Teaching Smart People How to Learn is an article I will continue to read for years to come. Within the article is a concept called the Doom Loop. The Doom Loop is something I have experienced both personally and professionally. I have been the doom and gloom person who no one wants to talk to and have learned ways to self-correct these bad habits. I have also learned how to immediately pull out of conversations with someone who zooms into doom.
According to Argyris, "people who have rarely experienced failure end up not knowing how to deal with it effectively (Argyris pp. 104)." When some people are faced with a sudden situation they need to address, they don't act the way they think they act. Most people are unaware of their actions and behaviors exhibited and need to pay attention to ways in which they can self-govern themselves. Positive energy feeds positive energy and drama feeds drama.
Some people are driven internally by unrealistic high ideals of performance and pressure to be the best and most efficient contributors to their organizations and do not look at failure as an option. This has been an extremely difficult thing for me to manage throughout my career and personal life.
I was raised in a home where we were expected to be the best at everything we did and may have blamed things on others if they did not turn out right. I cannot believe I am saying this out loud. I learned a long time ago how bad that is for any kind of relationship, whether personal or professional. I still see some of these behaviors in family members but I catch myself most of the time. The times I don't are the times I really should, like in times of high pressure for an immediate answer or in an extreme crisis. However, please know that I have been told that I am someone who handles stress and emergency situations well with a calm and decisive demeanor. It's those rare times, when someone pushes my buttons that I am referring to. It's those individuals who seek excitement and drama and immediate satisfaction and gratification that put me in an uncomfortable zone. Rather than walking away to diffuse the situation, sometimes I feel I have to fix it and oftentimes apply too much pressure to myself to have the perfect answer. I need to practice thinking on my feet in these urgent situations so I can think clearly about what is at stake. Sometimes I feel threatened so I act accordingly but I need to learn how to diffuse the threat and calm the person down. Sometimes, if I don't give them immediate action, they act even more dramatic, which heightens my stressors. I have to learn to excuse myself in these situations.
This class will help me to continue to develop the skills I need to get rid of the doom loop. It is already helping me help fellow co-workers who suffer from the doom loop much more than I do. One such colleague has taken 3 weeks to write her own performance evaluation. I plan on working on this with her when we meet to discuss her evaluation and goals for next year. Learning on the job is more than I had ever imagined. Learning through this class just makes it all the better. I look forward to learning how to reason more effectively. Feel free to look at this explanation of The Doom Loop
References
Argyris, Chris. Teaching Smart People How to Learn. Harvard Business Review, pp. 99-109.The Doom Loop
HI -- I am so happy this course is helping you to understand ways we either learn or don't learn in given situations. More importantly, how important it is as a leader to create the safe spaces in which others can admit mistakes and failure ON THE WAY to learning. Too often, people expect perfection from themselves and others. This is not to say we don't have rigorous expectations and performance goals. No. As Amy Edmonson states, understanding that failure WILL occur and DOES occur helps us to uncover systemic issues and fix them before they go haywire. I wonder if your employee is having difficulty with her PE because she feels she will be judged, rather than coached?
ReplyDeleteYes, you are right. I was once a perfectionist and have learned not to be. My employee is also a perfectionist and is afraid of failure. We are working through this. I am LEARNING so much. Thanks.
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