Imagine that you’re trekking through the forest, using your trusty compass to navigate through the endless twists and turns in order to get home. Now imagine that compass is faulty. Every turn you take is potentially taking you further away from where you need to be.
The biggest issue with solving problems is a faulty navigation system which means we often don’t have the real problem correctly defined.
Often what we think is the problem is actually the symptom of that faulty navigation system, which in the case of human performance is caused by a confusion between cause and effect.
Let’s take the example of an organisation embarking on a big change programme where staff morale and engagement is low. The leadership team believes the cause is uncertainty and insecurity caused by lack of effective communication and a need for reassurance about the changes being made, so they spend time implementing a new communications strategy. But when morale and engagement shows no improvement despite an increase in the frequency and type of communication, the leaders are left wondering what went wrong. The answer is that this wasn’t an uncertainty or communication problem. It was a perception problem.
If more information or reassurance was the solution, then everyone would settle down and get engaged in change programmes but that isn’t what happens. What we see is that some people seem more secure and get on board while others sit in the local pub discussing conspiracy theories or working out their next job move.
This is a typical example of the cause-effect confusion.
The true cause of low morale or insecurity is how we are thinking and the effect is our emotions and perceptions, evidenced by how we then behave – perhaps withdrawing, resisting, complaining or needing constant updates and reassurance.
Change in and of itself has no inherent power to make us feel or behave in a particular way. Only our thinking can do that, as demonstrated by the wide range of different attitudes, responses and behaviours that people display during corporate change initiatives.
Let’s take another common example. A manager feels overwhelmed with his demanding workload and believes the only way to solve the problem is to reduce the workload.
In his perception, the Cause=Effect formula is;
Cause of Overwhelm = Workload / Too much to do
Effect = Anxiety / lack of clarity and control
As he’s not in a position to delegate further work, he feels out of control and overwhelmed. What seems like a quantity issue is in fact a perception problem. His feelings of overwhelm are coming from his thinking about how much he has to do and his subsequent perceptions of his ability to handle it. But he doesn’t realise this. The more he thinks about it in that way, the more those feelings of anxiety increase and the more his clarity and perspective is compromised. In turn, the more of an uphill struggle his work appears to be. It’s a vicious cycle that instantly gets resolved when we realise the true cause-effect formula.
The True Cause-Effect Formula :
Cause of feeling overwhelmed = our moment to moment thinking shaped by our understanding of how reality is being created within us
Effect = the emotions, perceptions and reality created by the power of thought which in turn drives our behaviour and actions
As a result of realising where our feelings and perceptions are actually coming from [the power of thought and consciousness], we stop blaming something or someone else and in doing so we regain our bearings, bandwidth and clarity, resulting in new perspectives which might include;
I am not saying these are the only potential outcomes – they are just some examples of what becomes possible when we have a clearer grasp of reality and what’s happening for us.
If we want to enjoy our work, do our best and handle the challenges presented, it’s helpful to make sure we’ve correctly defined what we perceive as problems. All the time that we spend looking for causes and solutions where they are not, we will continue to suffer the false starts and blind alleys that our innocent cause-effect confusion creates.
