This is a great series of blogs. This is to the heart of visibility | behaviour | trust. Leadership having to answer allegations of enabling legal process to obfuscate behaviours that would undermine trust. Did they, did they not? No idea as of yet but the v | b | t outline reflects the totality of the question. Simples.
Author Archives: Warren Beardall
PhD researcher. Psychology, project and risk management, critical controls, conflict and reframing governance. Life learner, career and academic returner, mental health survival story.
The global witching hour
Be more than a-woke by ghosts today
A blog to offer an alternative way to scare the living without disturbing the dead.
Halloween night is when the witches come. Except that’s not really the original point. Nor is it the manner of celebration many traditions choose this day to represent.
Leaders of the world step up
There are leaders in Glasgow tomorrow. But there are leaders within us all every day. I say we should each start there. Demanding less of others, and more of ourselves. Maybe then, mother nature can know we still care.
If you think this is you. There are a few words more.
—//—
Halloween | All Saints | Day of the Dead
Before the conquistadors and James Bond had their say, there was an Aztec tradition that enabled reflection upon time with forbearers. Re-engage with the sacrifices of time and toil of lives now given up. The progress they made, and unknowns they faced. Or the labours they were forced to provide. Or the lives forced to take or give up.
That was the 9th month in the Aztec Calendar. In Japan, the Buddhist tradition of Oban is celebrated in mid-August with similar ancestral homage respected. In Celtic tradition the end of summer, Samhain, it was believed the world of gods and people combined with much mischief abounding upon a fearful mortal domain. Western Christendom had means to integrate all such tradition with its own feasts around All Saints Day, and the beginning of Allhallowtide (all per Britannica.com).
Think on that hollowed out message as pumpkin lights fade.
All Saints Day v | b | t
So what then of tomorrow? A new day. 1st November 2021 is when our leaders gather in Glasgow to debate our shared fate. To decide what traditions and behaviours we can all dare to change. What sacrifice we all must forsake. What future toil we all are prepared to make. Or what further study we sanction, for further visibility of unbelievable harm. What trusts we deny, and deem the next generation better placed to palm. What risk to the future generations of selves do we therein choose to pass on? What will we all opt out of a 26th time, at CoP26? Forsake, and in our place ask the yet born to take.
Trick or treat?
Treat – more than we can chew
We are now connected. Feasting as we go. All hungry caterpillars upon the one tree. Gestating today. Digesting our yesterday. Cocooning our decisions and letting loose butterfly effects we cannot rewind.
Trick – fooling all including ourselves
Maybe it is time to stop looking to others. Look again at our past, but think upon ourselves as a living influence to the next. The global village is now here whether we like it or not.
Can we look beyond greed?
What is at the heart of our project mission is the pursuit of more. Individually a greater share. But also collectively more for the earth to have to bare. And perhaps it is this that we all need to help stop.
My greed is good?
Adam Smith
Capitalists are not going to stop growing with individualist greed.
Adam Smith was about optimising the output from the land by the few. Labour a resource to factor into such process. The invisible hand that steers individualistic ambition to bring about trickle down growth for all. Nietzsche’s will of individual power.
Our greed is good?
Karl Marx
Communists are not going to stop growing with collectivist need.
The early Karl Marx was about addressing alienation. The hands of the worker having no ownership of what they make. Getting too little of what the few take. The effort of all, the land owned by none but the state. Trotsky’s power of shared will.
Green is good – less greed is better
My point here is not political. Other than to say all our politics, and the nation states that hold flavours of individualism or collectivism at the helm, all amount to more of the same.
Have this at the heart of what is visible. Of the finite resource there is, it is our nation states that must thrive. Regardless of culture and ethics, political sentiment, or personal faith, it is this fact that wills us all to claim a bigger stake. Determines how we each and all behave. Trust becomes easier offered, when yours is the whip hand to extend.
The Earth provides-enough to satisfy everyone’s needs but not any one’s greed
Ghandi
Think therefore upon each of the green solutions being presented. The ways we are being offered to change our behaviours, in all that we do. They each still equate to the same.
We are being shown how to consume more, but in cleaner ways.
Enough and no more
I am not sure any of us has the right to question the needs of another. But I do think we should be able to explain what it is that we need. And what it is we intend to do with what we have. Not in any draconian or anti-establishment way, or as naïve power of love simple life ways. Simply by the questions we ask of ourselves and of each other. And the messages we therein convey.
Some of these first steps then become a little easier. And meaningfully challenging to those that drive growth without consideration to wider cost. Those seem the simplest and easiest first steps for east and west. This is not about ownership and what we can have. This is about service to the future, and what we can be. Take what you need; to do with that what you must. But once you have got there, its time to give something back.
What we give back is time at the wheel – or that spare time is what each of us chooses to steal.
Our hierarchy of needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains this well enough. We all need to feed. We all need to breath. We then need safety. Then kinship and personal and societal esteem. Finally, however, we then want to be the best versions of what we can be.
We are many who now sit at this final impasse. This pinnacle of existence but declining to acknowledge that grasp. Instead we keep all. Claiming time left as our own. And taking all of that to the last. Our kinship is retained because we all do the same. We then look around and wonder who is to blame. Why our self-actualisation feels unreached, as hollow as the pumpkin on the doorstep.
The golden rule for all self-actualisation stewards
There seems a golden thread of truth running through our shared history. Requiring us all to consider life from the other side. Perhaps all of those messages combine, and stand now not just in place but also in time.
Ask not what other projects can do for you. Ask yourself what project you can now do for the whole
Globally said from a golden thread
These are then projects | within projects connecting each mind to the totality of our management. Management of the one project we are all now required to play our part.
v | b | t – ask better questions for more insight
In game theory there is a game called Tragedy of the Commons. In it we are each shown to take more from common ground than we should, because the rules said that we could. The game reflects low trust, and shared bad behaviour. The long-game sees us all lose.
The solution starts with checking our own behaviour. But then increasing visibility on the whole, so that all behaviour is seen. In open sight we become compelled to do right. Trust in the shared objective becomes the shared trust in us all. The more secrets we can keep, the more compelled each feels, and entitled to cheat.
Question yourself, and therein question all others
It seems to me clear, that any of us sitting near the top of a hierarchy of needs is required to justify our time. Whether you are a Jeff Bezos or a Sheikh, a pension pot aggregator, or an executive on the make, born of privilege or humble beginnings and self-made. As individuals or as nation states. There are questions we need to ask of ourselves. Towards what, is your next project’s aim? Are you playing more than a zero sum game?
Infinite complexity, ultimate simplicity
The human condition is complex beyond measure. The systems of organisation we represent, a multiple of the same. But at the core there is a simplicity. We are mortal. We are fragile. And we will each always want more.
On this Halloween night perhaps give an extended nod to our forbearers. A moment of thanks to the shared sacrifice all have so far made. But tomorrow, the day we can all be saints, perhaps we each take stock of our time, and no more.
—//—
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Are we the CoP out?
Conference of Parties #26
A blog linking infinite discussion and lines. Iterations of recurring themes that can get bigger or smaller, but will they always look the same?
Mandelbrot Sets
Netflix managed to have 55 minutes of my time tonight. Rare indeed these days. “The colours of infinity,” a 1995 film hosted by Arthur C Clarke. Explaining the discovery of a particular fractal geometry that surrounds us. Needing the computations of machines to help us observe what we have always blindly seen.
26 years of the same
It is a fantastic documentary from last century. Reflecting upon what is perhaps ever nearing us in this century, or the next. The mathematics that shows us how in nature there need be no straight lines. Not even necessarily any beginnings or ends. But that at whatever level we look, the patterns and basic formulas that can go to infinities all the same.
Filmed 26 years ago. By coincidence COP26, Conference of the Parties #26, is the same age. Perhaps also a coincidence that fractal symmetry seems the agenda mainstay of this event. The Kyoto Protocol was COP3, December 1997 but not ratified until 2005. Is it to be the “Glasgow Protocol” that our grandchildren’s children look upon with global pride – will this be the start of the change? I have dug out the two agendas and placed them side by side below. Fractal symmetry perhaps, but I am just not sure if we travel to infinitely bigger or infinitely smaller upon this path.
Projects | within Projects
Projects | Within Projects sits here as little more than an idea. But what it does reflect is one person’s attempt to redefine problems we all share. On scales that we can all compare. We are in the same project. We are each a project. And each moment another aggregation of projects our planet actor must wear.
To my mind and my perspective on management, this is just a question of scale. There is fractal symmetry in nature. We follow it everywhere. From the truncations of the tiniest capillaries in our brains and the neural networks that make us think we have a say. To the near infinite networks of galaxies beyond the milky-way. There is a pattern within the chaos, or a chaos within the pattern. Either way, we sit as a pin point in our abstract notions of time and space. One species on one world. Perhaps uniquely, perhaps too discretely, we are different. Different because we have some semblance of intent in what we change. In our momentary time frame, we get to direct, to learn, to grow. Choose to play. Choose to give our chance away. In the heat of this day we now choose to help, or we choose to fade away.
v | b | t
A project of change of behaviour. That is what our leaders speak of next week. Compared to the talk a generation before – what has changed in this rhetoric of change? But perhaps that is not just their question to answer. Perhaps it is not their visibility, and behaviour, or trust we need to ponder.
I am cynical. I am a hypocrite. But I am silent no more. The merry-go-round is easy to step off of when all privilege has fallen ones way. I am not gluing myself to a road. Or finding politics, or charitable ends to compensate for my guilt. My squandered inheritance is time. I am not alone. So the time I have left is aimed at asking better questions. Finding the better questions others in our history have asked. And hoping I get lucky in leaving a few better questions for others to help direct their future-generational task.
If we, the human project, are truly made to intend change. Perhaps it is this visibility we awaken. This goal to the future versions of ourselves we turn our behaviour toward. And from this, our present day, we present ourselves better. Turn ourselves to the service of this future. Rebuild this trust owed as future ancestors. Otherwise – what is this all really for?
Here is the CoP26 2021 agenda, alongside that of 1997. Regardless of its outcomes, maybe it is the personal agendas of us all, that are better answers to nature’s call.
COP3 Kyoto 1997
- The Climate Change Convention seeks to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [human-induced] interference with the climate system”. There are three requirements: (1) this “ultimate objective” should be achieved early enough to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change; (2) food production should not be threatened; and (3) efforts to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and climate change should be consistent with sustainable economic development.
- There is no agreed definition of what is meant by “dangerous”. Individuals and cultures differ in their understanding of what is safe and what is dangerous. In addition, some people and countries are more vulnerable to the expected consequences of climate change than are others. While science can provide a useful basis for decision-making, determining how much climate change is “safe” or how much risk is “acceptable” is essentially a political judgment. The judgment of the international community is expressed through the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.
- The faster the climate changes, the greater the danger is likely to be. While human beings are extremely flexible and can cope with many different climates and conditions, human institutions and natural ecosystems tend to adapt more slowly. This is why the Convention specifically highlights the need to protect food production and ecosystems.
- Certain ecological thresholds may be important indicators of the risks of rapid climate change. Such thresholds could be used to set policies for limiting the risk of irreversible damage. For example, paleoclimatic records of forest growth suggest that trees have migrated in the past by as much as four to 200 km in 100 years. But with scientists predicting that a global warming of 1–3.5oC over the next 100 years would shift climate zones poleward by 150–550 km, many tree populations may fail to adapt fast enough. Thus even if policymakers cannot agree on what constitutes a dangerous climate change for people, they may be able to identify dangerous thresholds for ecosystems that are vital to human well-being.
- Food production may suffer in some regions. Changes in crop yields are expected to vary greatly by region and locality. Therefore, while global agricultural production may be maintained at or near the present level, the food security of some countries may worsen as a result of climate change. To the people affected this may well seem to be “dangerous”.
- The overall implications of climate change for sustainable development are not well understood. While the net effect is expected to be negative, global warming is likely to have both positive and negative impacts on human societies, national economies, and natural ecosystems. A warmer climate could extend growing seasons in one region while increasing the risk of droughts in another. Similarly, new energy taxes and other policy responses may hurt some countries while energy-efficiency innovations may help others by reducing production costs and opening up new markets.
- The Convention sets out a number of principles that should guide action to achieve the objective. They include equity between countries; concern for both present and future generations; the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries; and the importance of cost-effectiveness, sustainable development, and a supportive and open international economic system. In addition, the precautionary principle states that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing action.
- The Convention requires policymakers to decide on concrete actions. The Parties to the Convention must come to some consensus on the changes that could be considered dangerous. They must choose the level at which they want to stabilize atmospheric concentrations, a schedule for limiting greenhouse gas emissions over time, and appropriate technologies and policies for meeting this schedule.
- Fortunately, a wealth of knowledge and information is available to decision-makers. The scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature describes possible future scenarios and the likely consequences of various stabilization levels and emissions trends. It explores Ano regrets and other cost-effective measures for cutting emissions and enhancing “sinks”. The literature also describes options for adapting to climate change impacts and indicates promising avenues of scientific and technological research. By choosing amongst these policies and measures, and by carefully weighing costs and benefits, uncertainties and risks, and the various principles that should guide action, the international community can move towards achieving the Convention’s objective.
COP26 Glasgow 2021
The supplementary provisional agenda for COP 26, proposed after consultation with
the President of COP 25, is as follows:
- Opening of the session.
- Organizational matters:
(a) Election of the President of the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-sixth session;
(b) Adoption of the rules of procedure;
(c) Adoption of the agenda;
(d) Election of officers other than the President;
(e) Admission of organizations as observers; (f) Organization of work, including for the sessions of the subsidiary bodies; (g) Dates and venues of future sessions; (h) Adoption of the report on credentials.
- Reports of the subsidiary bodies:
(a) Report of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice;
(b) Report of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation. - Reporting from and review of Parties included in Annex I to the Convention.
- Reporting from Parties not included in Annex I to the Convention.
- Report of the Adaptation Committee (for 2019, 2020 and 2021).
- Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with
Climate Change Impacts.2 - Matters relating to finance:
(a) Long-term climate finance;
(b) Matters relating to the Standing Committee on Finance:
(i) Report of the Standing Committee on Finance – Convention
matters;
(ii) First report on the determination of the needs of developing
country Parties related to implementing the Convention and the
Paris Agreement;
(iii) Fourth (2020) Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate
Finance Flows;
(iv) Review of the functions of the Standing Committee on Finance;
(c) Report of the Green Climate Fund to the Conference of the Parties and
guidance to the Green Climate Fund (for 2020 and 2021);
(d) Report of the Global Environment Facility to the Conference of the
Parties and guidance to the Global Environment Facility (for 2020 and
2021);
(e) Seventh review of the Financial Mechanism;
(f) Compilation and synthesis of, and summary report on the in-session
workshop on, biennial communications of information related to
Article 9, paragraph 5, of the Paris Agreement. - Development and transfer of technologies:
(a) Joint annual report of the Technology Executive Committee and the
Climate Technology Centre and Network (for 2020 and 2021);
(b) Linkages between the Technology Mechanism and the Financial
Mechanism of the Convention;
(c) Review of the constitution of the Advisory Board of the Climate
Technology Centre and Network;
(d) Second review of the Climate Technology Centre and Network. - Capacity-building under the Convention.
- Matters relating to the least developed countries.
- Report of the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures.
- Gender and climate change.
- Consideration of proposals by Parties for amendments to the Convention under
Article 15:
(a) Proposal from the Russian Federation to amend Article 4, paragraph
2(f), of the Convention;
(b) Proposal from Papua New Guinea and Mexico to amend Articles 7 and
18 of the Convention;
(c) Proposal from Turkey to delete the name of Turkey from the list in
Annex I to the Convention. - Second review of the adequacy of Article 4, paragraph 2(a–b), of the
Convention. - Equitable, fair, ambitious and urgent real emission reductions now consistent
with a trajectory to reduce the temperature below 1.5 °C. - All matters of adaptation.
- Achieving equitable geographic representation in the composition of
constituted bodies under the Convention. - Administrative, financial and institutional matters:
(a) Audit report and financial statements for 2019 and 2020;
(b) Budget performance for the bienniums 2018–2019 and 2020–2021;
(c) Programme budget for the biennium 2022–2023;
(d) Decision-making in the UNFCCC process. - High-level segment:
(a) Statements by Parties;
(b) Statements by observer organizations. - Other matters.
- Conclusion of the session:
(a) Adoption of the draft report of the Conference of the Parties on its
twenty-sixth session;
(b) Closure of the session.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Peter Morris
A belated tribute to a great mind
I never met Peter Morris. I am saddened to read (a little belatedly) that that is now definitively so. UCL wrote a very nice tribute to honour his passing in September.
As a prolific writer of academic papers and collaborative authoring of project management books with fellow behemoths of the academic class in this space, his contribution was great – and probably timeless.
I would encourage everyone to Google Scholar PWG Morris. He was fearless in criticism when it was due, witty in rejoinder, and faithful to seeking better answers to perennial project problems to the last.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Motivation vs coercion
Shared goals, or carrots and sticks?
This blog continues the examination motivation. Social psychological theories on how motivation determines behaviour. Self-determination theory presents the case for suboptimal impact of motives born from persuasion.
Materials cited are sourced from: Ryan, RM., Deci, EI. 2000 “Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and wellbeing” American Psychology January 2000, pp68-78
I have lost count of the number of times people have admitted to me that the latest pay rise, bonus, or dream role quickly loses its shine. That salary increase suddenly spent before it arrives just the same. The same issues with the same clients, or bosses, or staff. Many of those conversations returned to mind as I studied at some length the psychological theory on motivation I now summarise in this blog.
From a project management perspective, I think this concepts should grab everyone’s attention. It reinforces something I think we probably all intrinsically know. That carrot and stick management may get us to a point, but it is not going to get us all safely home. Could it even be an obstacle to success? This is another perspective on behaviour, and considerations to address when contemplating how we structure our control.
v | b | t
I will offer a conclusion upfront. When we choose to divide ourselves into them and us by our contracts we are reinforcing the externalised motivations reflected below. When we manage our staff with KPIs, outmoded controls, and seek to retain high performing teams simply with cash, we are reflecting the changed mindset, externalised motivations, performance and health implications that come with that lack of internalised autonomy, shared interest, and shared goal. The more we understand these implications the more visibility there can be. The more we can rethink how we collectively engender coherent behaviours. The more trust between parties we can hope to see.
Self-Determination Theory
In this article Richard Ryan and Edward Deci review their body of research into the impacts of external reward vs our individual intrinsic motivations. At the heart of this research is a reflection upon the social context in which human potential can be fostered or undermined by the manner of motivations we attempt to introduce to those we may wish to direct. Three factors are considered (Ryan and Deci 2000, pp68):
- Competence
- Autonomy
- Relatedness
Each is considered in respect to the developmental tendencies of an individual, but also the wider environmental factors that can antagonise or nurture any of these three (ibid pp68).
What is contrasted is the direction of motivational engagement. Ryan and Deci outline their case in terms of factors that move us to act, be that the intrinsic (internal) motivational factors which are self-generated and arising from innate value and interest in an activity. Or they can be external coercions of persuasion. As Ryan et al advise, “the urge to act either an abiding interest or by a bribe” (ibid pp69). Depending on this source motive, they argue the resulting experience of the actor, and the consequent actions derived, can be highly varied as a result. Those authentic (self-motivated) having more interest, emotional attachment, and confidence in action and therein enhanced performance; and meaning two equally competent people will present different outcomes based only on this origin of motivational force (ibid pp69). These differences are categorised in this theory. Argued to be a continuum of developmental, situational, and progressive characteristics. They conclude that for both the health of the people we oversee, and the performance we hope to tend,
motivation is perhaps the critical variable in producing maintained change
Ryan and Deci, 2000. pp76
Intrinsic motivation is that natural inclination we may have toward “assimilation, mastery, spontaneous interest, and exploration“ (ibid pp70). It requires supportive conditions and can be easily subdued. Ryan and Deci have a sub theory called Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) which “focuses upon fundamental needs for competence and autonomy” pp70. To which they conclude even the necessary competence will only support an intrinsic motivation to act when there is retained autonomy in doing so. Arguing such lost autonomy will transfer motives from an intrinsic to an external source. The key claim herein, being that “extrinsic reward can undermine intrinsic motivation” (ibid pp70, citing Deci 1970). Or as separately quote “in attributional terms by an internal perceived locus of causality (deCharms, 1968)” (ibid pp70).
The implication of this is that carrot and stick motivations can become inherently counterproductive to long-term outputs, and to mental health. “…threats, deadlines, directives, pressured evaluations, and imposed goals diminish intrinsic motivation because, like tangible reward, they conduce toward an external perceived locus of causality. In contrast, choice, acknowledgement of feelings, and opportunities for self-direction were found to enhance intrinsic motivation because they allow people a greater feeling of autonomy” (ibid, pp70 citing Deci & Ryan 1985; citing further studies by Amabile 1996; Grolnick &Ryan 1987; Uttman 1997).
The third element identified is relatedness and a connected sense of security. The examples offered being reflective of infant tendency toward exploration as proximal to parents. However, they further argue this relatedness remains into progressive adulthood, “proximal relational supports may not be necessary for intrinsic motivation, but secure relational base does seem to be important for the expression of intrinsic motivation to be in evidence” (ibid pp71).
Self-Regulation of Extrinsic Motivation – if motivational origin is arising from outside influence, the Self-Determinism Theory (SDT) presents differing degrees of such requested behaviour, associated regulated means, and the manner of receipt of such attempted influence. They call this second subtheory “Organismic Integration Theory (OIT)” (ibid pp72, citing Deci and Ryan 1985). Ryan and Deci present this as the categorised continuum, with diagrammatic aid. I present below an adaptation to connect the textual explanations they offer too.
I have highlighted the two extremes of extrinsic motivations and pose a question of what our motivational sources become in our contracts of construction, service, or employment, when driven too far towards price, KPIs, and performance bonus. The concluding remarks of Ryan and Deci’s paper highlight cultural differences must be considered, and further that a linear progression from left to right should not be assumed as we individually mature in our many life roles. They do however flag the related implications to mental health when perpetually existing in the left-hand more side of determinism.
employees experiences of satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the workplace predicted their performance and well being at work
(ibid pp75)
To which they present further evidence from studies where an individual could be examined across various life roles, they cite Sheldon et al 1997, who they advise “demonstrated that satisfaction in each of several life roles (e.g., student, employee, friend) relative to the individual’s own satisfaction, was attributable to the degree to which that role supports authenticity and autonomous functioning” (ibid pp76).
Here are two final quotes from their concluding remarks (pp76)
…Excessive control, nonoptimal challenges, and lack of connectedness, on the other hand disrupt the inherent actualising and organisational tendencies endowed by nature, and thus such factors result not only in the lack of initiative and responsibility but also in distress and psychopathology…
…Contexts supportive of autonomy, competence, and relatedness were found to foster greater internalisation and integration than contexts that thwart satisfaction of these needs. This latter finding, we argue, is of great significance for individuals who wish to motivate others in a way that engenders commitment, effort, and high-quality performance…
Ryan and Deci, 2000. pp76
Concluding remarks
One aspect of behaviour that I identified within my 2020 MSc dissertation was the reorientation of project interests dependent upon the party with most influence at time of procurement. In PFI, I argued this was not always the senior debt lender. Risk profile of projects changed as a result. If contemporary revisits of Self-Determinism Theory can be considered from the perspective of actor motivations as entities not just individuals, perhaps these categorisations can offer some means to inform subsets of what those motivational orientations may be.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Motivated behaviour
Behaviour as directed by motivations
How much can we explain what we do by our desires to know more, reaffirm we are more, or seeking to reconcile two things that cannot both be so?
All case references herein originating or cited per David Dunning “On the motives underlying social cognition” Chapter 16 of A. Tesser and N. Schwarz. Blackwell handbook of social psychology. Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2001
Behaviour derived from need
We have begun addressing motivational factors in social psychology this week. The basics of life to keep the body functioning; safety; then belonging, social climbing, and culminating in actualisation – being the best that we can be (cf. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 1954) or what Carl Rogers called “autonomy” to explain what it is that makes us seek out tasks beyond such basic need (Rogers, 1960).
Behaviour derived from desire not need
But we were asked this week to examine another origin of motivation. What in social psychology is referenced as Social Justice, to explain the motives which direct us to act. It offers explanation for those less obvious motives we may be hiding, or reason for questions we ask, the people we seek to acquaint, and perhaps secretly berate.
- desire for knowledge
- desire for affirmation
- desire for coherence
I briefly describe each.
Desire for Knowledge.
If we know a little, we will seek out more. Trivia, or answers to things we are almost certain we know, we will spend resource to have confirmed anyway (think of the cliff hanger question before the advert break). We will invest time and effort in dismissing or reconciling what is unexpected, just to trivialise if need be. We invest more time in people we think we need to know, whether that be for upside, to avoid downside, or with whom we must compete. We take more interest in causal reasoning after an event, and recall past failures to inform future event. We are proven to be more mindful of our opinions and our actions when we are likely to have to account for them. We will be more critical of argument, more resistant to stereotype, and be more insightful and thoughtful in integrating information when it has impact that leads back to us. We respond more openly to information that aids our own control, but seek information to support our deeds if retrospectively sought. By variance of preference some of us live happily with uncertainly, whilst others routinely seek to narrow fields of interest, compromise or look to shut down too many separate lines of enquiry, or hold stronger to category stereotype to get to certainty quicker – even if quick is less complete. This motive towards closure, plus the underlying trade-off or need for more cognitive detail, combine to make some people judge situations quickly, confidently, but belligerently, and others to not know when to form a judgement at all.
Desire for affirmation
Not all is knowledge based, however. We are also driven by our pride. We may have attributions that explain our success, but external factors to blame for the rest. Our decisions on whether to seek more information and our analysis of the information sought, can be determined by the control we have over the state of affairs this will inform. This can become a deliberative vs implementation mindset – helping a decision vs justification of what was decided upon. In analysis we may be “reality constrained” but nonetheless intent on neutralising information not presenting us in good light. We can spend time elaborating on the merits of traits we possess, and trivialising those we do not. Short-comings demonstrated as common flaws in us all, or seeking to present someone worse at it than ourselves. We may do this directly. We may also do it by implication. Higher performing people shown to be less gracious in praise or assessment of others – unless it is in something of no consequence to themselves. Our choices in social groups, friends, and our just causes, all directed toward our sense of self-worth and our pride.
Desire for coherence
Cognitive dissonance is explained as a felt agitation when two beliefs are inconsistent but both owned. By example, when we are forced to act against our principles we may convince ourselves of validity of both, change one to fit to the other, or find wider reason to hold one in lower regard. The coherence we worked hard to own, we may work equally hard to defended. And if choice has been made between two equally valid alternatives, we will denigrate the one we did not choose. The counterargument here is that we perhaps simply find new perspective. However, where there is clear distance between position taken and belief held, it is demonstrated the dissonance felt will prevail. Such dissonance only felt however if negative impact could arise. Sometimes such dissonance appeals, where such wider view is coveted and we therefore wish to become. Or it may be reduced where wider behaviour could mitigate any negative impact the dissonant conflict may suppose.
v | behaviour | t
All of these summaries are taken from David Dunning as referenced above. He leaves us with a few areas of research to continue. Some I hold as contemporary challenges. And connected to projects.
There is the question of which of these three motivational sources acts with greatest influence. Or indeed if we situationally need to consider all three. He asks at what level does motivation influence social judgement. Is it explicit with conscious control? Or is it implicit, without awareness and therefore presenting less opportunity for individual control? My question, when considering these influences upon our project behaviours, and against our control environments in such a complex arena, is why are we not just assuming it is both?
Dunning reports that research into motivation consistently returns to individual differences. More often so than does cognitive behavioural change. He ponders upon why this would be. And whether it is actually the motives of certain classes of people, rather than human judgements as a generalisation, that give potential to better clues. In my opinion, one possible upside to this observation is if we can extend this premise to project settings. Such as the subsets of project actors in complex construction. Can groupings be found to begin addressing motivation types that can pull interest into or away from a project goal? This I have previously identified as a possibility, per my MSc dissertation from 2020.
A second possible area of further research he identified as cultural differences. Dunning highlighted geographical culture, citing research that had given explanations to individual nuance comparing Japanese and North American differing motivations when faced with self-image threats. Japanese reaction being one of self-development flags vs. North Americans deeming these triggers to defend self-image. That could be considered directly in cultural terms in multinational projects. But I think we could consider industry sectors as having cultural norms too.
Perhaps these two research lenses can be combined. Could projects be typed to give idea of internal dissonance? Differences of understanding between parties themselves? Varying the project settings, this could be layering of the supply chain, and across commercial interfaces between parts of government hierarchy, or the interfaces between the buyer and seller in procurement. Other categorisations of comparison could be available across horizontal sector analysis, or vertical management analysis. Or we could consider this temporally at various stages of a project. Categorising motivations across knowledge, affirmations, and coherence between project actors. Relative power and influence, compared to specifics of motivational themes. Or more closely examining the variance within a single actor and its parts.
The comparisons I am providing of the Construction Playbook, the means of managing accountability within role and responsibility allocations, or the comparison of the High Reliability Organisation to other forms of safety concern, each providing places to pitch such research.
In all cases, perhaps opportunity to research this appropriately will come knocking. Or through my ongoing research and learning, I can formulate an academically sound case to make the enquiry come around the other way. Either way, I continue to find new comparisons and synergies between my risk orientation into the project management world, and that of psychology.
More than this however, I am now observing need in both camps. This social psychology is evolving science, and the project world is a complexity of human process desperately in need of new perspectives. These seem to me two parties in need of some mutual research. One as arena to the other.
In the interim, it remains more than enough to keep me asking more, upskilling more, challenging more, and seeking better perspectives on necessary wider change.
To be continued…
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Social Representation
…Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler
Albert Einstein
…I apologize for such a long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one.
Mark Twain
Where do we, the general public, sit between these two truths? In the modern age we have no time – or no will – to read lengthy explanations. We prefer lowest common denominator, headline grabbing, click bait.
If there is honest intent to maintain truth in explaining cause and effect, psychology might call this stripped bare version “Social Representation”.
Although it must be said even the summaries of theory hardly get us closer to what this represents. From my text book we have these two summaries to help us:
…collective elaborative explanations of complex phenomena that transform them into familiar and simple form
Hogg and Vaughn 2018 pp105.
Their second attempt was:
…simplified causal theories of complex phenomena that are socially constructed through communication contextualised by intergroup relations. Rumour and gossip may play a key role in social representations.
(ibid pp113)
My homework tonight was to explain this in less than 200 words. I think Social Representation is simply:
…what science looks like once filtered through Twitter
author’s own
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199 words
High Reliability Organisation
Five principles about a HRO, that you need to know
This blog outlines what characterises a High Reliability Organisation, and why these five key principles relate equally to both projects of mind and of management.
I begin with a quote from two of the stalwarts of this topic and who nicely frame a reality I think most can relate to in any management or organisational setting.
is it really all that rare to have optimistic plans, insufficient staff, mis-estimates of complexity, broken promises, overlooked details, turf-battles, loss of control, unanticipated consequences? No!
Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 “managing the unexpected : resilient performance in an age of uncertainty” pp17.
This essay is focused upon the ability of a project to respond effectively to whatever circumstances become real. When the static plans, that were so good on paper, face the chaos of real world interactions. Those interfaces that were ignorant to the precision of the project script. How best to prepare for this change? How ready is the project to meet this friend or foe? How would the manner of your project preparedness, compare to the HRO?
Much of this sentiment perhaps applies equally well to people’s personal lives. The personal plans, lack of time or money, failures to anticipate, be ready, or adapt. There is opportunity to consider all scale with similar concepts of preparing for the unknown.
To plan or to train?
For me, this is fundamentally what the High Reliability Organisation is doing differently to most. Through the manner of organisational infrastructure, the attention to planning and training becomes quite differently orientated. As does the cultural implication too.
Much as we may associate emergency services, or armed forces, or special teams in some sports, there is a plan but it is the nature of the training that makes the adaptability count for more. Case studies in this area have focused upon processes upon US Navy Aircraft Carriers, emergency wards in hospitals, air traffic control, nuclear power plants. High profile failures have also been examined through this same lens. There are lessons and practice challenges that should be of interest to all.
High Reliability Organisations
Lekke (2011) writes a comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to HROs. Reflecting upon literary debate from 1990 onwards the more reliability-enhancing focused literature i.e., processes that an organisation uses to successfully manage its risk (as opposed early definitions that focused on accident statistics) present the most meaningful guidance for wider organisational application (Lekke 2011, pp5-6). This paper is available free from the HSE, and a link to the download page is offered toward the bottom of this blog.
The earlier work by Weick and Sutcliffe from 2007 is a more comprehensive examination of the five principles I address today. It is therefore their book that will draw the most comment and quotations in this blog.
Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe 2007 “Managing the unexpected : resilient performance in an age of uncertainty” 2nd ed. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. Karl Weick is a professor of organisational behaviour and psychology, and author. Kathleen Sutcliffe an award winning researcher (2006), author and professor of management and organisations. I quote and summarise findings from chapters two, three and four. However, the fifth chapter, not elaborated upon in this blog, is well worth a read too – Assessing capability for resilient performance – a series of audit process steps that enable an assessment of corporate mindfulness across HRO principles.
Weick and Sutcliffe’s five HRO principles
These five principles are what are deemed the most pertinent to characterise an organisation truly focused upon safety in high risk environments. They are further elaborated upon further into this blog.
- Principle one – Preoccupation with failure and learning (per Weick et al 2007)
- Principle two – Reluctance to simplify. “less simplification allows you to see more. HROs take deliberate steps to create a more complete and nuanced pictures of what they face and who they are as they face it. Knowing that the world they face is complex, unstable, unknowable, and unpredictable, HROs position themselves to see as much as possible” (Weick et al 2007 pp10)
- Principle three – Sensitivity to Operations. “less strategic and more situational than is true of most other organisations. When people have well-developed situational awareness, they can make the continuous adjustments that prevent errors from accumulating and enlarging” (Weick 2007 pp13, citing Endsley (1995))
- Principle four – commitment to resilience. “a combination of keeping errors small and of improvising workarounds that allow the system to keep functioning. Both of these pathways to resilience demand deep knowledge of the technology, the system, one’s coworkers, and most of all, oneself” (Weick et al 2007, pp14)
- Principle five – Deference to expertise. “decisions are made on the front-line, and authority mitigates to the people with the most expertise, regardless of their rank” (Weick et al 2007 pp16).
HRO five principles and five factors of mindfulness
Weick and Sutcliffe produced an earlier paper, entitled “Mindfulness and the quality of organisational attention” 2006, Organisation Science 2006 4:7-8 pp514-524 which per page 519 gives consideration to mindfulness as it pertains to HRO characteristics. Preoccupation with failure; reluctance to simplify; and sensitivity to operations; commitment to resilience; deference to expertise; all outlined across a stability (or instability) of attention. Concluding that where HRO failings arise these may be characterised as the weakened mindful attention which they term as “mindless” as actions become too routine and attention becomes more diffused.
Note the convergence with individual Mindfulness practice
This prompted me to revisit John Vervaeke’s five factors of mindfulness. These are examinations of ones self whilst in meditative practice. It is derived from eastern traditions upon which Mindfulness has been popularised in the west. I have blogged about John Vervaeke before. There is more than a little to compare across the five factors of both.
The five factors of mindfulness
Each of these five factors is as Vervaeke describes them. I offer the HRO principle that correlates in italics
Vigilance – as new awareness not accepting familiarity, being watchful, enquiring, exploratory. To this I equate HRO preoccupation with failure e.g., tracking all failures (Weick et al 2007 pp2)
Sensitivity – ensuring the unfolding process can be further understood, as would be comparing a movie developing over time, vs a still of a picture. This I equate to HRO deference to expertise. The expert at the scene is seeing an incident unfold, any command and control delay can only be acting upon summary or picture moments to the film.
Acuity – unpacking and observing each part. HRO Reluctance to simplify.
Flow – discern and discriminate, observing physical characteristic, emotional state, and the intentions of attention or distraction of the mind. HRO Sensitivity to operations
Reminding – in such analysis being reminded to retain the vigilance and not become distracted from why the attention has been brought to the present. HRO commitment to resilience, e.g., managerial interest in retaining capabilities to resilience (Weick 2007 pp2)
HRO Five Principles as applicable to behavioural control
Weick and Sutcliffe split these five principles into two groups. Principles of anticipation. Principles of containment. (Weick et al 2007 pp42). I now present these same principles in these two groups. And include the corresponding principle as it applies in Mindfulness. Have in mind how these relate to preparations necessarily being coordinated in respect to behavioural controls.
Anticipation
PRINCIPLE ONE – preoccupation with failure. [Vigilance]
Embrace failure by paying close attention to the weak signals of failure; and by amplifying the attention to what these weak signals are, so that all parties can be on the look out for them (pp46). Detection may be made easier with check-lists; vigilance to failed processes of operation, follow-up, or checking; awareness of resource stretch or communication failures; awareness of distraction by multiple task. Or by asking the better questions that are hands-on; addressing criticality; and at least as frequently as needed. As a leader, being candid about our own failures can become encouragement for others to do the same (pp48). Reporting failures; encouraging and even rewarding the reporting (pp49) which can promote greater trust.
PRINCIPLE TWO – reluctance to simplify [acuity]
HROs simplify slowly, reluctantly (pp54). By example of the need for caution, here are some listed hazards of when too quickly assigning labels:
- minor works by value can be equated to less importance (pp55)
- shared labels but diverse meaning (pp 56)
- labelling too early denies further acquaintance (pp 57) and draws us away from more detail and hidden early warning signs (pp 58)
PRINCIPLE THREE – sensitivity to operations [flow]
This is about the work itself, what is actually happening (pp 60). Interdisciplinary and interdepartmental interactions both increase credibility and trust, but also deepens peoples understanding of the interdependency of the complex system itself. This includes leader and manager availability at key moments of transition, communication, or change (pp59). Quantitative and qualitative knowledge are equally valued, face-to-face dialogue equal to reports (pp60). Beware the mindless routine (pp61). Beware the complacency of all is okay (pp61)
Containment
PRINCIPLE FOUR – Commitment to resilience [reminding]
Resilience is a form of control (pp70). It reflects three abilities: absorb strain; stretch and recover not collapse; learn and grow (pp71)
“human fallibility is like gravity, weather, and terrain, just another foreseeable hazard”
Weick et al 2007 pp68
the mode of resilience is based on the assumption that unexpected trouble is ubiquitous and unpredictable; and thus accurate advanced information on how to get out of it is in short supply.
Aaron Wildavsky (cited via Weick et al 2007 pp 69)
PRINCIPLE FIVE – deference to expertise [sensitivity]
The Karlene Roberts term is “migrating decisions, both up and down” (pp74). There is no place for delegation to an expert and leaving them to it. Citing the NASA Columbia enquiry “mission management welcomed this opinion and sought no others” in respect to one manufacturer opinion of tile efficacy going unchallenged (pp76).
HROs make an effort to see what people with greasy hands knows
Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 pp77
Expertise not experts – meaning an assemblage of knowledge not a person or institution. The example offered reflects ad hoc and self-organising networks that collectively provide expertise to solve a problem – without formal status and that dissolve as crisis is averted. This is characterised by pooling of expertise, flexibility, empowerment, based on increased skills and insight (pp 78). It also requires credibility (pp79), i.e., trust.
The comparison of personal awareness through careful and open meditative or contemplative practice, and the necessary attention necessary of management if a HRO environment is to be nurtured present opportunity for further examination of behavioural control theory in both project and psychological settings. The comparison made here is to demonstrate how connected these examinations may be possible to draw insight.
people in HROs work hard to counteract the tendency to seek confirmation by designing practices that incorporate the five principles. They understand their expectations are incomplete and that they can come closer to getting it right if they doubt those expectations that seem to confirmed most often
Weick and Sutcliffle, 2007 pp27
Additional factor comparisons
Saleh et al (2010), offered these same principles but the differently nuanced explanations offer some additional context to organisational commitment if following a HRO type ideal:
Production and safety as concomitant organisational goals. What Saleh et al (2010) summarise as organisational consensus i.e., as shared by all levels from senior management to front line operators;
Decentralised vs centralised operations with deference to expertise. An ability to shift from central authority during routine operation to the deferring to expertise at the location of situation in moments of need. Particularly where safety critical and time constrained. (per Weick et al 2007) “authority migrates to the people with expertise, regardless of their ranks” but also noting HROs operate centrally in normal times to engender culture, ensure training and readiness for crisis situations.
Organisational slack and redundancy. Enabling available mobility of task aware resource “if primary units fail or falter” (LaPorte TR., Consolini, PM. 1991)
Projects | within projects
mindful people have the “big picture” but it is a big picture of the moment…
…mindfulness is different from situational awareness in the sense that it involves the combination of ongoing scrutiny of existing expectations, continuous refinement and differentiation of expectations based on newer experiences, willingness and capability to invent new expectations that make sense of unprecedented events, a more nuanced appreciation of context and ways to deal with it, and identification of new dimensions of context that improve foresight and current functioning.
Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 pp32
A key factor of my current theorising and research motivation is my ongoing belief that the modelling of psychology and the modelling of project management and organisation theory have common ground. In the HRO I believe this to be particularly the case. The greater level of self awareness we can achieve as individuals, the equivalent increased awareness within a project or a firm. It seems to me more than coincidence that Weick and Sutcliffe write in the language of mindfulness and that my own comparisons with John Vervaeke’s psychological work in this area connect so completely.
v | behaviour | t
people in HROs try to weaken the grip of this invisible hand of expectations so that they can see more, make better sense of what they see, and remain more attuned to their current situation. They do this by attending to at least the five principles…
Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 pp32
There will be more to say on visibility and trust as cross references to both HROs and engagement with practices of mental training as outlined in mindfulness in non-escapism forms. Much of the five principles of both reflected upon here connect principally to behaviours and will therefore be revisited as challenges of accounted for same are researched and blogged upon further here.
Applicable to projects of any kind?
All materials I have reviewed to date on HROs consider the organisational readiness for crisis. The first major challenge is to connect this better to projects, and all parties therein not just the organisations that oversee them.
HRO principles steer people toward mindful practices that encourage imagination…it takes mindful practice that encourage imagination, foster enriched expectations, raise doubts about all expectations, increase the ability to make novel sense of small interruptions in expectations, and facilitate learning that intensifies and deepens alertness
Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 pp29-30
Creativity – rather than industry obediently completing without questioning a task – is a factor of personal assessments in the Big Five psychological tests. It always intrigues me that such industry is deemed a preferable factor in business application – I score low on industry (i.e. preferring creativity) which never did my job prospects any harm. This is reflected upon via several, more qualitatively focused, literature references I have blogged upon of late. Such principles may overlap between mind and management – as mindfulness or similar – but a sound and academically credible connection beyond mere comparison is yet to be adequately made, at least by me.
This is very much a work in progress. But the HRO was overdue some attention on this site.
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Additional credits
It was Professor David Stupples, from the School of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering at City University who first introduced me to High Reliability Organisations. It was about this time two years ago. Deep into the introductory module of my Project Management MSc. Project Lifecycle with focus upon Systems Engineering – Systems Theory, Systems Management, Engineering Economics – then onto theorising about safety management. There we were told to read around the concept of the HRO.
I am also grateful to Professor Stupples keeping the HRO concept as a regularly feature in past exams. Alas, for me, January 2020 was not one of those times – for I had prepared a lengthy essay response – but the notes from that preparation aided my writing of this blog.
Some useful resources and links
Not all academic papers are accessible to all. The attached links are therefore offered as useful and worthwhile reading.
HSE link – The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reviewed the HRO literature in 2011. The research was conducted by Dr. Chrysanthi Lekka.
HighReliability.org – this link is useful to compare the focus of different leading authors. I particularly like the directional attention toward the disaster response as either proactive or reactive, and how some key academic writers have addressed HRO inputs.
McKinsey & Company – this article considered the HRO from a more operational perspective. The focus on communication, problem solving and leadership all reflective of wider HRO traits. I particularly like their 2×2 explanation of locational accountability and strength (cf. Principle 5).
Deloitte 2017 – 35 page document that captures much of the language and concepts reflected above.
LaPorte TR., Consolini, PM. 1991 “High Reliability Organisations” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 1991 1:1 pp19-48
Pate-Cornell ME 1996 “Uncertainities in risk analysis : six levels of treatment” Reliability Engineering and System Safety 1996 54:2-3 pp95-111
Weick KE, Sutcliffe KM 2006 “Mindfulness and the quality of organisational attention” 2006, Organisation Science 2006 4:7-8 pp514-524
Weick KE, Sutcliffe KM 2007 “Managing the unexpected : resilient performance in an age of uncertainty” 2nd ed. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Saleh et al (2010) list the following as key works of wider reading:
- Turner, BA., Pidgeon, NF. 1997 “Man Made Disasters” 2nd Edition, Oxford Butterworth Heinemann
- Perrow, C. 1984 “Normal accidents : living with high-risk technologies” New York Basic Books.
- Karlehn Roberts works from 1987-1990
- Rochlin, GI., La Porte, TR., Roberts, KH 1987 “The self-designing high reliability organisation”. Reprinted in Naval War COllege Review 1998, 51:3 pp17
- Roberts, KH 1990 “Some characteristics of one type of high reliability organisation” Organisational Science 1990 1:2 pp160-176;
- Roberts, KH 1990 “Managing high-reliability organisations” California Management Review 1990, 32:4 pp101-113
- WASH-1400 and Probabilistic Risk Assessment (per Kaplin and Garrick).
- Kaplin, S., Garrick, BJ 1981 “On the quantitative definition of risk” Risk Analysis 1981, 1:1 pp11-27
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About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Troll patrol
Who let the trolls in?
A blog asking the psychological question of what explanations we have to address the phenomena of the internet troll.
A couple of uncompromising – or just plain rude and spiteful – comments on social media and my mind is immediately wondering again about cause and effect. What prompts someone to be the internet troll?
Out of character behaviour
It is easy to become complacent to the troll. Lurking in the shadows or projected on a screen. A few months ago, I would have offered explanation from Carl Jung, and his archetypes. I would have been satisfied with that. The shadow parts within us that lash out because we ignore them, causing them to lurk as subconscious parts within. Parts we have repressed. Rejected persona. Carl Jung and the neo-Jungians (who develop their models still to this day) will explain how these parts occasionally break their silence and act out.
linear cause and effect
Modern day behaviourists like Stephen Ledoux, author of “What causes human behaviour – stars, selves, or contingencies” would call such Jungian theorising mystic or scientifically baseless. And just discredit the entire discipline now standing beyond these philosophical starts. He would look to the behaviour itself, reflect upon the knowable factors leading up to the event as cause. The radical behaviourism which permits physiological conditions to be considered beyond the external environmental that the first in the field would have considered. He might offer a detailed linear cause and associated effect chain of events.
Subconscious emotional response
Joseph Ledoux by contrast, a neuroscientist and author of “The emotional brain” might be a little more sympathetic to the theorising of early 20th Century psychologists. “Emotional responses are for the most part generated unconsciously. Freud was right on the mark when he described consciousness as the tip of the mental iceberg”, states Joseph Ledoux, as quoted by Rita Carter in her detailed 1998 illustrative book “Mapping the Mind” – which Joseph Ledoux offers a full page to the influences of the Limbic System over the Frontal Cortex, (ibid pp98).
External influence – chemical
In this same book, Rita Carter also highlights the impacts of neurotransmitter levels if impaired or kept artificially high. Dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and noradrenaline. Recreational drug use also impacting receptor effectiveness – both at the time of use and through longer term abuse. That includes alcohol. Similar cause can be outlined from diseases and associated medications that can cause chemical or physiological alterations.
External factor – prompting hormone response
Regulation of other hormones are relevant too. Robert Sapolsky presents at some length in his lectures how the complexity of these interactions can cause short-term change to likelihood of response. He also presents the changing structures in the brain through prolonged stress or how combined factors can directly attribute to action potentials that are enacted or overridden within the Limbic System, the Cortex, or beyond. Or perhaps we are tired, and the frontal cortex becomes slower in enacting a more diplomatic response. Still acting to intervene but weaker or slower and too late because we have already pressed send on that reply.
External factor – language
In written exchanges this can be easily misinterpreted. We are all capable of ambiguity in our writing, but misunderstanding could arise from more fundamental starts. In his book “Language and Social Relationships”, Asif Agha (2007) writes extensively about the nuances of language and the implications in various forms of dialogue. “Register” for example may offer a multitude of inference but anyone of us is only capable of sounding out a few, but more adept in recognition of many more (pp147). All are lost in written form, but our tone is still sounded as we write. It may be heard quite differently by the reader.
He reflects upon cultural influence, but also dialect, sociolect, and denotational footings, all of which create differences
such differences are sometimes exploited strategically to create social partitions or boundaries within an interaction, but social boundaries can result willy-nilly too. In multi-party encounters where multilinguals and codemixing mark off monolingual interlocutors as out-group (or non-participants) with respect to certain utterances, whether intentionally or not; social boundaries enacted in such cases may coincide with differences of propositional uptake and thus involve cognitive boundaries too.
Asif Agha 2007, pp133
External Factors – socio-cultural
Or maybe our societal psychological interactions have played a part. The compartmentalised elevated hierarchy we have earned in another social group. This group has rewarded our selfish acts, and we therefore take these lessons into groups anew. Perhaps this is behavioural Operant conditioning? Perhaps. Or perhaps it is the amygdala and the hippocampus now working slightly differently because of a newly connected neural network response. Sitting above this however is our socialised understanding within the frontal cortex. Maybe this directs us to a safer experiment in this new group. It is safer to pull down a minnow, than attack the silverback we know we will never be.
So many possible explanations. So many factors we could blame. It could be as simple as seeking a few minutes of safe combat, or a moment of anonymous fame. Perhaps all are offering cause. Or perhaps it is illusory to think we have any input to offer at all.
Know your troll
One thing I can conclude is giving more time to the response would offer a modicum of control. This I know, because this was my control tonight. For these troll-like comments – that prompted this thought – the troll comments were my own. The troll was me.
Except, I wrote them in my journal instead. Researched some of these alternative explanations. By the time I had finished those comments no longer belonged. My attitude had changed. My mindset. The responses offered all became less interesting, less funny, less necessary to make. And now they are gone. As has whatever temporary state of mind, or chemistry, or environmental impact which willed the troll along.
The ultimate control. Time. And my immediate behavioural response was gone.
v | b | t in action?
More visibility of my own mindset by giving it longer to be seen. More understanding from the extra learning in-between the moment and the next. Understanding increased by perspectival change. Available with more time.
My behaviour better defined. Constraints changed by the removed deadline of time. Still no nearer to understanding how to better control the root-cause, but proof that a control can be implemented anyway. Even if that is just finding more time.
Trust in myself. I consider myself a diplomat at the best of times. Even so, a little more trust afforded with this time frame in a moment the diplomat, I nearly was not.
Concluding remarks
This is not my first time of stepping back to gain time. It will certainly not be my last. My journal holds many pithy remarks of similar tone. I conclude with a few below.
Calm your jets and write your thoughts. Hedge your bets, in measured pause. Quiet reflection not defended pride. Will you troll beneath, or bridge both sides?
Adapted from my journal, 10th February 2020
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
Making sense
Behaviour through a third lens
This blog takes on a third example of how to examine and thereby prepare to make better decisions toward behaviours. Bringing qualitative technique back alongside the quantitative techniques we are told are our future norm.
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Sensemaking – What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm
by Christian Madsbjerg 2017
when we commit to losing a part of ourselves, we gain something profoundly new in exchange. We gain insight. I call the practice of cultivating these types of insights sensemaking.
Christian Madsjberg 2017, Sensemaking pp5
In my opinion some of the sentiment of Madsbjerg has a sense of flow about it. He references “phronesis” to mean an Aristocratic synthesis of knowledge and experience (ibid pp6), and the type of leaders that become as one with the systems, societies, and organisations, they are stewarding “as an extension of their body” (ibid pp7).
CULTURE
From a social psychology we have theories that help explain the contextual nuance behind our social interactions. Social Representations by processes of objectification and anchoring which group or categorise based upon shared (communicated) experiences; or anchoring from pre-existing systems of thought. Madjsberg introduces similar influence pertaining to why people in that culture act the way they do (pp6).
He then (pp8) also identifies with the philosophical addresses objective reality becoming subjective understanding. Referencing Heidegger to reflect upon these unspoken assumptions “that on the basis of which beings are understood”.
we stop seeing a room as a space filled with individual items and we start seeing the structures form a cultural reality…nothing exists in an individual vacuum
Christian Madsjberg 2017, Sensemaking pp11-12
He addresses these meanings as philosophical terms reflecting our spoken exchanges. Highlighting contemporary philosophers and their terms: “Habitus” Pierre Bourdieu; “The discourse” Ernesto Laclau, Michel Foucault “The conversation”
In cognitive psychology there is reason to challenge all ideas of comparison between mind and computer, and the linear processing of information this represents. Madjsberg presents this same challenge with more philosophical underpinning. He rejects Cartesian understanding, arguing this “is meaningless without without studying the world” (pp39). Arguing a little later that sensemaking is the missing connective tissue (pp43), and that we must understand the holistic vs the atomised (pp49), and recommend us to read “no exit” by Sartre (pp51) and highlighting Google’s Ray Kurzweil 2012 book “how to create a mind” and the associated Pattern Recognition Theory of the Mind (PRTM) to which he observes “but it’s not how the brain works…” (pp52).
Heidegger helps conclude this philosophical analysis Hubert Dreyfus “Mind over Machine” as the pre-eminent interpreter of Heidegger (pp55-56). Madjsberg argues that these philosophical interpreters both argue against the mind as a rational calculator. Madjsberg instead presenting a framework of how experts achieve mastery through an engagement with culture and social context (cf. pp57-60 for his 5 stages from novice to expert).
Here are additional categorised concepts. Most pithy phrases, and all explanations are Madsbjerg’s.
THICK DATA
thin data is facts. Thick data is how we relate to the many different worlds we inhabit e.g., sensing the stress in a room (pp15)
pp70-75 four types of knowing: Objective; subjective; shared; sensory. These wide types enabling greater understanding e.g. pp76 pattern recognition or synthesis; pp79-81 literary economics. Reason, emotions, judgement, and analysis.
lack of thick data ability in boardrooms, “imagination and intuitions of top leaders are starving” pp16
PHENOMENON
time and space – reframe to a problem of a phenomenon pp99-100
SAVANNAH
pp15 Savannah not the zoo. Phenomenology of human behaviour in social context; pp18 see its ghosts
the thing in itself
pp93-96 . Avoid getting caught up in what is “real”. Example, pp96 the same champagne in a plastic cup or a fine glass from a white gloved waiter leave you with very different experience
always return to the thing itself
Edmund Husserl
Heidegger (Husserl’s best student) reversed the philosophy to focus upon social structures of worlds as opposed to Husserl’s reflecting on the thinking of the individual. cf. Sartre and existentialism
CARE
pp192 “without care, everything is correct and nothing is true“
pp154-155 William James “the principles of psychology” references to attention as focalisation, concentration, of consciousness vs other thoughts. “My experience is what I agree to attend to”
Madsbjerg presents this in a number of forms. pp183 become a connoisseur; pp187 alchemy of sensemaking by being in it. He also reflects upon what is not technical understood (pp191), concluding that “care cannot be replaced with Moneyball type atomised analytics” (pp194).
CREATIVITY
as opposed to manufacturing. pp123 problem solving human behaviour with no hypothesis or clarity of what is known needs sensemaking creativity that comes through us not from us
Related to THICK DATA is need for wider perspective because, he argues pp22, our complexity is artificial and our data is inappropriately contextualised. pp21 Abductive logic affords creative insight, but that requires us to accept dead ends and serendipity. It is messy and needs a confidence to remain doubt for indeterminate amounts of time.
pp130 “grace” as creative insight travelling through us via our social sphere not from us. [the later examples on pp146 akin to flow].
pp131 psychologist Wolfgang Kohler “three Bs” bus, bath, bed as three places where environment engenders creativity. Heidegger referred to “the middle voice” or old Greek word “phainesthai” which erases the distinction between subject and object – rather how they are revealed through us not by us.
pp158 “with a click, the left and the right are equally satisfied” pp159 “the metaphor” pp160 “the derring-do is actually in the service of site constraints” rather than the signature of the artist.
EMPATHY
pp107-108 “mood mentality” neither comes from outside or inside but from our very existence in the world.
pp116 theory of reciprocity (cf Marshall Sahlins three models of giving) give to get more vs get the same vs no expectation of return;
pp 114-116 Heidegger three levels of empathy:
- below awareness threshold which we adjust to. It may be cultural clothing norms, or particular nuance of language. Sociologists and anthropologists have debated for 100 years whether this has a socio-animalistic or formal structural undertone.
- awareness when it’s wrong. Often triggered from first level empathy moving to this second
- Analytical empathy which is systematic, framework and theory supported. “This is sensemaking. Theory unlimatelg reveals the insight” pp116
pp168 “assessing and responding to the core emotional interests in the room” Sheila Heen Difficult Conversation (Harvard business school) pp169 in a room full of executives who is respected? Who is carries weight of insight? Who is seen as difficult? Who is trusted? Who is beloved?
pp170 reading the leader’s relationships, including the relationship with themselves. Self-conscious, cynical, invested, self-deprecating or at least self transforming?
pp171 reading the culture of the company: competitive; egalitarian; creative; hard-nosed; underdog or alpha. Changing points and tensions.
pp173 “reading between the rules”
pp175 be with the people to read them. If you cannot be with them, then read their fiction. The descriptions of the human experience.
pp176 “the gulf of veneer” vs walking in their shoes
pp177 understanding the antagonistic world. pp178 know who you talking to, and who they are really talking to pp179 which means you must know the culture.
pp182 the key is navigating the other persons emotions. The most dangerous negotiation is the one you do not know you are in.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
pp101 discourse analysis – words and concepts meaning and significance.
pp116 symbols and nuance of meaning; discourse theory showing words in context (cf Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe); binary codes of social systems (cf Niklas Luhmann); stage-managed impressions (cf Erving Goffman’s “the presentation of Self in Everyday life” 1956); Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theories of language – “don’t think, but look” as most language of cooperation is not verbalised.
ABDUCTIVE LOGIC
Abductive – nonlinear – educated guesswork of most likely.
cf Peirce 1877 “the fixation of belief”; 1899 “first rule of logic”; 1903 “pragmatism and abduction”. Observing that Pierce was critical of deductive or inductive logic the former asserts correctness, and the second asserts unknowns are knowable with more technical ability.
NORTH STAR
not GPS. pp23 sensemaking shows the breadth of textural context needed. Following the North Star not head stuck upon the gps.
pp173 teaching is a negotiation. You’re negotiating for engagement and credibility. Once content is known you can speak from inside the content and thereby respond in the moment to the context.
pp195 Heidegger “meaningful difference”. The opposite in nihilism which corporate hierarchy is filled with. cf Heidegger 1954 “the question concerning technology” which he argues has not only replaced our gods but also replaced us. Optimisation of the material rather than flexing with it to find its best repurpose. pp197 we do this with people as interchangeable widgets vs “the source of meaning in our lives is not in us…it is in being in the world…we can all bring out what is best in ourselves” Hubert Dreyfus.
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v | behaviour | t
As a foil to the biological and behaviourist sentiments of Robert Sapolsky, Christian Madsbjerg’s equally contemporary writing presents the more nuanced reflection of what the mind offers in problem solving, rather than the explanations of behaviour as bio-chemistry and the brain.
The significance of sensemaking as presented in this wonderfully engaging book is its engagement with philosophical discussion in a practical way. Principally reflecting upon the necessary skill sets we all need when managing the very human reality in decision-making. This is the third blog from me this week addressing perspectives on behaviour. All of which I treat as equally valid in potential for understanding behavioural challenge, and therein the means by which controls and directions to decision-making can be outlined.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.