Written by: Jean Gomes, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Surfacing and challenging the assumptions that define our beliefs lies at the heart of human progress and the cultures we create within our organisations.
Chris Argyris, a pioneer in learning theory, saw two prevailing mindsets in organisations – productive and defensive. People with a productive mindset seek out information, ideas and solutions that can be tested. This mindset manifests itself by individuals explicitly expressing what they think so it can be opened to examination, challenge, and collaborative reasoning. People with this mindset genuinely invite challenges and questions because they see the value of their thinking being tested. The neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow, who has made a study of collaborative intelligence, highlights that the productive mindset is foundational to what makes families, teams, and communities function in exceptional ways.
On the other hand, people with a defensive mindset seek information that will protect them from having to change their beliefs. Their defensive reasoning is hidden, often to themselves, lest it is challenged. This mindset is easily identified because it trades in closed questions and statements. The consequences of an organisation with prevalent pockets of a defensive mindset can be very damaging. At its worst, truth is suppressed or modified when it's threatening. Learning is blocked, or incorrect assumptions are drawn from new ideas and insights to make them non-threatening. It promotes a culture of infighting and internal competition.
It also encourages self-deception that can lead to worse-case scenarios becoming self-fulfilling. If the defensive mindset becomes prevalent, asking questions becomes dangerous. Margaret Heffernan ¹ suggests it’s more widespread than we may imagine. She points to research suggesting that 75% of executives feel unable to speak up on things they disagree with for risk of reprisals (US) or the futility that nothing will change (Europe). This produces a culture of silence, where everybody knows there is a problem, but no one talks about it.
The consequences can be dire, as seen in the 'no-failure' culture under the leadership of executives Martin Winterkorn and Ferdinand Piech at VW, which brought about the emissions cover-up, one of the costliest scandals in business history. A former VW executive recalled ² ‘there was always a distance, a fear, and respect... If he (Winterkorn) would come and visit or you had to go to him, your pulse would go up. If you presented bad news, those were the moments that it could become quite unpleasant and loud and quite demeaning. ³
As Argyris suggested, truth, from a defensive mindset perspective, is only valid when it doesn't disrupt your belief system. You must adapt, spin it, or cover it up if it does. But the moment you do that, you've violated your integrity, which you must also cover-up, leading to what he described as a 'below-ground' world – one that everyone knows about but finds incredibly hard to discuss. When it is raised, people instinctively disavow being part of it or resignedly say they have no choice but to be a victim to a form of leadership they have no power or influence in changing.
Argyris points out that defensive reasoning is unconsciously about avoiding embarrassment or feeling threatened. Logic becomes self-serving. 'The worst part is that defensive reasoning prohibits questioning our reasoning. This leads to self-fuelling processes that maintain the status quo, inhibit genuine learning, and reinforce deception.' This is how mindset creates culture. It is the experience we make together, the culture we consciously or unconsciously nurture. It is – for better or worse ‒ our collective mindset.
One of Argyris's many contributions to the field of management science was the ‘ladder of inference’, which describes how assumptions and beliefs become formed. It fits well with the constructionist picture of a predicting brain that is continually performing inference calculations to make sense of the world.
The ladder sits in a pool of data and experience that we can observe. This data could be about family life, friends, or customers. We assign meaning to selective parts of the data we notice or choose to see. For example, we pay attention to certain types of customers more than others. We may take one person's friendship for granted and feel deeply honoured to have it from another. From here, we make assumptions that form conclusions and beliefs that guide our actions. Argyris pointed out[iii] that the ladder forms into a cycle that is reinforcing because our beliefs and actions now dictate what we look for and so it can become a self-justifying loop that bypasses reality. We fall into the endless trap of confirmation bias.
We tend to select data and pay attention to what supports our beliefs. 'As our beliefs become increasingly rigid, the data and experience we are willing to pay attention to will become a smaller and smaller portion of reality.' Using the ladder to understand other's inferences means we can, as he suggests, 'start to see inconsistencies between the real data and experience and the selected data and experience resulting from their beliefs.' We can begin to question and understand their reality experience and how it differs from our own.
Building productive mindsets requires us to recognise that self-awareness is not simply built through reflecting on feedback once a quarter; it's a multi-layered process. Judgement is not a purely rational process but a mix of our senses, emotions, and thoughts. It starts with tuning into what our body tells us about our reactions to events, decisions, and people. This physical reaction forms a logic chain that's only starting to be understood. Still, it's clear that as we pull these apart, each provides us with ways of disrupting our assumptions and getting new perspectives and insights into our increasingly uncertain world.
Jean's latest book, Leading in a Non-Linear World, explores the new science of mindset and how to build and apply them to our most significant challenges.
Follow me on LinkedIn, listen to our podcast, The Evolving Leader, and visit my website for more info.
Jean Gomes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jean Gomes is a New York Times bestselling author and trusted advisor to CEOs and leaders. His research and practice centres on creating More Human organisations, harnessing the latest findings in neuroscience and experimental psychology. In his most recent book, Leading in a Non-Linear world, he explores a new approach to embracing uncertainty by building mindsets for the future. The team at his research-based consultancy, Outside, works with a community of scientists to develop simple and powerful strategies to transform wellbeing, leadership, and organisational agility. He is co-host of the popular podcast, The Evolving Leader.
References:
[i] Heffernan, M., 2017. The sound of things not being said. [online] Youtube.com. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqmAl6xf2zY>
[ii] Cremer, A. and Bergin, T., 2015. Fear and respect: VW's culture under Winterkorn. [online] Reuters.com. Available at: <https://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions-culture-idINL8N12A0QZ20151011>
[iii] Christensen, K., 2008. Thinking about Thinking - Thought Leader Interview with Chris Argyris. [online] Rotman.utoronto.ca. Available at: <https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/Connect/Rotman-MAG/Thought-Leaders>
