Yesterday I summarized a review of Jacob’s new book, Management Rewired.  I opened with this statement:

“First, we need to relinquish the fact that people are rational.  Recent research has shown emotions hold more sway over our decisions than reason; we turn to logic merely to justify our choices after the fact.” (Ellen Gibson, Newsweek)

I discussed the author’s plea to refrain from managing out of reward and punishment, and focus instead on building ownership and meaningful connections to peoples’ work – It takes more forethought and tact, but is far more effective.

However, what the book doesn’t address well, is how metrics fit into all of this.  I agree, wholeheartedly, that much of the conventional wisdom taught to managers produces the opposite effect from what is intended (carrot/stick), but we can’t throw the baby out with the bath water… The better path is frequently counter-intuitive.

Measurement will always be part of how we gauge success.  Take sports for instance:  Sure the goal is to build teamwork, meaning, and aspirations for greatness into each player’s motivational mindset.  But without measurement, this goal is meaningless.  Measurement will always be a part of determining an individual’s contribution to a team.  Measurement is how we gauge progress and improvement, and how we calculate our standing against the competition.

As most of you know, we at Tidemark, place a great deal of importance on measurement.  We measure pretty much everything.  It is through measurement that one can make rational decisions, instead of justifying bad decisions through emotion.  Measurement doesn’t inherently lead to the atmosphere of “carrot and stick” — Lazy management does…  

“First, we need to relinquish the fact that people are rational.  Recent research has shown emotions hold more sway over our decisions than reason; we turn to logic merely to justify our choices after the fact.”  (Ellen Gibson, Business Week).

This excerpt is one of the summaries to a review of Management Rewired:  Why Feedback doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science, by Charles S. Jacobs.

If you’ve read the latest Workpuzzle blogs by Ben Hess (1,2) trying to rationalize his coffee addiction, you have witnessed, first hand, this principle at work.  He is physically, and therefore emotionally attached to coffee, and continues to look for evidence to justify his addiction.  He does a pretty good job of this, I might add.

What Jacobs details in his book has actually been conveyed previously in countless other ways – Jacobs has just written a book using the latest brain research to justify a well found truth.  The truth is that people respond more to their emotions than they do to rational motivations.

It’s long been known, for instance, that people respond best when they are performing meaningful work and striving to do their best, and when managers don’t manage out of reward and punishment.  Professor John Seddon from the University of Cardiff in his work, Freedom from Command and Control, states that:

“Dysfunctional behaviour is ubiquitous and systemic, not because people are wicked but because the requirement to serve the hierarchy competes with the requirement to serve customers.”

When management becomes out of control,

“…people’s ingenuity is engaged in survival not improvement.  By causing managers and staff to lose sight of their customers, they can ultimately contribute to putting the organization out of business altogether.”

In Gibson’s article, The Stop-Managing Guide to Management, Gibson explains:

“Whether we’re a chimpanzee or a corporate employee, we don’t like being controlled by others.  Instead of trying to alter behaviors by fiat, he recommends that managers stop managing.  Employees should set their own objectives, critique their own performance, and come up with their own strategies for improvement.  People are self-motivating, Jacobs says, especially when they feel they’re doing meaningful work.  (In case this strikes anyone as a dubious assertion, the author points out that engaging tasks stimulate the brain’s dopamine system and deliver the same ‘high’ we get from food and nicotine.)”

So what’s a boss to do? 

“Managers are better served by using subtle tactics to influence employees. Understanding that people are strongly motivated by emotion, he recommends that leaders create evocative ‘narratives’ about an organization’s mission. For a small startup, it could be as basic as a David-vs.-Goliath plotline.

Here’s an example of a rewired manager in action:  A team with a specific goal feels it’s understaffed.  Jacobs suggests the manager defer to the team’s point of view rather than react irritably.  Acknowledge that the team is shorthanded, he advises, then convince members that adding staff would dilute their accomplishment.

The book draws parallels between the couch and the cubicle.  The goal of the talk therapist is to guide the patient away from self-defeating mindsets.  But it’s hard to imagine the average boss having the patience to apply these techniques, and Jacobs acknowledges that his approach takes more effort than employing carrot and stick.  Even so, reading Management Rewired might soften the touch—and boost the effectiveness—of many a corporate drill sergeant.”

Keep in mind that most of you who have been raised under the reward and punishment system, with little exposure to the more subtle motivations, are emotionally attached to that way of relating, and will find ways to justify that management style.  But if you do this, you’ll be rationalizing something that’s not good for you or your team, much like Ben continues to rationalize his coffee addiction.  

In Friday’s blog, I described the many benefits to a daily exercise of gratitude. I suspect that had I listed the benefits (even powerful benefits to reaching your goals), without explaining the prescription, many of you would have reached for your wallet to pay for whatever it was that could lead to such great benefits.

But, given that the solution requires some personal daily discipline, and might be seen as kind of corny (especially to the macho types), you might be inclined to blow it off. Much like Rosanne Bar said many years ago: “I’d do absolutely anything to lose weight…. except diet and exercise.”

Here’s my promise:  I am going to start following the below prescription daily.  If you haven’t yet read Friday’s blog, please do, so you can learn why I’m so emphatic about building gratitude into my daily life. It is my hope that you (and those whom you manage) will too aspire to improve your outlook on life via a conscious practice of gratitude.   

Beginning a Gratitude Journal: (Modified from How to Keep a Gratitude Journal)

Step 1:  Choose a blank notebook or journal to write in every night.  Consider a spiral-bound journal that opens flat for ease in writing.  Select lined or unlined paper.  Keep this notebook next to the bed with a pen readily available.

Step 2:  Look for things during the day for which you are grateful.  Make mental notes throughout the day, every day.  Notice how the gratitude journal serves as a catalyst in shifting your focus to a more positive outlook over time.

Step 3:  Write five things you’re grateful for each night before bedtime.  Review the day and include anything, however small or great, that was a source of gratitude that day.  For example…the morning sun (rare in Seattle), the sound of a Harley, a flower in bloom, your child’s laugh, or the smell of a newly cut lawn (…or cinnamon toast).  Make the list personal.  Write a few words about the five benefits or blessings.  Be brief and increase the length as time progresses.

Step #4:  Begin looking every day for the positive angle in all things.  You will begin to view obstacles as opportunities to appreciate.

Step #5:  Focus on the wonderful things in life to attract similar encounters in the course of the day.  Use positive emotions as you interact with others to elicit more positive emotions (There is a lot of research supporting this finding).  Note these attractions in the gratitude journal.

Step #6:  Personalize the gratitude journal.  Expand it with clippings, photos, quotes or verses from magazines or other sources.

For most of us, this seems like such a stretch — It seems like something Oprah would do (As I recall, I believe she actually does keep a gratitude journal…). Nevertheless, the benefits are clear and profound. 

While researchers are stating their findings loud and clear, religious leaders have been emphasizing the benefits of gratitude for thousands of years.  I invite (challenge?) you to join me in this endeavor, and post your results.  I think you’ll be surprised how much you will gain from this exercise….