The commitment being made by members of this university were real—and became that much more important with public signing each year of the Charter by all of the stakeholder….
When people are encouraged to make public commitments to take action, they are much more likely to follow through. We see this operating in substance abuse programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as in marriage ceremonies, many marriage enrichment programs, and conflict-management processes. It is one thing to mutter a commitment to ourselves—such as we do on an occasional New Years Eve or after eating a very full meal or imbibing in one too many cocktails. It is quite another matter for us to promise something when other people are there to witness what we have said and remain there to remind us what we should be doing if we stray away from our commitment.
Ego balance
One of the primary motivators that we humans have is the desire to maintain and enhance a positive self-image. As emotional and social animals, we routinely (and largely unconsciously) compare ourselves to those in our work or social milieu. We make these comparisons in order to judge which behaviors are acceptable, and what builds our self-image. We also want to discover what is not acceptable and what weakens our self-image. When we act in a way that contradicts or diminishes our self-image, cognitive dissonance occurs (Aronson, 2018).
This is the same dissonance that leads us to remain ignorant and susceptible to misinformation. A we have already noted, this dissonance can produce high levels of anxiety and discomfort. When the dissonance concerns our sense of self, then we struggle intensively to regain balance between our actions and our self-image. What is fascinating (and disturbing) about this process is that we are more likely to change our beliefs rather than our behaviors to maintain a positive self-image. We regain ego balance by changing what we think rather than how we act.
Download Article 1K ClubWe offer an example. One of us [KW} worked with a senior executive who supported neither the person nor the customer service program he was directing. Here is what happened to change this person’s attitudes (thoughts):
The senior executive was extremely antagonistic towards my strategy to improve customer service, but begrudgingly allowed it to proceed because my sponsor was more senior. While this executive was on vacation, he was invited to speak at an international conference in Johannesburg South Africa on the topic of service quality. Given his absence I was asked to develop his presentation. On his return, he had little opportunity to make changes to the presentation. He essentially presented my customer service strategy as-is. It was very well accepted by the audience and rated as one of the best presentations at the conference. After this event, he became a big advocate of my program. Why did this “flip-flop” occur?
