If you’ve ever been angered about the entire sum of your work being reduced to the “billable hour,” apparently things have gotten worse for many workers. The New York Times recently published an in-depth examination of new methods of productivity tracking (many sparked by the pandemic work-from-home shift).¹ For some individuals, this productivity tracking includes random screenshots of their computer at 10-minute intervals and photos shot from their laptop camera. With employees aware their keystrokes are being watched, it has led to a new invention: The mouse jiggler. Apparently, it is undetectable from your IT department and makes it seem as if you are productively moving your mouse around your screen.

One of the more egregious examples of productivity tracking illustrated by the Times is of hospice chaplains who have a point system to measure their productivity in working with those at the end of life and with grieving families—.25 points for a condolence call, 1 point for family visitation, etc. It’s remarkable it got to the point of tracking activities for hospice chaplains.

This surveillance and productivity tracking may or may not be happening to you. But you may be facing milder forms of productivity tracking. It’s a nuanced issue. Some things we do can be meaningfully counted (e.g. sales, etc.). But as famously stated, “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”² I’m sure the hospice chaplains would agree.

If you want to speak up about improper measurement tactics (rather than buy a mouse jiggler), what should you do?

In a recent book on Speaking Up at Work, I outline several ways to be more persuasive. One way is to align your arguments with important values and goals of the organization. One woman I interviewed (pseudonym: Amy) spoke up about a worker tracker system that was being considered that she found morally appalling. Amy tried to be diplomatic at first but became exasperated with the decision to implement tracking devices on employee lanyards in division that already had a toxic culture. She said:

“This is the wrong move. [The division leader] has created an organization that is, is sick. And these are employees who already feel micromanaged. And now you’re going to put a dog collar on them…If you think that’s going to help productivity, you’re kidding yourself. And by the way, there’s a ton of research that shows when your engagement goes down, your safety goes down. When you got employees worried about…getting tracked in the bathroom, do you think that they’re going to be also focusing on their safety?”

She further argued by saying, “You talk about treating employees like adults, you talk about respecting people, this doesn’t really live up to any of that.”

Here we see an attempt to create a sense of incongruity between the goals and aspirations of the organization and their current behavior. The intent is to create a sense of inconsistency, which is a key persuasion tactic.³

While this rhetorical tactic helps draw out an inconsistency between the stated goals and aspirations of an organization, you are still up against unstated goals (e.g., controlling people and punishing poor performers).

For example, the stated goal of the tracking devices was just wanting the “data” and to “manage workflows,” but Amy was skeptical, of course, and also heard of more invasive reasons for the technology. As she mentions: “In a command-and-control environment, where they’re managing every minute…what our supervisors immediately went to…‘Oh, we can tell when people are taking smoke breaks, or if they’re spending too long in the bathroom, or if…their lunch is too long. Or if two people are together that shouldn’t be.”

Amy was a lone voice that was up against individuals with more power and seniority than her who had created a command-and-control environment. Even with a persuasive message, she was ultimately not successful in stopping the initiative, but she is still glad she did speak up and wanted to be “on the record.” In this, there is “value-expressive” worth in speaking up, as we affirm what is important to us and can live with a greater sense of integrity.⁴

Amy eventually felt validated as the employee trackers received an ethics complaint, among others, for the tracking of individuals going to the bathroom, and the division leader was eventually removed from his position for creating a “toxic culture.”

So, one way to speak up is to voice how a proposed course of action is inconsistent with the stated goals and aspirations of your organization. It can create a sense of incongruity that is persuasive, even if you are up against powerful interests. You can also induce a conversation that might encourage others to break from the conformity pressure everyone might be facing. At the very least, you can live with a greater sense of integrity.

References:

1. Kanter, J. & Sundaram, A. (2022, August 14). The rise of the worker productivity score. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html
2. Cameron, W. B. (1963). Informal sociology: A casual introduction to sociological thinking. Random House.
3. For example, see chapter on Cognitive Dissonance Theory in O’Keefe, D. J. (2016). Persuasion: Theory and research (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
4. Sherman, D., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183-242.

Photo/Source: Andres Ayrton/Pexels

If you find yourself confused, trying to make sense of events, or emotionally overwhelmed (who hasn’t?), one technique that can help is called expressive writing.

Expressive writing has a long tradition in the social sciences (starting as a method in the 1980s), most notably developed by James Pennebaker of the University of Texas.

Expressive writing is what you might expect. You write non-stop for 10-15 minutes to make sense of an emotional experience. It is often meant to be done each day over several days. It is a technique that has been used in hundreds of scientific studies, most notably to help individuals suffering from PTSD.¹

In Organizational Learning and Performance, I talk about different metaphors of learning to add nuance to understanding the process of learning. One of the metaphors is of the self as a “developing author,” meaning you develop your ability to construct meaning from your experiences.² This is the essence of expressive writing as a technique. You construct a new way of thinking about an event that can help you productively move forward.

For example, a group of professionals who had lost their jobs (with an average tenure of 20 years in the organization) were voluntarily recruited to a “Writing in Transition” project by an outplacement firm. Participants were asked to write for 20 minutes a day for five consecutive days. The prompt was to write “about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding the layoff and how their lives, both personal and professional, had been affected.”³ The participants were then tracked over eight months. Impressively, those in the expressive writing condition were twice as likely to have accepted full-time jobs over that time.

Interestingly, the individuals who engaged in expressive writing did not take more job search actions (applications, etc.) than the control group. So what accounts for their increase in receiving job offers? Seemingly they were more effective in job interviews, perhaps because they had made sense of their job loss and were less troubled by it and were therefore more effective in an interview.⁴ As the researchers state, “Writing about the thoughts and feelings surrounding job loss may enable terminated employees to work through the negative feelings and to assimilate and attain closure on the loss, thus achieving a new perspective.”⁵

Thus, expressive writing helps construct a new perspective. As the organizational psychologist, Karl Weick, states, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”⁶ In expressive writing, you see what you think by seeing what you write. Weick’s question attunes us to the knowledge transforming effect of writing. With expressive writing, the point is not to engage in knowledge telling (e.g “I did this, then that, then…), but by writing we construct and reframe the experience.⁷ At its best, we produce a more realistic, compassionate, and empowering story.

You might be skeptical, however, that simply writing about a negative event will lead to a newfound perspective. I’d largely agree, despite the evidence of the research paradigm. In writing about an event, I’d also include identifying cognitive distortions in what you wrote.

Cognitive distortions such as being overly critical of yourself (“It was all my fault”), overgeneralizing (“I am always going to fail.”), should statements (“I should have known better.”) have been outlined by many practitioners and writers in the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (see for example, Checklist of Positive and Negative Distortions). Identifying cognitive distortions helps you see your interpretations more objectively. In this way, the event will have a weaker hold over you. This accords with a summary of how expressive writing works, where some kind of “thoughtful analysis” is critical in re-interpreting events.⁸

And, keep in mind that the results of expressive writing do not need to be oppressively stored in journals. In fact, some research suggests that physically discarding written thoughts by ripping up the paper and throwing it away can help you “mentally discard” the thoughts as well.⁹

Thus, to promote learning and development, try expressive writing as a technique. Not only does it help us to construct a story to make sense of our experience but analyzing our assumptions can help us gain objectivity. It can help us learn and take productive steps forward, just as with the individuals who lost their jobs.

1. Pennebaker, 2018; Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016
2. Inspired by Constructive Developmental Theory, see Kegan & Lahey, 2009
3. Spera, Buhrfeind, & Pennebaker, 1994, p. 725
4. Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016
5. Spera, Buhrfeind, & Pennebaker, 1994, p. 731
6. Weick, 1995
7. Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1987
8. Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016
9. see Briñol, Gascó, Petty, & Horcajo, 2012

References:

Briñol, P., Gascó, M., Petty, R. E., & Horcajo, J. (2012). Treating thoughts as material objects can increase or decrease their impact on evaluation. Psychological Science, 24(1), 41-47.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization. Harvard Business School Publishing.

Pennebaker, J. W. (2018). Expressive writing in psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 226-229.

Pennebaker, J. W. & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Opening up by writing it down: How expressive writing improves health and eases emotional pain. (3^rd ed.). Guilford Press.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1987). Knowledge telling and knowledge transforming in written composition. In S. Rosenberg (ed.), Advances in applied psycholinguistics (pp. 142–175). Cambridge University Press.

Spera, S. P., Buhrfeind, E. D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). Expressive writing and coping with job loss. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 722-733.

Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Sage Publications.

Photo Source: Aaron Burden/Unsplash

We’re all familiar with the term groupthink and often invoke it when we see easy conformity. But when we are caught up in the social currents of thinking, how can we see through it? I recently saw the 2017 film Shock and Awe that recounts the story of Knight Ridder journalists and their reporting of the lead up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. It’s a case study in seeing through groupthink and the value of reason, truth, and critical thinking. Values that can help you and your organization make better decisions.¹

To briefly recount: During the lead up to the Iraq invasion, most media outlets diligently reported the Bush Administration’s claims about Iraq without skeptically questioning their sources. A set of journalists—Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, and Joe Galloway—and newspaper editor, John Walcott, published dozens of stories that questioned the Administration’s claims. As Walcott states,

When the administration made an assertion, a lot of people wrote it down and printed it and we looked at it and said “that doesn’t make any sense. Is that true?” And we proceeded to call people. And very often, and very quickly, people said “no, that’s not true,” or “there is no evidence that that’s true,” or “they left out part of the story.”

John Walcott (Follmer, 2008)

In the aftermath of September 11th, there was pressure to conform, given the spirit of patriotism after a national tragedy. It became more difficult to be an independent voice against and within the Administration. In addition, many journalists were more concerned about faithfully reporting information from their high-ranking source to maintain relationships, rather than skeptically examining their arguments.

Walcott outlines the peril of falling into “pack behavior.” As he states:

Anyone who has covered a big story knows how easy it is to fall into pack behavior. You always worry that you don’t have what the other guy has. It takes a strong constitution to ignore the pull of the crowd…Too many journalists, including some very famous ones, have surrendered their independence in order to become part of the ruling class.

John Walcott (Abcarian, 2013)

For Knight Ridder, their skeptical reporting proved to be accurate as no Weapons of Mass Destruction were found in Iraq, nor was a hidden program found. Many of the claims that supported the Administrations arguments were made by Iraq exiles who had a strong desire to see Saddam Hussein ousted, making their claims questionable. Nevertheless, the unsupported claims of Iraqi exiles made their way into many prominent news outlets.

While Landay, Strobel and colleagues weren’t the only individuals questioning the rationale for war, they were nearly alone as journalist in reporting skeptical stories. It was a lonely position without social validation. As Strobel states, “There was a period when we were sittin’ out there and I had a lot of late night gut checks where I was just like, ‘Are we totally off on some loop here?’” (Moyers, 2007).

Their skepticism proved true, but with any claim of “seeing through groupthink” is the law of large numbers. With enough people making different claims, some people are bound to be correct, based purely on probability. But that assumes all guesses are equal. The Knight Ridder journalists, however, had clear reasons to doubt the evidence. As Jonathan Landay, himself, states, he thought Saddam Hussein had WMDs until he looked into the matter more thoroughly. He says, “I simply spent basically a month familiarizing myself, with what Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction programs had been and what had happened to them. And, there was tons of material available on that from the UN weapons inspectors. I mean, they got into virtually everything, and their reports were online” (Moyers, 2007).

In doing this background research, Landay changed his mind based on the evidence and outlined clear reasons that such a program would have been detected and thus produced more substantial evidence for its existence. Landay and his colleagues wrote stories that there was little evidence to back up the Vice President’s claims that Saddam Hussein had resumed his efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon. As Landay wrote in September of 2002 (several months before the invasion in March 2003), “The absence of intelligence pointing to a spike in the Iraqi threat contrasts sharply with Cheney’s warnings that Saddam soon will have a nuclear bomb, could move on his neighbors or could supply a weapon of mass destruction to terrorists” (Landay, 2002).

Their stories, however, didn’t gain much traction as Knight Ridder didn’t have a voice in the newspaper markets of New York or Washington, DC. The stories produced by the Knight Ridder journalists could only run in 30 potential partnership newspapers in various cities throughout the U.S. However, the newspapers could choose not to run the stories written by Knight Ridder, which they often did, especially because the Knight Ridder stories were not in-line with the dominant narrative in many prominent media outlets. In 2013, Jonathan Landay was asked by a CNN news anchor: “How did it feel…to be the lone holdouts in this pursuit of truth and fact?” Landay responded: “‘Lone holdout’ is a good word because even some of our newspapers—we work for a chain of 30 newspapers. Even some of our own newspapers wouldn’t print our own stories” (Wemple, 2013).

In contrast to the journalists at Knight Ridder, the vast majority of high-profile media outlets were insufficiently skeptical in their reporting leading up to the Iraq invasion, including the New York Times. The New York Times even apologized to their readers for “coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been…Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged – or failed to emerge” (From the editors; The Times and Iraq, 2004).

One factor that helped the Knight Ridder journalists get the story right was that they were, to some degree, outsiders to mainstream media outlets. They didn’t rely on high-ranking sources, but instead did more painstaking work of speaking to mid-level government employees who would have less interest in conforming to the Administration’s narrative (Massing, 2004).

The journalists at Knight Ridder would eventually win numerous awards for their reporting, especially as the Bush Administration’s claims for going to war were found to be inaccurate. These awards were recognized as early as the beginning of 2004 when they were honored for stories that discredited the claims that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium in Africa (a claim that President Bush had made in the State of the Union address). (Knight Ridder Newspapers, 2004) With Knight Ridder’s reporting we see many of the hallmarks of independent thinking and how having a strong value placed on reason and truth helps one overcome the forces of groupthink. They weren’t content to simply recount the stories of those in charge, but skeptically examined claims asking if they were true. They felt the pull to conform and were concerned that they might be “off on some loop.” While they did have the social validation of each other, they were largely alone among media outlets in their skepticism of the Administration.

As individuals, what can we do differently based on understanding this case study in seeing through groupthink? The Knight Ridder team was partially successful because they were “outsiders” in the journalistic community—not concerned with pleasing high ranking sources and not worried about conforming to the dominant narrative. This is one benefit of not being in (and not trying to be in) the mainstream. Second, the team demonstrates the hallmarks of critical thinking: not blindly accepting authority, seeing there was excessive “motivated reasoning,” and digging deeper into claims by asking: Is that true?² Critical thinking helped them see through flimsy claims. Finally, they weren’t solo individuals seeing through groupthink. They were able to support each other through the sense of invalidation that they were “out on a limb.” Similarly, find allies to help build a case that your organization may be heading in the wrong direction.

In sum, seeing through groupthink is not for the faint of heart, but being an “outsider,” relying on your critical faculties, and building social support make it more likely. And when the stakes are high, this is all the more important.

1. The term “groupthink” was coined by Irving Janis with his 1972 publication of Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascos. Janis chose the word “groupthink” to be consonant with Orwellian terms such as “doublethink.” For a review of groupthink research see Esser (1998).
2. For an excellent overview of rationality and critical thinking see Steven Pinker’s Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems so Scarce, Why It Matters. Viking.

References:

Abcarian, R. (2013, March 19). Iraq war 10^th anniversary: A dark mark for news media. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/iraq-war-anniversary-a-dark-mark-for-the-news-media.html

Esser, J. K. (1998). Alive and well after 25 years: A review of groupthink research. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 73(2/3), 116-141.

Follmer, M. (2008, March 28). The reporting team that got Iraq right. The Huffington Post. Retrieved https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-reporting-team-that-g_n_91981.

From the editors; The Times and Iraq. (2004, May 26). The New York Times. Retrieved https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-the-times-and-iraq.html

Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Knight Ridder Newspapers (2004, February 4). Knight Ridder journalists honored for stories on war planning. Retrieved https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/special-reports/iraq-intelligence/article24470662.html

Massing, M. (2004, February 26). Now they tell us. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/02/26/now-they-tell-us/

Moyers, B. 2007, April 25. Buying the War [Transcript]. Bill Moyers Journal.  www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html

Wemple, E. (2013, March 19). The media’s Iraq War failure. The Washington Post. Retrieved https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/03/19/the-medias-iraq-war-failure/

Photo Source: mohamed_hassan/Pixabay

Why do we learn? This is the provocative question that Stanislas Dehaene asks in his book How We Learn.¹ But you’ve probably never asked yourself: “Why do we learn in the first place?” As Dehaene states:

“The very existence of the capacity to learn raises questions…Why aren’t we born pre-wired, with pre-programmed software and exactly the pre-loaded knowledge necessary to our survival? In the Darwinian struggle for life, shouldn’t an animal who is born mature, with more knowledge than others, end up winning and spreading its genes? Why did evolution invent learning in the first place?” (p. xvii).

The question seems almost absurd to ask, but the answer grounds learning in adaptation. As Dehaene continues:

“The ability to learn…acts much faster—it can change behavior within the span of a few minutes, which is the very quintessence of learning: being able to adapt to unpredictable conditions as quickly as possible. This is why learning evolved. Over time, the animals that possessed even a rudimentary capacity to learn had a better chance of surviving than those with fixed behaviors” (p. xix).

On this account, learning is primarily aimed at helping us survive and thrive in “unpredictable conditions,” which, pretty much seems like life.

Adapting to unpredictable conditions is often the result of exploratory learning–which builds on the the standard distinction between exploration/exploitation in the field of organizational learning (March, 1991). Within an organization, exploration is typically the purview of R&D departments, although as an individual you can think about having “R&D” time. Exploration in your daily life is learning new things in your field and following your curiosity. Exploration is risky, however, as your efforts could ultimately lead nowhere. Just like ideas tested in R&D that don’t lead to tangible products.

Exploitation, in contrast, is engaging in the same activities, following routines, and getting tasks completed. Think of the difference between the two ‘modes’ as a ladder: Exploitation is about climbing the same ladder you’ve been on and occasionally making it stronger and more reliable. Exploration is about climbing “new walls” or altering the capacities and reach of the ladder, itself.

fMRI studies have found that exploitation is closely linked to reward centers in the brain (Laureiro-Martínez, et al., 2015).² It’s rewarding to complete routine tasks (i.e. climbing the same ladder). Unfortunately, exploitation can also be risky. It is analogous to Dehaene’s notion of “fixed behaviors” which lock us into a response pattern. Exploratory learning, in contrast, helps us to adapt for the long-term, expanding our repertoire for “unpredictable conditions” as we explore new “walls” and expand our abilities.

The main problem most of us face is that exploratory learning tends to get cut from our schedules, just like R&D departments get cut. This doesn’t have immediate consequences, as we can exploit our current knowledge. The problem becomes our long-term ability to adapt and thrive.

In Organizational Learning and Performance, I discussed the WD-40 company and their reliance on a single product for decades. When the environment shifted with new competitors, they needed to engage in exploratory learning to expand their product base. Prior to this, they were in what Garry Ridge, the company CEO, called the “typhoon zone,” which is being caught in exploitation, where you “plan your work, work your plan,” and “you miss the review, the magic, or the learning moment” (Yemen & Conner, 2002, p. 3). To break out of the typhoon zone of exploitation, they engaged in a series of exploratory activities: training sessions, reading books about best practices, and greater sharing of lessons learned. Through this process, they expanded their repertoire of products (moving from a “brand fortress” to a “fortress of brands). They also expanded their capacities as individuals and have been thriving as a company since.

One of the main ways to engage in exploratory learning is through a discovery process of talking to “end users” or customers. Discovery is a process of “needfinding” and understanding the experiences of individuals with a sense of empathy and a “beginner’s mind.” It is exploratory learning that can lead to insights that help you adapt and thrive long-term (although it is “risky” in the sense that it takes time and may not lead to breakthroughs).

So, think of exploratory learning as fundamental to your nature (and embedded in ways of discovery new ideas). As Dehaene provocatively states, we weren’t born “pre-wired” with all the knowledge needed to survive and thrive. We learn to adapt, and exploratory learning helps you build your repertoire and knowledge for the future.

1. Dehaene is a French neuroscientist, and the book is primarily focused on learning and artificial intelligence. It is an accessible introduction to a technical field, and he provides tangible advice to teachers with his four pillars of learning: focused attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation.
2. You might wonder, how do you study exploration and exploitation in an fMRI machine? They used a game with four slot machines that had uncertain payouts. You could “explore” different slot machines or “exploit” your knowledge and continue playing the same machine.

References:

Dehaene, S. (2020). How we learn: Why brains learn better than any machine…for now. Viking.

Laureiro-Martínez, D., Brusoni, S., Canessa, N., & Zollo, M. (2015). Understanding the exploration-exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision-making performance. Strategic Management Journal, 36, 319–338.

March, J. G. (1991). Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2(1), 71-87.

Yemen, G., & Conner, M. (2002). WD-40: The squeak, smell, and dirt business. Darden Business Publishing.

Photo Source: jtpatriot/Pixabay