Category Archives: Business Book

FEAR and the Knowing-Doing Gap

Book Review, Business Book, Failure
The knowing-doing gap and fear

 

When fear prevents acting on knowledge

This week we continue looking at the knowing-doing gap in business and how this can relate to our own lives (Ref: The Knowing-Doing Gap by J. Pfeffer and R Sutton – see below).

So you have a problem in the organisation or business and you have information on the problem and you know what to do to solve the problem but there is a culture within the organisation where you fear to take the necessary action because you could get into trouble.   That sounds crazy but it does happen.  In particular if there is an element of risk in your solution or it involves doing something new.  Employees can fear for there jobs or their self-esteem or they don’t want to jeopardise their mortgage.  What they will do is stick to what they’ve done in the past so they recreate past mistakes even though they know there are better ways of doing the work.  The organisational culture doesn’t support doing things differently!  We are back to ‘that’s not the way we do things around here‘ type thinking that we saw in the last article.

Some organisations also have fear based management systems which assume that fear is a good thing to keep staff on their toes and make them work hard.  There is a general sense of distrust for staff.

Interestingly there is something called the MUM effect where staff distance themselves from bad news.  People don’t want to deliver bad news to others because they feel they would be blamed by association!  An example given in the book was where an executive assistant of one CEO who was interviewed as part of the research said that she screened out bad news from her boss!  Why?  Because her job would become less pleasant if the boss got bad news and was in a bad mood.  So to keep the CEO in a good mood she would schedule appointments with people who would not deliver bad news to him about how things were going in the company.  This tendency for gatekeepers to screen out bad news ends up creating leaders who have a very inaccurate image of what’s going on in the business.   Top management can have a very rosy and inaccurate view of what is going on.  People who are afraid of their bosses will not want to deliver bad news and will also have an incentive to lie about what is going on.  All this leads to falsification of information and the inability to learn and the inability to improve.  I think all of us can relate to having a boss that you would want to keep happy!

How to tackle fear and inaction in orgaisations
  • Encourage, praise and promote people who deliver bad news to their bosses
  • The only failure is failure to act.  Punish inaction and not unsuccessful actions.
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Encourage people to try new things
  • Encourage leaders to talk about their failures and what they have learned from them.
What lessons for our personal lives?

I think one of the big lessons we can learn is that the only real failure is not to try at all.  Our failures should not be feared and brushed under the carpet as if we are embarrassed by them.  No, we should be open about our failures and most importantly what we have learned from our failures and how we have applied this learning in taking new actions.

Next Week:  When measurement obstructs good judgement and taking action.

Ref: ‘The Knowing-Doing Gap – How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton. Harvard Business School Press, 2000

Knowing-Doing Gap: When Memory Substitutes for Thinking!

Book Review, Business Book, Goal Achievement
The most expensive words in business

This week we continue to look at the knowing-doing gap and why there is frequently a gap between knowing something and actually turning that knowledge into action.  This article is based on the research work of Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton on how smart companies turn knowledge into action. Of course we can also learn from this how smart people turn knowledge into action. Last week we learned about smart talk and how this can be a trap which leads to inaction. This week we look at how memory can replace thinking.  What we mean by this is that organisations can get stuck into a certain way of doing things. This is how things have always been done around here type thinking. It’s a mindless reliance on the past. Translating knowledge into action which involves changes is resisted. People are afraid to question the old ways of doing things. Management practices persist even when their ineffectiveness is acknowledge by organisational leadership. The result is that organisations avoid adopting new practices.

How can we relate this to our own lives?  Well, are you stuck in a rut and doing things in a mindless way because you have always done it that way? Are you stuck in the ‘good old days‘ when your were successful in the past?

Alternatively are you open to fresh thinking and doing new things?  One practical exercise that you can do every day to promote new thinking and create new ideas is to write down 10 creative ideas on any topic of your choice every day. You will build your creative muscle!  You will generate new ideas and enhance your ability to break out of mindlessness.  Build this practice into your daily routine.  Your diary is a great place to brainstorm these 10 daily ideas (I use the Journal Software by DavidRM : Order Link; Demo Download Link; Product Information Link)

Next Week:  Fear is the enemy when it comes to organisations breaking free of precedent. In the next article we look at why fear prevents action and exacerbates the knowing-doing gap in organisations and what lessons we can learn to improve our own lives.

Ref: ‘The Knowing-Doing Gap – How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton. Harvard Business School Press, 2000