My presentation at PMI Bangalore Chapter's weekly talk series, PM Footprints, on 16-Jun-2011

1. 16-Jun-2011, Bangalore

2. Disclaimer
These are my personal views, and
don‟t necessarily reflect that of my
employer
Ideas, text and graphics in this
presentation are graciously
acknowledged to their respective
sources in references section at
the end of this presentation

3. A true story…
Dr. William E. Mayer studied 1,000
US POW in a North Korean camp
Despite relatively minimal physical
torture, death rate was 38% -
highest in US military history
Half of them died simply because
they gave up! They surrendered –
both physically and mentally

4. How did this happen?
North Koreans‟ objective was to “deny
men the emotional support that comes
from interpersonal relationships”. They
used four primary tactics:
Informing
Self-criticism
Breaking loyalty to leadership and country
Withholding all positive emotional support

5. Informing
North Koreans gave prisoners
rewards such as cigarettes when
they snitched on one another. But
neither the offender nor the soldier
reporting the violation was
punished
Intent was to break relationship
and turn the men against each

6. Self-criticism
 To promote self-criticism, the captors gathered
groups of 10-12 soldiers and employed „a
corruption of group psychotherapy‟
 Each man was required to stand up in front of
the group and confess all the bad things he had
done – as well as all the good things he could
have done but failed to do.
 Soldiers were not confessing to their captors, but
to their own peers. This subtly eroded the
caring, trust, respect and social acceptance
among them

7. Breaking loyalty to
leadership and country
 They slowly and relentlessly undermined a soldier‟s
allegiance to his superiors
 A Colonel instructed a soldier not to drink water from
a paddy field because it was contaminated, he shot
back “Buddy, you ain‟t no colonel anymore; just a
lousy prisoner like me. You take care of yourself, and
I‟ll take care of me”. He died of dysentery few days
later
 40 men stood by as three of their extremely ill fellow
soldiers were thrown out of the mud hut by a
comrade and left to die. No one did anything to help
them, because it “wasn‟t their job”

8. Withholding all positive
emotional support
 Perhaps the most malicious tactic of them all
 The captors withheld all letters of support and
encouragement. However, all negative letters –
like of a relative passing away, or on in which a
wife wrote that she had given up on her
husband‟s return and was going to remarry –
were promptly delivered. Captors would even
deliver overdue bills from collection agencies
back home
 Soldiers had nothing to live for and lost basic
belief in themselves and their loved ones

9. So, what really happened?
“…The soldiers actually called it “give up-itis”.
The doctors labeled it “mirasmus”, meaning, in
Mayer‟s words, “a lack of resistance, a
passivity”. If the soldiers had been hit, spat
upon, or slapped, they would have become
angry. Their anger would have given them the
motivation to survive. But in the absence of
motivation, they simply died, even though there
was no medical justification for their deaths!” –
How full is your Bucket? by Tom Rath and
Donald Clifton

10. What does it mean?
Negativity
Kills!!!

11. But that was…
…in a POW Camp in 1950s
How is it relevant to today‟s
workplace???

12. Negativity at today‟s
workplace
 25m, or 19% US workers are „actively disengaged‟
or extremely negative – costing more than $400B
in lost productivity annually
 #1 Reason people leave: They don‟t feel
appreciated!
 65% Americans got no recognition at work last
year
 Bad bosses could increase risk of stroke by 33%
 Disengagement and low customer satisfaction
seem to go hand in hand

13. Engagement levels by
Country

14. Engagement levels by
Industry

15. Engagement levels by Age
Employees Highly Engaged Highly Engaged or
Engaged
18-29 years old 21% 62%
30-39 years old 20% 64%
40-49 years old 23% 66%
50-59 years old 22% 66%
60+ years old 31% 75%

16. What are the workers
concerned about?
% of Work- Levels of Job Pressure Resources Personal
workers life stress at Security to long to do job Health
‘Frequently’ Balance work work effectively
or ‘Nearly hours
Always’
concerned
about
18-29 39% 40% 33% 31% 34% 32%
30-39 34% 38% 31% 26% 31% 26%
40-49 30% 36% 26% 23% 30% 25%
50-59 28% 34% 27% 23% 32% 27%
60+ 24% 28% 24% 17% 22% 22%

17. Non-engaged
employees
Lack spirit and vitality
Offer excuses and “can‟t do” attitudes
Look to others to fix solutions
Avoid risk taking
Do the absolute minimum to get by
Leave work exhausted
Take neutral to negative company positions

18. Actively disengaged
employees
Sabotage the organization
Seek our flaws and focus on problems
Resist solutions
Blame, moan and whine
Find pleasure in failures
Take resistant and cynical company
positions

19. Why this
disengagement?
 Top-down, outmoded authoritative model of
management which places little value on relationships
that develop and maintain a sense of community that
emphasizes intimacy, trust, and mutual support
 Leaders and managers are out of touch with human
nature and how it impacts working relationships
 Misalignment between people’s natural drive to
develop their personal and group identities through
informal relationships, and the ways that most
organizations operate, by primarily focusing on formal
goals and the bottom-line
 A failing system of leadership that is outdated and
suited for the Industrial Age, not the current Knowledge
Age

20. Towers Perrin Study (2005)
 59% of workers thought that their senior managers did not
support new ideas and new ways of doing things
 60% thought that senior managers acted in a way which
was inconsistent with their values
 63% thought that senior management did not make
enough effort to be visible and accessible to employees
 64% thought that senior managers did not effectively
communicate the reasons for important business
decisions
 Around 66% believed that senior managers did not
communicate openly and honestly with their employees

21. Other research
 BlessingWhite‟s research in 2008 showed that while
75% of workers trust their immediate managers, only
53% trust senior management, despite the fact that
these are the people who should be spearheading
the drive towards organizational commitment and
high performance.
 Gallup‟s research also comes to the same
conclusion, that bad management is the main
culprit, showing quite clearly that engaged workers
are very satisfied with their managers, while
disengaged employees are extremely dissatisfied
with theirs.

22. Other reasons for
disengagement…
 Work pressures, especially in post-recession times, are seen
impacting work-life balance and health
 Breakdown of „psychological contract‟
 “…levels of employee engagement tend to be high during the
first six months to a year after joining an organization, at this
point they begin to drop off up until the five year mark. Much of
the reason for this is also attributed to poor management and
leadership. With insufficient guidance, very little clarity and
often very little interaction with managers, workers not only
quickly come to feel confused, but they also become highly
distrustful of management and the information that managers
are feeding them.” – Todd Bavol,

23. So, what‟s the solution?
 You must genuinely create mutually beneficial
relationships that embrace sharing, belonging and
professional intimacy (aka “human connectedness”)
between and among you and your team members
where your employees feel that they‟re a part of the
team, feel that they‟re respected and valued,
and feel that they‟re learning and growing.
 “…engaged employees are so emotionally and
intellectually committed to their jobs that they want to
give “discretionary effort.” GeorgieSherill, Sr. Director
of HR Integration, Walmart

24. What does “Human
Connectedness” look like?
 Employees are trusted by you and their co-workers.
 Are listened to and know that their options count
 Know that their work and contributions are valued
 Feel that their work is meaningful
 Help each other out
 Know that you and their co-workers fundamentally care
for them as human beings
 Actively engage in discussions with you plus receive
encouragement from you regarding their professional
progress, growth and development

25. …Human Connectedness
 Understand how their jobs contribute to your
organization‟s success
 Have the tools that they need to deliver quality
results
 Truly believe that their co-workers are committed to
and equally accountable for delivering quality results
 Are assigned to work that allows them to leverage
their skills and strengths
 Receive performance feedback on a regular basis
 Have been given opportunities to learn and grow

26. How to build „Human
Connectedness‟?
 People, specifically senior leaders who model world-class
behavior such as listening, calling people by
name, communicating and recognizing people openly
 Work that creates connection to the organization, and resources
available to support task
 Total remuneration and recognition programs that attract
employees
 Opportunities that include career development and training
 Quality-of-Life issues that include benefits and work schedules
 Company practices, such as diversity, sustainability, company
reputation, etc.

27. Look, we know it all…Right?
 That‟s right, we know it all !!!
 But why don‟t we do it then ??? Why do we make
people suffer and even ourselves in that process, but
don‟t make any radical changes?
 What stops us from making the workplace a fun
place to work, a place where people feel
valued, energized and productive?
 It is the system, or your company culture, or your
boss, or your job description that stops you?...or
something else…???

28. What do you see here?

29. Different people, different
perspectives
 "Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who
touched his leg.
 "Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who
touched the tail.
 "Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the
third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
 "It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who
touched the ear of the elephant.
 "It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who
touched the belly of the elephant.

30. What is a Mental Model?
Mental models are deeply ingrained
assumptions, generalizations, or
even pictures or images that influence
how we understand the worlds and how
we take action. Very often, we are not
consciously aware of our mental
models or the effect they have on our
behavior - The Fifth Discipline, Peter
Senge,

31. Mental models…
…an explanation of someone's thought
process about how something works in the
real world. It is a representation of the
surrounding world, the relationships between
its various parts and a person's intuitive
perception about their own acts and their
consequences. Our mental models help
shape our behavior and define our approach
to solving problems (akin to a personal
algorithm) and carrying out tasks - Wikipedia

32. Mental Models…
 Mental models are subtle but powerful.
Subtle, because we usually are unaware of their
effect. Powerful, because they determine what
we pay attention to, and therefore what we do.
 Mental models are strongly conservative: left
unchallenged, they will cause us to see what we
have always seen: the same needs, the same
opportunities, the same results. And because we
see what our mental models permit us to see, we
do what our mental models permit us to do.

33. Are Mental Models real?
 “What is real? How do you define real? If you're
talking about what you can hear, what you can
smell, taste and feel then real is simply electrical
signals interpreted by your brain” – Morpheus, Matrix
(1999)

34. Are Mental Models right or
wrong?
 “Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful” –
George Box
 “…The problems with mental models lie not in whether
they are right or wrong – by definition, all models are
simplifications. The problems with mental models arise
when they become implicit – when they exist below the
level of our awareness…because we remain unaware of
our mental models, the models remain unexamined.
Because they are unexamined, the models remain
unchanged. As the world changes, the gap widens
between our mental models and reality, leading to
increasingly counterproductive actions” – The Fifth
Discipline

35. Can Mental Models impact
organizational practices?
 “…Mental models of what can or cannot be
done in different management settings are no
less deeply entrenched. Many insights into new
markets or outmoded organizational practices
fail to get put into practice because they
conflict with powerful, tacit mental models” –
The Fifth Discipline
 “…the most crucial mental models are those
shared by key decision-makers. Those
models, if unexamined, limit an organization's
range of actions to what is familiar and
comfortable.”

36. Let‟ examine some common
mental models

37. All Chinese look alike

38. Spare the rod, spoil the child

39. Women make bad drivers

40. The problem will go away if I
ignore it

41. If I try to run away, the rope
will hurt!

42. Connect 9 dots with just 4
straight lines without lifting pen

43. Long-standing and unquestioned
mental models at GM
 GM is in the business of making money, not cars
 Cars are primarily status symbols. Styling is
therefore more important than quality
 American car market is isolated from rest of the
world
 Workers don‟t have an important impact on
productivity or product quality
 Everyone connected with the system has no
need for more than a
fragmented, compartmentalized understanding

44. Ladder of Inference
 The "ladder of inference” - a term coined by Professor Chris
Argyris - is a metaphor that shows how rapidly we can leap to
knee-jerk conclusions with little data and no intermediate
thought process, as if rapidly climbing up a ladder in our minds.
You start at the bottom with the observable data, which is so
self-evident that it would show up on a videotape recorder
(Larry has yawned at a meeting), and within the space of a few
seconds, leap up to assumptions (Larry is bored), to more
generic conclusions (Larry doesn't care about this project).
Since most of these conclusions are never discussed
openly, there is no way to check them.
 The ladder of inference explains why most people don't usually
remember where their deepest attitudes came from. The data is
long since lost to memory, after years of inferential leap

45. Ladder of Inference

46. Examples

47. Examples

48. How to use Ladder of
Inference?
Reflection: Becoming more aware of
your own thinking and reasoning
Advocacy: Making your thinking and
reasoning more visible to others
Inquiry: Inquiring into others' thinking
and reasoning

49. Mental Models at Workplace

50. Gen Y is irresponsible

51. Boss should have more experience

52. People leave for money

53. It‟s ok to reach late for
meetings

54. My software has NO bugs

55. Projects are always late
and overbudget

56. Work should be serious

57. Sitting late in office shows
commitment

58. They all want to be
managers

59. We will make up for this
delay by …
Working overtime
Adding more people
New tools
Re-architecture
New programming
language
…New Silver Bullet!

60. What did we learn?
Share your perspective…

61. How can we use Mental
Models for positive results?
If mental models can
impede learning – freezing
companies and industries in
outmoded practices – why
can‟t they also help
accelerate learning?

62. Skills
Skills of reflection concern slowing
down our own thinking processes so
that we can become more aware of
how we form our mental models and
the ways they influence our actions
Inquiry skills concern how we operate
in face-to-face interactions with others,
especially in dealing with complex and
conflict issues.

63. Tools
 Facing up to distinctions between espoused theories
(what we say) and theories-in-use (the implied theory
in what we do)
 Recognizing “leaps of abstractions” (noticing our
jumps from observing to generalization)
 Exposing the “left-hand column” (articulating what we
normally do not say)
 Balancing inquiry and advocacy skills (skills for
effective collaborative learning)

64. Left-hand Column
Powerful technique for beginning to
“see” how our mental models operate in
particular situations.
It reveals ways that we manipulate
situations to avoid dealing with how we
actually think and feel, and thereby
prevent a counterproductive situation
from improving.

65. Example
 Me: How did the presentation go?
 Bill: Well, I don‟t know. It‟s really too early to tell.
Besides, we‟re breaking new ground here.
 Me: well, what do you think we should do? I believe
the issues you were raising are important.
 Bill: I am not sure. Let‟s just wait and see what
happens.
 Me: You may be right, but I think we may need to do
more than just wait.

66. Example with Left-hand
column
What I am thinking What is said
Everyone says the presentation Me: How did the presentation
was a bomb! go?
Does he really not know how bad Bill: Well, I don’t know. It’s really
it was? Or is he not willing to too early to tell. Besides, we’re
face up to it? breaking new ground here.
He really is afraid to see the Me: well, what do you think we
truth. If only he had more should do? I believe the issues
confidence, he could probably you were raising are important.
learn from a situation like this. I
can’t believe how disastrous that Bill: I am not sure. Let’s just wait
presentation was to our moving and see what happens.
ahead.
Me: You may be right, but I think
I’ve got to find a way to light a we may need to do more than
fire under this guy. just wait.

67. Balancing Inquiry and
Advocacy
When operating in pure advocacy, the
goal is to win the argument.
Pure inquiry is also limited.
When inquiry and advocacy are
combined, the goal is no longer to “win
the argument” but to find the best
argument.

68. When advocating your
views…
Make your own reasoning explicit
Encourage others to explore your
view
Encourage others to provide
different vies
Actively inquire into other‟s views
that differ from your own

69. When inquiring into others‟
views…
If you are making assumptions about
other‟s views, state your assumptions
clearly and acknowledge that they are
assumptions
State the „data‟ upon which your
assumptions are based
Don‟t bother asking questions if you are
not genuinely interested in other‟s
response

70. When you arrive at an
impasse…
As what data or logic might change
their views
Ask if there is any way you might
together deign and experiment (or
some other inquiry) that might provide
new information

71. Conclusions
 Today‟s workplaces suffer from “disengagement
epidemic”
 No change can be everlasting and self-sustainable
unless there is a change within
 Unfortunately, our deeply entrenched “mental
models” stop us from changing
 Individual mental models, especially those of
decision-makers, can affect organizational practices
 It is critical to examine our mental models for a true
“human-centric leadership”

72. References
 http://www.algodonesassociates.com/planning/Mental%20mode
ls.pdf
 http://techedgellc.com/the-disengagement-epidemic/
 http://www.unmanagement.com/index.php?option=com_content
&view=article&id=60:workerdisengagement&catid=41:umapres
skit&Itemid=58
 http://www.solonline.org/aboutsol/
 http://www.right.com/country-sites/nz/thought-
leadership/research/organisational-effectiveness-and-
employee-engagement-discovering-how-to-make-them-
happen.pdf

73. References
 http://www.hrninjablog.com/?p=1760
 http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/paradigm_diss
onance_a_significant_factor_in_design_and_busines
s_problems
 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-Disengaged-
Generation-Young-prnews-
3668084470.html?x=0&.v=1
 http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/employeerelations/
articles/Pages/LongViewonEngagement.aspx

74. My forthcoming presentations…
“Strategic Alignment of Horizontal
and Vertical PMO Goals” at PMI
National Conference, Bangalore, 8-10
Sep 2011 (abstract accepted)
“Orchestrating Excellence – The
Yahoo! India Way”, at PMO
Symposium, Florida, 6-9 Nov 2011

75. Thanks!
Blog: http://managewell.net
Mail: tathagat.varma@gmail.com
Twitter: @TathagatVarma
Presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/managew
ell