JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS
What do cows drink? Your final answer may have been “water” but was “milk” the first thought that came into your head? If so, that’s an example of a mental shortcut that your brain took without you even knowing it.
This is a simple example of the ways in which our brains may fail us. The shortcuts our brains naturally take, along with many other logical fallacies, can have a negative impact in our professional and personal lives. To make better decisions, we need to understand how our mind takes shortcuts and how those shortcuts trick us into making bad decisions. If you understand how your mind works and when it fails you, you will make better decisions.
THE CORRELATION FALLACY
You own an ice cream shop and sales have tripled over the previous two months. This is great news for you as you are finally making a profit. Regrettably, drowning deaths in your town have also increased over that time period. You have recently received a complaint that showed that the more ice cream you sell, the more people are drowning. The person who brought up the complaint has evidence of the ice cream sales and the drownings to back this up. What would you say in response to this complaint to defend your ice cream shop and stay in business?
There are a few things at play here. The initial thought for many is that the complaint isn’t true and therefore we should try to prove that it isn’t true. We would want to say that, of course, our ice cream has nothing to do with people drowning. In fact, the information is true and we want to get away from our natural impulse to be defensive. In this case the two facts do have something to do with each other, as they are both more likely to happen in the same months of the year. This gets us thinking about causation and correlation. It’s not that more ice cream sales cause more drowning deaths, and more drowning deaths don’t cause more ice cream to be sold. The summer heat is actually the cause and driver of both of the events and they would each happen independently of one another. It’s important to analyze what is actually causing something to happen when you notice two new results and some people may assume that one is causing the other.
PREDICTING OUTCOMES
Flip a coin 5 times and it turns up heads each time. What do you think is the probability that it will turn up heads again on the next flip? Do you think it is:
– More likely heads than tails
– Equally likely heads as tails
– More likely tails than heads
The question is an example of the gambler’s fallacy. The gambler’s fallacy is the mistaken assumption that past independent events have an influence on the likelihood of a future outcome. In this case, flipping five heads in a row has no impact on the outcome of the next flip.
SIMPLE MATH MISTAKES
A bat and ball cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. What is the cost of the ball?
This is an example where your brain may quickly jump to an answer that seems obvious. Now go back and double-check your answer and take more than 10 seconds to think about it. Did you come up with a new response?
When most people see the question, they jump to the answer of ten cents when the correct answer is five cents. You see the dollar and the ten cents and quickly separate them making ten cents the “obvious” answer.
We often arrive at quick answers for good reasons in all types of situations. Coming to a quick answer isn’t the problem, the problem arises when we don’t revisit some of those snap decisions. It is functional for our brains to process information and make decisions quickly much of the time. Just not all of the time, and knowing when to pause and engage our brain more fully is key to making the best decisions.
THE LIKELIHOOD SCENARIO
Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and deeply concerned with social justice. Which is more likely:
1) Linda is a bank teller.
2) Linda is a volunteer for a political party and a bank teller.
If you chose the second option, you are in the majority, but, unfortunately, the majority of people are wrong in this case. The likelihood that Linda is both a bank teller and works for a political party must be less than the likelihood of her just being a bank teller.
This is a simple example of the ways in which our brains may fail us. The shortcuts our brains naturally take, along with many other logical fallacies, can have a negative impact in our professional and personal lives. To make better decisions, we need to understand how our mind takes shortcuts and how those shortcuts trick us into making bad decisions. If you understand how your mind works and when it fails you, you will make better decisions.
We are excited to announce a new workshop focused on decision making, drawing inspiration from the insights of numerous influential thinkers who have explored the intricacies of decision making and human behaviour. We have distilled this knowledge into a concise, engaging, and interactive 2-day workshop on Effective Decision Making.
To optimize the performance of the team, a manager has to let the team members know what is expected of them. The broad guidelines given at the beginning of an assignment may not be enough to ensure a smooth flow. By providing periodic assessments and timely feedback to team members there is a greater likelihood that the objective will be successfully met. If a manager can effectively communicate constructive feedback instead of delivering criticism, then the team members are more likely to become motivated and deliver improved performance.
How does feedback differ from criticism?
Focus
Feedback is often focused on communicating observations about how the work was performed. The recipient is informed about what is expected of their work. This may include an indication about how future performance can be improved
Criticism is often directed towards the person who did the work. If the work has a positive outcome, then the person is praised for it. If the outcome is less than ideal often blame will be laid. As a result of the focus of criticism not being directed towards the issues that comprised the work, addressing those issues and possible areas of improvement are not likely to be discussed.
Objectivity
Feedback is objective and impassionate. It assesses the outcome of an action. If the outcome is negative, possible reasons for this outcome are explored without laying individual blame. The unstated emphasis is that the individual has to assess the cause of the problem and fix it.
Criticism is subjective. A manager will likely express personal opinions on the reason for the poor outcome and will demand that the team member take corrective action. Even if the manager’s judgment is accurate, the effect of criticism is that the individual receiving it may become defensive and disagreeable
Clarity of Purpose
Clarity of purpose is inherent to feedback. The objective of the project, the person’s role in accomplishing it, and how one’s actions can impact the team and the outcome should be clearly stated
Attitude
Feedback is provided with the goal of helping to find a solution to a problem. The result may be an increase in cooperation and goodwill.
Criticism comes across as being judgmental. The recipient may become uncomfortable as a result of being scrutinized. Feelings of self-consciousness and a desire to dissociate with the issue and the person providing the criticism may be evoked.
Outcome
Feedback creates an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas. A further analysis of the situation can lead to self-assessment and self-correction by a team member.
Criticism elicits defensiveness and may cause the opportunity for learning and self-correction to be lost. Emotions can become intensified. Arguments and a breakdown in trust between the provider and recipient of the criticism could result. Personal and professional relationships are likely to be harmed.
Advantages of Feedback over Criticism
When Dale Carnegie said, “Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain,” he must have known that providing feedback is far more effective than criticism because:
• It is readily received;
• There is no room for defensiveness and discontent;
• It brings about self-directed changes;
• It increases trust between the manager and the team members;
• It opens up an opportunity for further discussions on courses of action;
• It promotes a collaborative spirit;
• It leads to the empowerment of team members.
A manager’s tendency may be to instinctively react to a problematic situation without regard to if they are providing feedback or criticism. Effective managers have learned to take some time to reflect on the situation and to keep their emotions under control. The result will often be the communication of constructive feedback instead of criticism.
Stitt Feld Handy Group offers training in communication skills, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution for large and small businesses, using the latest adult education techniques. Contact us today to learn more about how to get started.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
Feedback is something that we all have to give and receive at different times in our lives. Daniel Goleman says the following about feedback in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books: New York, 2006):
“People with an intense need to achieve are voracious in seeking out new ideas and information, particularly as it pertains (even peripherally) to their goals. They regularly call on others to get their perspective, and recruit others into an ongoing network of informants to get fresh intelligence an essential feedback.”
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
How important is fairness to negotiated agreements?
The question of whether fairness is a learned behavior through social or cultural influence or has an evolutionary basis may have been answered. A recent study has shown that we are not the only species to value fairness.(1) Researchers studying brown capuchin monkeys, which are a highly social and cooperative species, have found that they display an aversion to unfair behavior.
In the study, two monkey exchanged tokens with a human experimenter for a food reward. The monkeys either received a cucumber or a grape, which was the more favored food reward. The monkeys observed fair treatment where they both received a cucumber for equal effort or unfair treatment where one monkey received a grape for equal effort. When the monkeys observed unequal treatment, they responded by refusing to participate in the exchange, refusing to eat the cucumber or throwing the cucumber at the human experimenter.
The researchers postulated that nonhuman primates are guided by expectations about the way they and others should be treated and how resources should be divided.
So, the next time you find yourself or the person across the table from you reacting to unfair treatment, remember that it could be the result of deeply rooted evolutionary behavior.
For a demonstration of the experiment, please go to: http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals.html
1. Brosnan, S.F. & de Waal, F.B.M. Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature 425, 297-299 (2003).
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
Men and women might interact with each another in different ways when compared to how they interact with members of their own gender. The manner in which a negotiation is conducted could be one of those ways.
The differences in gender may cause varying levels of comfort (or discomfort) in negotiating with someone of the other gender; lead to the use of different negotiation styles; and, may allow for assumptions to be made about the other negotiator solely because of their gender.
Comfort levels: An individual’s comfort level with a person of another gender can affect how they conduct themselves in the negotiation. If members of one gender dominate an industry that a negotiator works in, there may be an uneasiness of having to negotiate with someone of another gender if doing so is not familiar to that person. This discomfort may arise due to a lack of experience working with members of the other gender.
Difference in negotiation style: Men and women may have natural tendencies to demonstrate different negotiation styles when working with members of their own gender when compared to the other. Some differences in negotiation styles may include determining the level of the tone and formality of the negotiation; whether emotions should be catered to; or, if personal critiques and attacks are appropriate.
Assumptions about gender: Making an assumption about a person’s conflict resolution skills, personality, or willingness to compromise due to their gender may be disadvantageous. If a negotiator acts or chooses not to act because of an assumption made about the other negotiator’s gender, the ability to resolve the conflict effectively may be hindered. A problematic assumption might include the member of the other gender’s lack of a desire to talk about a contentious issue. Inactivity based upon such an assumption may hinder the communication that is necessary to resolve the conflict.
At Stitt Feld Handy Group, our custom workshops focus on helping our participants to identify and address their negotiation strengths and weaknesses. Our training will enable participants to learn how to adapt to other negotiators’ varying personalities, negotiation skill sets, and temperaments. If you are interested in receiving alternative dispute resolution training in Canada or elsewhere, please call our office today to learn about our current course offerings. We can help you learn to manage any gender related issues that may arise as part of the conflict resolution process.
Stitt Feld Handy Group offers training in conflict management, communication skills, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution for large and small businesses using the latest adult education techniques. Contact us today to learn more about how to get started.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
Continuing our commitment to cultural change for a more cohesive Australia, The Trillium Group has partnered with Diversity@Work as a supporting partner of its 2006 Awards.
The annual Diversity@Work Awards recognise, celebrate and promote achievements in diversity. Over the past 6 years since the Awards’ inception, companies and individuals have received community recognition of their innovative diversity initiatives. These could include any activities that promote employment and inclusion of various minority groups such as people with a disability, culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, Indigenous Australians and mature age workers.
We are privileged to provide a 3-day Negotiation Workshop for up to 18 participants, including resources, catering and one of our highly experienced instructors.
Diversity@Work is offering one registration at our valuable workshop to the first 18 companies who register a table of 10 or more for the 2006 Diversity@Work Awards Gala Dinner. A night of luxury and entertainment! In the past, this dinner has included addresses from keynote speakers such as Rev Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision; Phil Bullock, Managing Director of IBM Australia; and Tom Gorman, President of Ford Australia. The occasional performing arts troupe has also been known to make an appearance!
Nominations for Diversity Awards are taken from the general public via the website (www.diversityatwork.com.au). We encourage you to support this valuable community initiative.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
Press Release
© 2005 The Official Website of The Government of the Bahamas.
NASSAU, The Bahamas – Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Friday addressing the closing session of the five-day Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate Workshop at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Studies, The College of The Bahamas on May 28. Participants in the workshop included employers, unions and government.
NASSAU, The Bahamas – Dispute resolution is one of the most challenging issues in the country today, Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie said Friday, (May 28) at the close of the five-day Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate Workshop held at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Studies, The College of The Bahamas. Though the theme of the workshop matter of the week – alternative ways of resolving issues on the job in the industrial sector has been of a “specialized nature”, said the Prime Minister, conflict resolution, as a subject matter, impacts Bahamians in their everyday national life. “If one were to look at the criminal statistics, one would see that over 50 percent of the crimes that had to do with murders . . .originated with domestic disputes – irreconcilable differences – that are governed by emotion, that runs amok”.
“And so I begin with admonishing all of you to see yourselves as being very special persons, who have taken time out to expose yourselves to precepts and practices, with a view to taking them back into the work place and implementing them for the general good of the business you’re in,” he said. He also told participants to extend what they have learned, shared, acquired, to the community in which they live. It is not good enough to be specialists, or perfect practitioners of all they have shared at the workshop, and then to walk out of their job place into a culture where there is hostility, and where there should be understanding that a person could disagree and not be disagreeable.
“Advocate it to the other institutions or entities that you are a part of because, unless there is momentum and movement in the direction of our addressing a culture of lethargy or indifference, then you are not going to be successful in what you are set out to do” the Prime Minister said. This Bahamas, he said, because of its vulnerable dependence on the twin pillar industries of tourism and financial services, must look to trade union leaders and employers to understand the importance of avoiding conflict.
“When one looks at The Bahamas, I continue to advocate the need to understand our country, understand the challenges of our country. Unlike any country in the hemisphere, we are a chain of islands over 100,000 square miles. The Government of The Bahamas has profound challenges to be able to ensure that every Bahamian has an equal stake in the revenue of the country and the development process of the country,” he said. According to the Prime Minister, unions have an obligation to keep track of these things.
“The problem is when you go into the work place, too many of you are limited to whether or not you get five percent increase in pay, what you get for Christmas. You do not commend and contribute to the national good that creates the basis for you being able to get your five percent.”
“The strength of our country, the magnetism for investment, is based on FNMs and PLPs being able to sit at a table and not concern themselves two three years before the election about being FNMs and PLPs, but concern yourselves about what we could agree to move our country further ahead,” he said. Prime Minister Christie said The Bahamas, has been held back by “cannibalistic” practices.
“Where brother want to eat brother and sister want to eat sister, and this politician hard and this one’s soft and this one scared of this one,” he said. “When you have an intellect you are scared of nobody. You’re either right or wrong, but you have a view. I’m talking about a new culture in our country, taking the same culture that has been advocated by the lecturers and expanding it throughout nation.”
“You are not going to be successful in this country by limiting the principles of the workshop – working out a dispute without breaking up the economy or breaking up the job place. Rational, civilized approach to dispute resolution is what you have been talking about. That my friends, must be the message that goes into boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, church brother and church sister, preacher and church member, work place owner, employer, manager, employee.”
Obie Ferguson, president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said employers and the trade unions sitting at the same table looking at how best they can resolve their differences says something about The Bahamas’ industrial relations for the future. The only way the country can continue to progress, said Mr. Ferguson, is if employees and employers are a part of the process.
“The message that I would want to convey to the Bahamian public is that we believe strongly in partnership. We believe that our economy cannot progress until we take advantage of all of the resources we have. If you listened during the last five days, the employers, the trade unions, persons putting forth their views and some of the complicated problems that we saw, that we read, and by virtue of the fact that we were able to sit, apply some of these principles, and find a resolution, to me Prime Minister, speaks volume to the future. The Bahamas cannot and will not progress as a nation unless, and until we continue to do precisely what we are doing here. There is no way round it” said Mr. Ferguson.
The five-day alternative dispute resolution workshop was designed to get people to explore new ways of resolving disputes. According to workshop instructor Paul Godin, an ADR systems designer and litigator at Stitt Feld Handy Group, participants were taught practical hands on skills that they can use right away in the workplace or even at home to better resolve disputes, to become more effective negotiators, and to be able to mediate or facilitate conflicts more effectively.
“Most of our workshop is not teaching at people, it is about letting them have an opportunity to try these skills out, then we give them an opportunity to discuss how to use those tools in a particular exercise, they think about how they may have done things more effectively, and it is a process that allows them to digest the material but in a way that makes it usable right away instead of being information that slips out the back of your head the day after the course. They learn by doing, and even before the end of the workshop they are already starting to do things differently in their daily lives,” he said.
The workshop also focused on improving union/management relationships, and the tri-partite relationship between union, management and government, so they can negotiate and deal with one another more effectively in the future.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
“Conflict is like water: too much causes damage to people and property; too little creates a dry, barren landscape devoid of life and color. We need water to survive; we need an appropriate level of conflict to thrive and grow as well. How we manage our natural resources of water through dams, reservoirs, and sluices determines whether we achieve the balance necessary for life. So too with conflict management: a balance must be struck between opposing forces and competing interests.”
Cathy A Costantino and Christina Sickles Merchant, Designing Conflict Management Systems (Jossey-Bass Publishers – 1996) Preface, p. xiii.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
As you may know, the Ontario Human Rights Commission is one of the many government bodies that offers mediation as process to help resolve the complaints that it receives. You may have also heard that there are going to be some changes to the way that the Ontario Human Rights Commission handles complaints. I was curious about the reforms and was able to dig up the following summary of the changes from the Ministry of the Attorney General’s website. Please click on the link below for more information.
The Need For Change
Ontario’s human rights system was created in 1962. The system is often criticized for taking too long to resolve a complaint and for giving individuals too little control over their own cases. Calls for reform of the system began as long ago as 1990.
Currently, a discrimination complaint is filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The Commission takes carriage of the case, investigates the complaint and determines whether the complaint should continue on to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. If the case is referred to the Tribunal, many steps in the process may be repeated.
There has been too much duplication in the system and with an average of 2,500 discrimination claims filed per year, the backlog of cases has become overwhelming. It can often take years to resolve a claim.
The New System
In April 2006, the Attorney General introduced legislation to bring changes to Ontario’s human rights complaints system. There was considerable public debate on the proposed reforms. Legislative committee hearings were held and more than 60 amendments were made to the bill.
In December 2006, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2006, received Royal Assent. The Ontario government is now moving forward to implement a strengthened human rights system.
When implementation is complete, the province’s new human rights system will consist of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and a new Human Rights Legal Support Centre.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission will expand its work in promoting a culture of human rights in the province by engaging in proactive measures such as public education, policy development, monitoring, research and analysis. It will also conduct inquiries and may initiate applications or intervene in important cases before the Tribunal.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario will deal with all claims of discrimination filed under the Human Rights Code. The Tribunal is establishing new processes that are open, accessible and provide effective resolution of cases.
Human rights claims will be filed directly with the Tribunal, and all cases that meet the requirements of the legislation will receive early access to an adjudicator to be resolved fairly, effectively and quickly.
A new Human Rights Legal Support Centre will offer independent human rights-related legal and support services to individuals throughout Ontario, ranging from advice and support to legal representation.
As part of the 2007 budget, the McGuinty government announced an additional $8 million investment over three years for the new human rights system, with $3 million allocated for this year. This represents a 22 per cent increase in human rights funding for 2007/2008, and is the largest human rights budget allocation in the history of Ontario’s human rights system.
What’s Happening Now
The launch date for the new human rights system has been set for June 30, 2008. Until that date, the Commission will continue to process all human rights complaints filed with it under the Ontario Human Rights Code, and according to the Commission’s policies and procedures. The Commission will continue to receive and handle complaints through the inquiry, intake, mediation and investigation processes. It will also continue to refer appropriate cases to the Tribunal for a hearing.
There will be a transition period of six months following the launch date to deal with cases already in the system. A special procedure for these cases is being developed. After the launch date, all new discrimination applications will be filed at the Tribunal.
http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/ohrc.asp
And here’s another link for you if you’re interested in reading more…
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/Policies/gdpp
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
