Of course, it’s not exactly the Matrix Morpheus prophesied about in the movie of the same name, but it is just as insidious and just as invisible.
Human beings just love a bit of self delusion.
It’s reported that 80% of people rate themselves as better than average drivers (although clearly less than average mathematicians).
In truth, in every industry or government or community sector, 50% of its members are below average competence. But we don’t like to think about that and we certainly don’t want to contemplate which half we’re in.
But rather than seeing this as a failing, we should instead see it as a reality – something that truly is all around us. Because if we face reality, we in fact increase our chances of success by actually factoring failure into our process. Something that we are far better at doing when engineering safety systems on aircraft than we are when designing organizational processes.
Traditional approaches to driving change, whether it be commercial or social, have enlisted rational arguments, then emotional persuasion, followed up by some behavioral strategy. Often augmented with a sense of baseless optimism and hope.
However, rather than looking at our staff or the people around us with unrealistic expectations, the question should be, “What do we need to build around our people to make success, not just more likely, but automatic?”
DAN GREGORY & KIERAN FLANAGAN
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