over positive.  And we really do favor the negative.  We know that negative stimuli produce more neural activity than positive stimuli.   And to add insult to injury, negative information is more quickly stored into long term memory than positive information.

And the result?  We all have negativity bias.  As a species, we give greater weight to negative experiences and information than positive.  (No wonder the old broadcast news adage, “If it bleeds, it leads” has been so popular.)

So, what does this mean in your organization?

• -It means threats are overestimated.  Ever wonder how that untrue rumor of layoffs spread like wildfire in such a short span of time?
• -It means that your whole team, you included, are more inclined to notice mistakes than achievements.
• -It means a bruised (read: scared) ego can run “amuck” when it’s simply not warranted.
• -It means teams can underestimate an opportunity and you can be missing the boat on the next potential target market or product/service.
• -It also means teams can see a resource as scarce causing a more political environment and absence of risk taking.

So what can you do?

• -For starters, be aware of the Negativity Bias. And make your teams aware.
• -Understand that it takes about four pieces of positive information to each negative piece for teams to be happy  – which, by the way, has been proven to lead to productivity.   So share positive information. Bring it to the surface.
• -Dispute negative thinking with the facts.  Ask questions that surface the facts.
• -Don’t ruminate and don’t let your teams ruminate.  Move on rather than going over the same negative information again and again.

I hope this was interesting and I welcome any comments.  In Part 3 in our “Cognitive Bias and Leadership” Series, I will be exploring Confirmation Bias, which is the tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms what we already think or prefer.

Be sure to stay tuned as we expand on each of the cognitive biases above in this blog series.

Cognitive Bias

What is cognitive bias and what the heck does it have to do with leadership? A cognitive bias is our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes. This means we have a tendency to make judgments that are faulty…and faulty in predictable ways. Of course anything that affects our judgments and decision making will ultimately affect our ability to effectively lead. In this blog, I am going to give a quick definition of some of the cognitive biases to be aware of in the workplace. The following could significantly impact on your organization:

1. Negativity Bias – the tendency to give more weight to negative information than positive information.
2. Confirmation Bias – the tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms what we already think or prefer.
3. Anchoring Bias – the tendency to favor a piece of information and “anchor” or rely too heavily on that information when making decisions.
4. Illusion of Control Bias – the tendency to overestimate your degree of influence over other external events.
5. Bandwagon Bias – the tendency to believe things just because many other people do….think herd behavior here.
6. Mere-exposure Bias – the tendency to prefer things because people are familiar with them.
7. Irrational Escalation Bias – the tendency to justify more investment based on the investment made prior, regardless of any new evidence that might suggest the decision wasn’t the best path.
8. Status Quo Bias (or System Justification Bias) – the tendency to like things to stay relatively the same and avoid change.
9. In-group Bias – the tendency to view your own group or department as superior to another.
10. The Spacing Effect Bias – the tendency for people to better recall information if it’s repeated over time instead of occurring once or having happened “grouped together” in time.
11. Forward Bias – the tendency to create models based on past data, which are validated only against that past data.

I am sure you are already starting to get the picture on how cognitive biases can affect decision making in your organization. Be sure to stay tuned as we expand on each of the cognitive biases above in this blog series.