Index.php - New goals: more of the same or can it be something different?

Setting the right direction for the coming year is one of the most important activities these days: agreeing on how to implement strategy and business planning in the organization. That some on goals, objectives and key results to shape business and change. But how can this be done even better than in the current year?

As we prepare for the year ahead (or the new phase, the new initiative, …), one step is critical: a retrospective to understand key patterns in behavior and culture, collaboration and performance, and managing complexity and uncertainty. Many of us have been challenged, usually in different ways. This is an opportunity to understand the mindset with which we respond and how we learn.

 

“Double-Loop-Learning”

“Double-loop learning” means understanding the way we perceive, interpret, make decisions, and derive beliefs about the world around us. This “double loop” learning recognizes that the way a problem is defined and solved may be a cause of the problem. It allows reflection on the mental models of a leadership team. This type of learning can be very useful, for example, when we are looking for how to do better in the future after a year of challenges. Not just for us, but for us, our employees, our business and our environment. It can foster creativity and innovation, and go beyond adapting to change by anticipating or staying ahead of it.

A client with whom we have been practicing this type of learning for a long time writes about it:

“step 5 supported our management team in finding a common direction in terms of content via a sequence of workshops, and also in making our common behavior patterns, convictions and values more explicit and clear. What was particularly convincing was the high level of personal competence, the empathy for our situation and the always goal-oriented approach.”

 

Strengthening resilience and promoting sustainability

Making double-loop learning and retrospectives an integral part of your processes, workshops, and meetings is a catalyst for achieving your goals, it strengthens your team’s resilience, and it promotes sustainability.

How do you facilitate gaining insights and learnings, understanding them and ultimately translating them into new behaviors and adapted mindsets?

We look forward to chat with you in the comments!

And if you find this post valuable, feel free to share it via the selection below.

 

Index.php - The Dunning-Kruger effect and what it means for managers

Everyone has experienced a colleague who thinks he or she is the greatest, but in reality has no idea. This phenomenon even has a name: the Dunning-Kruger effect (David Dunning and Justin Kruger, 1999). It describes how people with little knowledge and experience tend to overestimate their abilities. But there is also the other side of the coin: people with a high level of competence who often underestimate their own abilities and are therefore reluctant to take on responsibility or contribute their expertise. This dynamic poses a challenge for both those affected and managers and requires targeted approaches to performance management.

Lack of expertise or experience

One of the main causes of the Dunning-Kruger effect is a lack of expertise or experience. When someone has limited knowledge in a particular area, it can be difficult to recognize one’s own lack of knowledge. This can lead to overconfidence, as the person does not have the necessary expertise to recognize their own gaps.

Why experts sometimes underestimate themselves

Experienced employees often underestimate their abilities because they recognize the complexity and their own knowledge gaps more clearly through deeper insights into their specialist area. This humility can make them reluctant to take on responsibility or contribute their expertise.

Limited ability for self-assessment

Another factor is the limited capacity for self-assessment. People often tend to assess their abilities and performance unrealistically. If they do not have sufficient expertise to evaluate their performance objectively, they can easily overestimate how good they really are.

 

What is the best way to deal with colleagues who are affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect?

 

Here are some possible solutions:

Critically questioning arguments: If a colleague claims to be an expert in a certain field, one should critically question his or her arguments and, if necessary, conduct a fact check. In this way, one can avoid misjudgments and wrong decisions.

Example: An employee in a team claims to be an expert in project management and proposes a completely inefficient project plan. Instead of simply accepting this, the team members should critically examine his arguments and point out possible weaknesses and alternative solutions.

 

Rely on objective evaluation criteria:

Instead of relying on opinions and assessments, objective evaluation criteria such as measurement data, statistics and results should be used. These provide a clear overview of the state of affairs and can help with decisions.

Example: In product development, clear criteria such as customer satisfaction, sales increase, and quality assessments can serve as the basis for evaluating ideas and solution approaches.

 

Involvement of colleagues with actual expertise:

It is helpful to question which colleagues with actual expertise are to be involved in the respective decision-making processes. In this way, informed decisions can be made and misjudgments avoided.

Example: When planning a complex project, the team should not only rely on the opinion of the self-proclaimed project expert, but also seek input from colleagues who actually have experience in project management.

 

Open communication and feedback:

It is important to establish an open communication and feedback culture in the company. In this way, employees can talk openly about their skills and assessments and receive constructive feedback. Admitting mistakes should also be accepted in such a culture. It also reduces “blind spots” over time and increases self-reflection skills.

Example: Space for feedback and discussion should be created in regular team meetings so that all employees feel safe to voice their ideas and concerns.

 

Address colleagues’ underestimation of themselves

Experienced employees who have deep expertise and years of professional experience often tend to underestimate their own abilities. This part of the Dunning-Kruger effect is equally relevant for managers, as it can make these experts reluctant to take on responsibility or get involved in decision-making processes. This becomes particularly critical when their knowledge and experience goes unused, cutting the team off from valuable contributions. Managers should proactively address this underestimation and provide regular recognition and encouragement to the employees concerned. This can take the form of targeted feedback that emphasizes employees’ strengths or by offering new challenges that bring out their full potential. Such encouragement not only boosts the experts’ self-confidence, but also helps to ensure that their expertise benefits the company and that well-founded decisions are made.

Example: A female engineer is reluctant to take on responsibility for an important project. In a meeting, her line manager emphasizes her previous successes and gives her a key role. This gives her the necessary self-confidence and she contributes her full expertise.

 

Tact and empathy

Dealing with colleagues affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect therefore requires a certain amount of tact and empathy. It is important not to expose or devalue these colleagues, as this can lead to tension. Instead, you should try to point out possible misconceptions to them in a respectful way and help them expand their knowledge and skills.

Example: Instead of confronting colleagues directly and saying they don’t have a clue, one could be empathetic toward them and encourage them to discover new perspectives. You could acknowledge that even experts can always learn and that it’s okay not to know everything.

And if you’re wondering now if you’ve been affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect yourself – don’t worry, we’ve all been there. It’s important to always reflect critically and have an open exchange with people. Taking a self-critical look at yourself from time to time and realistically assessing your own expertise can help you overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect and continuously develop personally and professionally.

 

Open communication and feedback

To create an environment where the Dunning-Kruger effect is minimized, it is critical to foster a culture of openness and learning. Companies can support this through training, workshops and mentoring programs that help employees improve their skills and expand their knowledge.

Overall, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a phenomenon relevant to performance that occurs in many work environments. By understanding the underlying mechanisms and applying appropriate solution approaches, companies can help their employees assess their capabilities more realistically, thereby contributing to more productive and efficient collaboration. Because at the end of the day, the entire company benefits when the strengths of each individual are optimally utilized.

 

Let us know what you think about this topic and leave us a short comment – we and the other readers are happy to get into the exchange!

And if this post is valuable to you, then simply share it via the selection below.

Index.php - Why is it sometimes so easy to achieve excellence?

Good performance management is a topic that constantly moves managers: How can we really achieve what we want to achieve together with our employees and using our resources? Far too often, people try to answer this question with the usual incentive systems, requirements and expectations. But have we understood what drives people to perform?

Single rower in a boat strokes the paddle.

 

An excursion into health research is helpful here. Aaron Antonovsky (Israeli-American sociologist, founder of salutogenesis) sought explanations for a person’s health. He focused on the relationship between health and disease. He expressed it most aptly in a metaphor:

“People swim in a river full of dangers, whirlpools, bends and rapids. The physician, Antonovsky explains, can try to pull the drowning person out of the current with his pathogenetically oriented medicine. In his understanding, however, there is more to it than that: it is a matter of making the person a good swimmer. So what helps him to master whirlpools and rapids without medical help?”

The best fundamental dimensions for engagement & performance can be derived from his work: So what does it take for people to sustainably perform well?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

01 Meaningfulness & Meaningfulness

Meaningfulness is the feeling that something is worth putting energy into. When the meaning and purpose of an endeavor (role, team, project) is clearly understood, people are usually more willing to get involved.

 

02 Comprehensibility

The second prerequisite for high performance is that people understand what really matters and what exactly is to be achieved.

Can all employees explain what the priorities of the company and their teams are? Can they themselves see how their daily work contributes to the long-term goals? Whether by means of the Japanese philosophy of or the , it is possible even in large organizations to generate this understanding, in which people are included and feel part of the whole.

If they then feel empowered in their role, that is, if they can be effective in the organization through influence, autonomy and decision-making responsibility, then the conditions for outstanding performance are also created at this level.

 

03 Manageability

The availability of the skills and resources needed to successfully complete one’s tasks is the third pillar for high performance. People like to ask themselves the following questions: Can I constantly develop my skills in line with the requirements? Do my tasks challenge me enough so that I can grow with them? Do they still remain accessible and manageable for me? Can I use these skills and my strengths to learn and succeed? Do I receive regular feedback from managers, stakeholders, and colleagues? Is there someone who supports me, as a coach or mentor?

If we believe that meaningfulness, understandability, and manageability must be present at the individual and team levels to achieve high performance, what do we need to do to create such a high-performance environment?

 

Let us know what you think about this topic and leave us a short comment – we and the other readers are happy to get into the exchange!

And if this post is valuable to you, then simply share it via the selection below.

Index.php - Implementing strategy or achieving goals with joy and quality – a contradiction?

Not a contradiction, as we often experience: When people work (together) with motivation and energy, the required skills and strengths on relevant topics that make sense to them, great performance can unfold; even with joy and quality.

First of all, we need the clearest possible understanding of what we want to achieve and why, at all levels of a company. Especially if we want to develop our business further (new products / services, processes, business models, etc.) this usually means change. In the vast majority of cases, we need to do things differently and redesign the way we work (together).

To achieve this it is important to understand that at the end of the day it is the people in our organizations who deliver the results, each and every one of them! In a functional and system-theoretical view, this is very well expressed in the “Integrated Management System” (IMS)® of. It gives good orientation for the right design of management processes. But if we only consider this “rational” side, we waste a lot of potential for excellent performance and satisfaction.

The American philosopher Dan Dennett describes it like this:

“The conscious mind of man is like a government spokesman who has to announce decisions that he was not present when they were made, nor does he know the true reasons for them.”

This unconscious, emotional side of people plays a crucial role in the powerful implementation of strategies. What helps managers to take this side into account even better? What can a holistic approach look like?

Direction & Orientation

The foundation is a shared understanding of the meaning & purpose of the organization, our mission and long-term goals. These can be translated into key initiatives, meaningful and tangible goals, desired outcomes and indicators for feedback. There are helpful approaches to this, whether from systems theory or other management philosophies (Ikigai, Hoshin Kanri, OKR, etc.). Crucial here is horizontal and vertical participation & involvement of managers and employees.

 

Compelling & inspiring story (narrative)

We appeal to the emotional side of people by communicating necessity, creating a sense of purpose, and making the project perceived as feasible. People want to be invited to participate and become part of the success. A good story prepares our decision whether and how we want to get involved! The power of a good story shows itself again and again, regardless of the challenges. It is definitely an essential building block of leadership to address people emotionally as well, to make them curious and to meet their primal human needs for belonging and self-worth.

 

Strengthen conscious action and self-leadership

In addition to the skills needed to perform our tasks, we need even more: the ability to become aware of our own personal obstacles, emotions, fears and needs and to deal with them well. These “human skills” are what allow us to work together even more constructively and to live personal responsibility. In doing so, it is important to respect our emotions and to use them as a wake-up call in order to have the opportunity to get back into constructive, conscious action. There are easy-to-learn methods for this today – is one that allows entire organizations to learn this skill with minimal time investment. In doing so, they find a common language that makes this emotional side “discussable”. Thus, it creates the foundation for significantly stronger performance that people can enjoy and quality.

It is this triad, the interplay of the three elements outlined, that makes a difference and enables great performance and satisfaction. Of course, these must be flanked by good training, management processes, regular feedback sessions, etc. If you as a manager want to support people, for example in a transformation, to be able to unleash their full power and energy, you are well advised to actively shape this interplay and consistently exemplify it in everyday life.

 

Taking on more responsibility

With our customers, we have seen what this makes possible. It is often also a process that takes time, from the strategic decisions to the commitment of each and every individual. But as the process unfolds, more and more people take on more and more responsibility, and discuss issues that were not possible before. It is not uncommon for them to achieve results that are 30% better than before.

Let us know what you think about this topic and leave us a short comment.

And if you find this post valuable, feel free to share it using the selection below.

 

Index.php - Leadership development: As if the future were already here!

In addition to tasks and tools, leadership development programs should also impart leadership values. In our view, it is important that the way in which leadership development is designed already brings to life the values it is intended to convey.

“We need leaders who lead with more confidence, empowerment and personal responsibility. Please design us a leadership program 3 × 2 days with the following contents …”

… this or similar is how we receive many requests from our customers.

If you analyze current leadership development programs a little more closely in terms of structure, content and learning method, you quickly recognize one of the main problems with leadership development today:

The way leadership programs are designed does not express what they are intended to achieve.

Shouldn’t we ask ourselves the following question instead?

“How would we design a leadership program if trust, empowerment, and ownership were already in place?”

Then wouldn’t we …

The idea that leadership is the same everywhere and that managers must therefore learn the same things expresses just as little trust, empowerment and personal responsibility as predetermined content and tight time structures.

It makes sense to define a common framework within the company. This can be done, for example, by jointly defining leadership principles or guidelines. When defining this framework, it is also good to rely on the reflected experiences of the managers, because after all, they are the ones who make this framework effective.

Design principles for contemporary leadership learning

Once a common framework has been found, learning can and should be largely individualized.

So what should “program designers” look for in order to design leadership learning in such a way that it is efficient on the one hand, but also that important (future) leadership values are already expressed by the way the program is designed?

We suggest the following criteria:

Let us know what you think about this topic and leave us a short comment.

And if this post is valuable to you, feel free to share it using the selection below.