Expertise And Ignorance: We Are All Ignorant—Some of Us Know It and Some Of Us Don’t

As leadership coaches and change consultants, we should think more deeply about the behaviors we are trying to shift–and the emotions associated with each particular behavior. Companies, particularly with an engineering focus, may tend to communicate with a bias towards logic, data and detail, while missing the opportunities to harness emotional messages that motivate more effective behaviors.

Commitments

Most of us struggle at some point in our lives with sticking to goals such as exercising more diligently, losing weight, ceasing to smoke, or drinking less. Making commitments, especially if these commitments are public, is a powerful mechanism to help us stick to these goals. This is the influence that emerges from our social or business culture and the need to be accepted by those in our work or social milieu. We are not just emotional animals. We are also social animals. Acceptance and respect matter a great deal.

One of us [KW] served as consultant regarding workplace safety to a major energy corporation. Leaders of this organization embraced some remarkably effective commitment mechanisms. They were expected to post their commitments to safety on written and framed placards outside their offices. Furthermore, this organization’s “behavior-based safety” process required any employee who witnessed an unsafe practice to verbally and directly request that the individual conform to the safety practice. They were asked for a commitment to do so. This was remarkably effective.

The other author [WB] worked with a university that primarily served a poor urban Black community. The culture of this community was saturated with a shared commitment of all its members to the welfare of one another. This commitment, in turn, was founded in the long-standing racial injustice imposed and frequent violent action taken by the white population in this city. Though it is located in a northern state, this city served as a regional headquarters for the Klu Klux Klan. Following is a description of the commitment strategy introduced in this university:

Building on this culture, I encouraged members of this university to create a charter that contained statements regarding the mission, vision, values and purposes of their university. Once created, this charter was signed each year by all members of the organization—beginning with the university president and members of the school’s board of trustees. At an annual Charter dinner, each member of the university (including the faculty) came up to sign the charter. Furthermore, all new members of the university participated in a 6 month long orientation program (that focused on components of the Charter). Having completed the orientation program, they signed the Charter.