WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 Have you ever sat in a meeting, maybe it's a 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:04.360 Tuesday afternoon, the fluorescent lights are 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:06.660 humming, and you look around the table and think, 00:00:06.759 --> 00:00:10.160 why are we doing it this way? No, all the time. 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.539 Or better yet, have you ever walked into a new 00:00:12.539 --> 00:00:16.320 job and within like 10 minutes, you just know 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.800 something is off? Yes, the air feels heavy. It 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:21.920 does. People are whispering. It's like walking 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:24.940 into a room where a couple just had a massive 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:27.339 fight, but nobody is saying a word about it. 00:00:27.379 --> 00:00:30.800 Oh, absolutely. The vibe. It's helpable. Or, 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:32.600 you know, you get the opposite. You walk into 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.640 a place and it's just electric. People are moving 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:36.640 fast. They're laughing. Things are getting done. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:38.619 Exactly. And we usually just chalk that up to 00:00:38.619 --> 00:00:40.340 luck. We think, oh, they just have good chemistry 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:43.799 or that boss is just a jerk. We treat it like 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:45.700 it's random, you know, like the weather. Right. 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:47.520 But what if I told you it isn't random at all? 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:50.960 What if I told you that the reason your team 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.659 is dysfunctional or the reason you feel so drained 00:00:53.659 --> 00:00:57.219 after a day of fake smiling at customers is actually 00:00:57.219 --> 00:01:00.140 a matter of hard science? It is science, and 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:02.520 it's a science that dictates about, what, 90 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.239 ,000 hours of your life? That is a terrifying 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:07.379 number. It is. That's how much time the average 00:01:07.379 --> 00:01:10.200 person spends at work. And yet we spend very 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.459 little time thinking about the mechanics of why 00:01:12.459 --> 00:01:14.840 we act the way we do in those 90 ,000 hours. 00:01:15.019 --> 00:01:17.640 Well, today we are changing that. We are doing 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:21.000 a deep dive into organizational behavior. Or 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.719 OB, as the academics call it. Now, I have to 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:26.060 be honest. When I first saw organizational behavior 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:28.599 on our research stack, my first thought was, 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:30.780 OK, this is going to be dry. I can see that. 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:32.640 It sounds like a corporate seminar where they 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:34.519 give you a stress ball and a stale cookie. Yeah. 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:37.120 Digging into this source material, the history, 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:39.439 the psychology, the experiments, it's actually 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:41.840 kind of a thriller. It really is. It's the story 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.200 of how we went from treating humans like literal 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:48.500 gears in a machine to realizing that no, humans 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:52.060 are messy, emotional, irrational creatures that 00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:53.920 are really, really hard to manage. That's the 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:56.799 perfect summary. OB is the study of that messiness. 00:01:56.859 --> 00:01:59.459 It's the interface between three things. Human 00:01:59.459 --> 00:02:03.780 behavior, the organization itself, and the organization 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:06.939 as a singular entity. It's how they all collide. 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:10.120 Right. And the source material breaks this down 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:12.120 into three levels of analysis, which I think 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.060 is a great roadmap for our conversation today. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.219 It is. You have to visualize it like a camera 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:18.120 zooming out. First, you have the micro level. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.479 The individual. Exactly. That's you. Your brain. 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.159 Yeah. how you make decisions, what motivates 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:24.939 you to even get out of bed in the morning. And 00:02:24.939 --> 00:02:27.199 you pull back a bit. And you get the mezzo level. 00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:30.060 That's the group because, and this is so key, 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:33.080 you are a different person when you are in a 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.520 group than when you are alone. For sure. So this 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:38.460 covers things like teams, conflict, leadership, 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:41.840 all that stuff. And finally, the wide shot. The 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.979 macro level. This is the organization as a creature. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.960 How does it behave? What is its culture? How 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:51.500 does it survive in? The wild, so to speak. So 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:53.900 that's our mission today. We are going to traverse 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:55.939 all three levels. We're going to look at why 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:58.900 we stopped treating workers like robots mostly 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:01.919 and why modern leadership is so difficult. But 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.500 to understand the modern office with its Zoom 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:07.520 calls and its Slack channels and everything else, 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:09.539 we actually have to go back to the beginning. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:12.960 We have to go back to the moment work changed 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.979 forever. The Industrial Revolution. Let's set 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:18.979 the scene here. It's the 1760s. Before this. 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:21.639 If you needed a chair, you went to a guy who 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:24.139 made chairs. Right. A craftsman. He owned his 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:25.979 tools. He worked at his own pace. He probably 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:28.159 drank a beer at lunch. It was all very small 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:30.520 scale. Yes. It was craft based. It was particular. 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.819 Then the steam engine arrives. Machines get big 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.599 and suddenly you can't just work in your shed 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.759 anymore. You have to go to a factory. You have 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:42.300 to coordinate hundreds of people to do one thing. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:46.080 And it was absolute chaos. There were no rules. 00:03:46.259 --> 00:03:47.960 This is where we meet a guy who usually gets 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.560 a bad rap, but the sources suggest he was actually 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:53.979 trying to help. Max Weber. Max Weber, the German 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.379 sociologist. He looked at this new industrial 00:03:56.379 --> 00:03:59.729 world and he saw a huge problem. The old way 00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:02.750 of doing things was based on favoritism. Nepotism, 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:05.610 basically. Totally. You got the job because the 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:07.789 foreman was your uncle. You got fired because 00:04:07.789 --> 00:04:10.210 the boss didn't like your face. It was completely 00:04:10.210 --> 00:04:13.569 unpredictable. So Weber proposes a solution that 00:04:13.569 --> 00:04:17.329 today we use as a dirty word. Bureaucracy. it's 00:04:17.329 --> 00:04:20.410 fascinating isn't it if i call your company bureaucratic 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:23.170 you'd be insulted you'd think of red tape and 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:27.089 slowness and just inefficiency right a nightmare 00:04:27.089 --> 00:04:30.709 but for weber bureaucracy was a utopia a utopia 00:04:30.709 --> 00:04:32.990 okay that's a strike no really think about it 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.930 he defined it as an organization resting on rational 00:04:35.930 --> 00:04:39.790 legal principles what that meant was Rules apply 00:04:39.790 --> 00:04:42.870 to everyone equally. It meant you get the job 00:04:42.870 --> 00:04:44.709 because you are qualified, not because of your 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:47.430 bloodline. It was designed to maximize efficiency 00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:50.569 by removing that messy human element of bias. 00:04:50.949 --> 00:04:53.069 Okay, I see that. So the red tape was actually 00:04:53.069 --> 00:04:55.149 meant to be protection. It protects the worker 00:04:55.149 --> 00:04:57.930 from the tyranny of a whimsical boss. Precisely. 00:04:58.129 --> 00:05:00.870 But Weber wasn't blind. He was also deeply worried. 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:03.610 He coined a phrase that is one of the most famous 00:05:03.610 --> 00:05:07.050 in sociology, the iron cage. This stuck with 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:09.610 me. It's such a heavy image. It is. He worried 00:05:09.610 --> 00:05:12.529 that if we focus purely on efficiency, on rational 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:16.589 calculation, we trap ourselves. We become, and 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:19.129 this is his quote, specialists without spirit, 00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:22.769 sensualists without heart. Wow. The bureaucracy 00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:25.449 protects you, but it also strips you of your 00:05:25.449 --> 00:05:28.949 humanity. You become just a function, a cog in 00:05:28.949 --> 00:05:31.610 the machine. And if Weber built the cage, the 00:05:31.610 --> 00:05:33.290 next guy we need to talk about is the one who 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:35.509 designed the lock on the door, Frederick Taylor. 00:05:35.899 --> 00:05:37.920 The father of scientific management. This guy. 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:40.680 I have complicated feelings about him after reading 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.600 the source material. On one hand, he's a genius. 00:05:43.779 --> 00:05:45.879 On the other hand, he's kind of a nightmare. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.720 He was definitely obsessive. Taylor was an engineer 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:50.839 in the late 19th century, and he believed there 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:53.980 was one best way to do absolutely anything. He 00:05:53.980 --> 00:05:55.939 didn't want you to just work hard. No. He wanted 00:05:55.939 --> 00:05:58.180 you to work scientifically. The example that 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:00.220 really blew my mind was the science of shoveling. 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:02.540 Can we break that down? Okay. Because it sounds 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:04.560 ridiculous, but it literally changed the world. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:08.839 It did. It really did. So Taylor is at the Bethlehem 00:06:08.839 --> 00:06:11.639 Steel Plant. He watches these guys shoveling 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.319 coal and iron ore. Sometimes they use a big shovel, 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.800 sometimes a small one. Sometimes they lift five 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.259 pounds, sometimes they lift 30. And to Taylor, 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:22.560 that inconsistency is a sin. Yeah. It's pure 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.519 chaos. It's waste. So he starts experimenting. 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:27.660 He treats the human body like it's a machine. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:30.759 Yeah. He runs tons of tests and finds that if 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.800 a worker lifts exactly 21 pounds per shovel load, 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.120 they can move the maximum amount of material 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:39.689 in a day without collapsing. 21 pounds. Not 20, 00:06:39.810 --> 00:06:42.449 not 22. 21. That was the magic number. So he 00:06:42.449 --> 00:06:44.829 literally designs different shovels for different 00:06:44.829 --> 00:06:48.170 materials. Yes. That's the genius of it. If you're 00:06:48.170 --> 00:06:50.689 shoveling heavy iron ore, you get a small shovel, 00:06:50.769 --> 00:06:53.430 so the load weighs 21 pounds. If you're shoveling 00:06:53.430 --> 00:06:55.670 light coal ashes, you get a massive scoop, so 00:06:55.670 --> 00:06:57.870 it weighs 21 pounds. That is incredibly smart. 00:06:58.069 --> 00:06:59.709 I mean, productivity must have gone through the 00:06:59.709 --> 00:07:02.290 roof. It did. Massively. Some workers were earning 00:07:02.290 --> 00:07:04.370 60 % more pay because they were so much more 00:07:04.370 --> 00:07:07.339 efficient. But... and here's the iron cage part, 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:10.600 they lost all autonomy. All of it. Taylor famously 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.379 told a worker, you are not supposed to think. 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:15.480 There are other people paid for thinking around 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:18.720 here. Ouch. He essentially tried to program humans. 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.800 And he wasn't alone in this. The Gilbreths, Frank 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:24.839 and Lillian, they took this even further with 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:26.879 their time and motion studies. Oh, this is wild. 00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:29.180 They did film workers, like bricklayers, and 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:31.319 break down their movements into frame -by -frame 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:35.199 analysis. They'd analyze every little tiny motion. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:37.160 As you move your left hand six inches, you only 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:39.019 needed to move it four inches. That's two inches 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:41.439 of wasted movement. Exactly. They wanted to eliminate 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:44.839 wasted motion. If you paused to scratch your 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:46.980 nose, that was an inefficiency to be eliminated. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.220 And then Henry Ford takes all of this. the bureaucracy 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.860 from Weber, the scientific management from Taylor, 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:56.160 and builds the ultimate machine, the assembly 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:59.519 line. Fordism, the standardization of everything. 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:01.899 You don't need a skilled craftsman to build a 00:08:01.899 --> 00:08:04.439 car anymore. You just need an unskilled worker 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:06.660 to stand in one spot and tighten bolt number 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:10.439 45 5 ,000 times a day. It's the absolute peak 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:13.420 of the machine age of work. But here's the thing 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:16.040 about machines. They don't have feelings. They 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:19.160 don't have bad days. And eventually... This view 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:23.519 of the worker as just a part started to crack. 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:27.199 It cracked wide open in the 1920s. And the amazing 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:29.860 thing is it happened completely by accident. 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:32.259 The Hawthorne studies. This is my favorite story 00:08:32.259 --> 00:08:34.440 in the whole stack. It plays out like a mystery 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:36.600 novel where the detective keeps finding the wrong 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:38.740 clues and getting more confused. It really does. 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:41.139 So this is at the Western Electrics Hawthorne 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:43.259 Works just outside Chicago. It's a big factory. 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.019 They bring in a team of researchers to answer 00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:49.129 a very Taylor's question. Does better lighting 00:08:49.129 --> 00:08:51.710 make workers more productive? Which is a logical 00:08:51.710 --> 00:08:53.570 question. Brighter lights, better visibility, 00:08:53.830 --> 00:08:55.970 faster work. Makes sense. Right. So they split 00:08:55.970 --> 00:08:58.330 the workers into groups. One group gets brighter 00:08:58.330 --> 00:09:00.990 lights. And guess what? Productivity goes up. 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:05.149 Success. Theory confirmed. Case closed. But then 00:09:05.149 --> 00:09:08.409 they try the reverse. They dim the lights. And 00:09:08.409 --> 00:09:10.210 this is where it gets really weird. Productivity 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:13.129 goes up again. Wait. So brighter lights equals 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:17.669 more work? And dimmer lights? Also equals more 00:09:17.669 --> 00:09:21.210 work. Yes. They kept dimming them. At one point, 00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:24.169 they got it down to the level of moonlight. Productivity 00:09:24.169 --> 00:09:27.029 still went up. The researchers are just baffled. 00:09:27.169 --> 00:09:28.750 They must have thought their data was broken. 00:09:29.159 --> 00:09:31.740 Completely. The temperature productivity goes 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:33.679 up. They change the break. Time's productivity 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.679 goes up. No matter what they changed, performance 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:39.440 improved. It's like trying to study a cat. As 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.139 soon as you look at the cat, it starts acting 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:43.960 differently. That is exactly what it was. A researcher 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:46.919 named Elton Mayo, who analyzed all this, realized 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:49.059 it wasn't the lights. It wasn't the temperature. 00:09:49.340 --> 00:09:51.379 It was the fact that someone was paying attention 00:09:51.379 --> 00:09:54.139 to the workers for the first time. The workers 00:09:54.139 --> 00:09:57.159 felt special. They bonded as a group because 00:09:57.159 --> 00:09:59.009 they were part of this experiment. They felt 00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:02.149 seen. The Thorne effect. Correct. And this was 00:10:02.149 --> 00:10:04.309 the earthquake that shook the foundation of scientific 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:07.809 management. Mayo proved that you cannot treat 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:10.470 a worker like a machine part. Their performance 00:10:10.470 --> 00:10:12.450 is deeply tied to their social relationships, 00:10:12.750 --> 00:10:14.789 their feelings, and their sense of being valued. 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:17.509 And that ushered in the human relations movement. 00:10:18.009 --> 00:10:20.549 Suddenly, managers couldn't just say, shovel 00:10:20.549 --> 00:10:23.679 this. They had to ask, so? How are you feeling 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:26.639 about the shovel? Laughs. Essentially, yes. And 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.299 that brings us to the modern era of OB, because 00:10:29.299 --> 00:10:31.940 once we admitted workers were humans, we had 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:33.940 to figure out how these human brains actually 00:10:33.940 --> 00:10:36.519 work in an organization. Which brings us right 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:40.419 to the micro level, the individual. And the first 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:43.100 thing we had to dismantle was this old idea that 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:45.820 humans are rational. Right. Classical economics 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:48.720 loves the rational man. You know, the idea that 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:50.879 if I give you a choice, you will weigh all the 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.019 pros and cons, calculate the probabilities and 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:55.240 make the mathematically optimal decision. But 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:57.700 anyone who has ever binge watched a show on Netflix 00:10:57.700 --> 00:11:00.279 until 3 a .m. when they have a huge presentation 00:11:00.279 --> 00:11:03.379 the next day knows we are not rational. We are 00:11:03.379 --> 00:11:05.159 definitely not. And Herbert Simon won a Nobel 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.919 Prize for explaining why. He introduced the concept 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.620 of bounded rationality. Bounded rationality. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:12.940 He said, look. Even if we wanted to be perfectly 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.460 rational, we can't be. First, we don't have all 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:18.299 the information. Second, we don't have the brainpower 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:20.740 to process it all, even if we did. And third, 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:23.639 we don't have the time. So our rationality has 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:27.399 limits or bounds. Exactly. So what do we do instead? 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:30.799 What do we do? We satisfy. Satisfy. It's a combination 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:34.279 of the words satisfy and suffice. We don't look 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:36.860 for the best possible solution. We look for the 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:40.000 first solution that is. good enough. This is 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.279 the toothpaste aisle in the supermarket. That 00:11:42.279 --> 00:11:44.379 is the perfect analogy. You're standing there. 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:47.740 There are 50 kinds of toothpaste. Tarter control, 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:52.139 whitening, baking soda, mint, cinnamon, gel, 00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:55.399 paste. Overwhelming. It is. If you were a rational 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.720 man, you would read every single ingredient list, 00:11:57.940 --> 00:12:00.600 compare the price per ounce, research the efficacy 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.379 of fluoride versus whatever else. You'd be there 00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:05.860 for four hours. Right. So instead, I just grabbed 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:07.679 the one in the blue box because I recognize the 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:10.259 logo and it's fine. That is satisfying. And in 00:12:10.259 --> 00:12:13.399 business, this is huge. Managers often get frustrated 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:15.519 because their teams aren't finding the optimal 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.559 strategy. But Simon tells us that looking for 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:20.860 perfection is actually irrational because it 00:12:20.860 --> 00:12:23.340 costs too much time and energy. Good enough is 00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:26.100 often the most rational choice. So settling isn't 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.139 just laziness. It's a survival mechanism for 00:12:29.139 --> 00:12:31.720 our brains. It's an efficiency mechanism. Okay, 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:34.019 so we have these boundedly rational brains. Now 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:35.679 let's talk about what actually makes them go. 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:39.179 Motivation. Ah, the million -dollar question. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.440 Resource material lists a ton of theories. Maslow's 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:46.370 Pyramid, equity theory, expectancy theory. But 00:12:46.370 --> 00:12:48.710 I want to double -click on Herzberg's two -factor 00:12:48.710 --> 00:12:50.649 theory because this one feels like it explains 00:12:50.649 --> 00:12:54.009 about 90 % of all workplace complaints. Herzberg 00:12:54.009 --> 00:12:56.309 is brilliant because he split motivation into 00:12:56.309 --> 00:12:59.190 two completely distinct buckets, hygiene factors 00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:02.169 and motivators. And the key insight, the thing 00:13:02.169 --> 00:13:04.389 that messes everyone up, is that they are not 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:07.210 on the same spectrum. Explain that because usually 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:10.049 we think, pay me more, I'm happier, pay me less, 00:13:10.169 --> 00:13:12.750 I'm sadder. It's one long line. Herzberg says 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:16.679 no. hygiene factors are things like pay working 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:21.340 conditions company policies job security if these 00:13:21.340 --> 00:13:23.940 are bad you are dissatisfied you hate your job 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:26.919 okay but and this is the kicker if these things 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:30.039 are good you aren't motivated you're just neutral 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:33.120 you're not dissatisfied well so a big paycheck 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:35.399 prevents me from quitting but it doesn't actually 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:38.419 make me work harder precisely A good salary and 00:13:38.419 --> 00:13:41.220 a comfortable office are like good hygiene. They 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.299 prevent disease, but they don't make you healthy. 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:45.320 They just keep you from being miserable. So what 00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:47.360 makes you healthy or motivated? That's the second 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.960 bucket. Motivators. These are things like a sense 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:52.340 of achievement, recognition for your work, the 00:13:52.340 --> 00:13:54.620 work itself being interesting, having responsibility, 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:57.830 opportunities for growth. This explains so much. 00:13:57.850 --> 00:13:59.990 I've definitely had jobs where the pay was great, 00:14:00.029 --> 00:14:03.149 the benefits were amazing, but the work was mind 00:14:03.149 --> 00:14:06.549 -numbingly boring. And I had zero autonomy. And 00:14:06.549 --> 00:14:09.149 I just checked out. I did the bare minimum to 00:14:09.149 --> 00:14:11.580 not get fired. You were not dissatisfied, but 00:14:11.580 --> 00:14:13.899 you weren't motivated. And managers get this 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:16.000 wrong all the time. They think morale is low. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.580 Let's buy a ping pong table or let's give everyone 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:21.840 a 2 % bonus. That's just hygiene. It's all hygiene. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.320 If the work itself sucks, the ping pong table 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:27.059 is just a piece of furniture in a room full of 00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:29.919 unmotivated people. Speaking of being unmotivated, 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:32.379 let's talk about the emotional toll of work. 00:14:32.539 --> 00:14:35.600 Because for a very long time, the rule was check 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.360 your emotions at the door. Which is, you know. 00:14:39.179 --> 00:14:41.480 Biologically impossible. Right. And the concept 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:44.220 that jumped out at me here is emotional labor. 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:47.200 This is a term coined by the sociologist Arlie 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.259 Hochschild. It refers to the effort it takes 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:52.960 to regulate your emotions to meet the organization's 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.159 expectations. And this isn't just don't yell 00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:58.039 at your boss. This is deeper. It's you must smile. 00:14:58.539 --> 00:15:01.139 Yes. The classic example is a flight attendant. 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:03.700 A passenger is screaming at them because there's 00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:06.440 no more overhead bin space. The flight attendant 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:09.559 is probably feeling anger or fear or frustration, 00:15:09.740 --> 00:15:12.200 but their job requires them to smile and say, 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:13.980 I'm so sorry, sir. Let's see what we can do. 00:15:14.299 --> 00:15:17.299 That gap, that space between what they actually 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:19.879 feel, which is anger, and what they have to show, 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:22.220 which is happiness and concern, that's work. 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:24.820 It's exhausting work. It burns more cognitive 00:15:24.820 --> 00:15:26.960 and emotional energy than we think. It's called 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.539 emotional dissonance. And if you do it for eight 00:15:29.539 --> 00:15:32.720 hours a day, five days a week, it leads to burnout 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:35.559 just as fast as lifting heavy boxes does. It's 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:37.820 a hidden tax on the employee. So we've established 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:40.519 that employees are emotional, boundedly rational, 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:44.700 and seeking meaning. That sounds... Complex, 00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:48.120 but manageable. But the source material takes 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:50.340 a turn here. It suggests that when you put these 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:52.159 complex humans into high -pressure environments, 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:54.399 things don't just get inefficient, they can get 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:56.720 toxic. Right. Because we aren't just dealing 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.259 with mistakes or inefficiencies anymore. We are 00:15:59.259 --> 00:16:02.500 dealing with malevolence. The research calls 00:16:02.500 --> 00:16:05.039 it counterproductive work behavior, which is 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.659 behavior intended to harm the organization or 00:16:07.659 --> 00:16:09.700 its members. And this brings us to Section 3, 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:12.840 the dark side of the workplace. Cue the ominous 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:16.139 music. The sources break down mistreatment into 00:16:16.139 --> 00:16:18.580 a few distinct categories, and I think it's really 00:16:18.580 --> 00:16:21.080 important to distinguish them. Because we tend 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:22.960 to lump everything under the word bullying, but 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:25.120 that's not always accurate. No, precision matters 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:28.259 here. At the top of the pyramid, you have abusive 00:16:28.259 --> 00:16:32.080 supervision. The bad boss. The bad boss. But 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.559 it's not just a tough boss. It's a sustained 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.259 pattern of hostility. We're talking about public 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:40.519 humiliation, ridicule, scapegoating, things like 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:42.470 that. Okay, then you have bullying. Bullying 00:16:42.470 --> 00:16:45.090 is interesting because it implies a power imbalance, 00:16:45.590 --> 00:16:48.269 but it doesn't have to be the boss. A group of 00:16:48.269 --> 00:16:52.009 peers can bully a single colleague. The key elements 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:54.509 are that it's repeated and it's intended to harm. 00:16:54.690 --> 00:16:57.289 But the one I want to spend a minute on is incivility, 00:16:57.330 --> 00:17:00.549 because this feels like the most common and yet 00:17:00.549 --> 00:17:03.529 the hardest to pin down. Incivility is the silent 00:17:03.529 --> 00:17:05.910 killer of teams. It's defined in the literature 00:17:05.910 --> 00:17:09.269 as low -intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous 00:17:09.269 --> 00:17:12.210 intent to harm. Ambiguous intent. That's the 00:17:12.210 --> 00:17:14.890 key phrase, isn't it? It is. If I punch you in 00:17:14.890 --> 00:17:17.890 the face, the intent is clear. But if you're 00:17:17.890 --> 00:17:20.009 speaking in a meeting and I check my phone and 00:17:20.009 --> 00:17:23.750 roll my eyes, did I mean to disrespect you or 00:17:23.750 --> 00:17:26.390 was I just checking an urgent email? You don't 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:28.630 know. Or if I leave you off an important email 00:17:28.630 --> 00:17:32.109 chain. Oops, I forgot. Did you really forget? 00:17:32.490 --> 00:17:35.029 Or are you intentionally freezing me out? Exactly. 00:17:35.500 --> 00:17:37.480 And because it's ambiguous, the victim can't 00:17:37.480 --> 00:17:39.500 really report it. If you go to HR and say, he 00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:42.200 rolled his eyes at me, you sound petty. You sound 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:43.859 like you're overreacting. So you just have to 00:17:43.859 --> 00:17:46.640 take it. You stew in it. You ruminate. And the 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.799 research shows that this constant low -level 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.180 incivility actually erodes team performance and 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:55.700 psychological safety faster than open conflict 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:58.400 because it creates this constant background radiation 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:01.619 of paranoia and distrust. So how do people react 00:18:01.619 --> 00:18:03.480 to all this? If you're stuck in an iron cage 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:04.980 and the person next to you is rolling his eyes 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:07.299 at you, their eyes and the boss is yelling, what 00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:10.539 do you do? You withdraw. It's a defense mechanism. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:13.119 There's job withdrawal, which is the ultimate 00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:15.660 form you quit. But before that, there's work 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:18.079 withdrawal. This is what we call quiet quitting 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:21.809 today. You show up late. You take long lunches. 00:18:21.809 --> 00:18:24.470 You stop volunteering for new projects. You stop 00:18:24.470 --> 00:18:27.710 sharing ideas. You are physically present, but 00:18:27.710 --> 00:18:29.450 psychologically, you have left the building. 00:18:29.650 --> 00:18:32.390 It's a way to reclaim some control in a powerless 00:18:32.390 --> 00:18:35.589 situation. Exactly. The logic is, you can control 00:18:35.589 --> 00:18:37.670 my body for these eight hours, but you can't 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:39.630 have my engagement. You can't have my spirit. 00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:42.990 So, if the dark side is so often the result of 00:18:42.990 --> 00:18:45.769 bad management, let's talk about the antidote. 00:18:45.849 --> 00:18:50.319 Section 4. Leadership. a huge topic and one that 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:53.220 has evolved wildly over the last century it started 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:55.660 with the great man theory right which is basically 00:18:55.660 --> 00:18:58.460 the superhero movie version of leadership yes 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:01.160 pretty much for a long time researchers thought 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.980 leaders were born not made They looked for specific 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:06.299 traits. What kind of traits? They literally measured 00:19:06.299 --> 00:19:08.420 people's height, the depth of their voice, their 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:10.759 jawline. The assumption was that if you were 00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:12.920 tall, charismatic, and extroverted, you were 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:15.319 a natural -born leader. I mean, if you look at 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:17.900 the Fortune 500 CEOs today, we haven't totally 00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:21.430 escaped that bias. We haven't. That's true. But 00:19:21.430 --> 00:19:23.690 the data eventually showed that while those traits 00:19:23.690 --> 00:19:25.930 might help you get the job, they don't really 00:19:25.930 --> 00:19:28.809 predict how well you do the job. Plenty of tall, 00:19:28.990 --> 00:19:31.710 charismatic extroverts drive companies straight 00:19:31.710 --> 00:19:33.890 into the ground. So the science had to shift. 00:19:33.950 --> 00:19:36.390 It shifted from who are they to what do they 00:19:36.390 --> 00:19:40.099 do? Exactly. The behavioral era. The most famous 00:19:40.099 --> 00:19:42.839 studies came out of Ohio State in the 50s. They 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.220 surveyed tons of people and boiled leadership 00:19:45.220 --> 00:19:48.019 down to two fundamental dimensions, consideration 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:51.450 and initiating structure. Which is basically 00:19:51.450 --> 00:19:54.130 people versus tasks. That's a perfect way to 00:19:54.130 --> 00:19:56.670 put it. Consideration is the people stuff. Do 00:19:56.670 --> 00:19:59.170 you ask about my kids? Do you show concern for 00:19:59.170 --> 00:20:01.529 my well -being? Do you trust me? Initiating structure 00:20:01.529 --> 00:20:04.009 is the task stuff. Do you set clear deadlines? 00:20:04.269 --> 00:20:06.329 Do you organize the work? Do you define roles? 00:20:06.690 --> 00:20:08.549 And I assume the best leaders are high on both. 00:20:08.769 --> 00:20:11.609 Ideally, yes. But then the researchers realized, 00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:15.130 wait for it. It depends. The classic academic 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:18.369 cop -out. Laughs. It's true, though. This is 00:20:18.369 --> 00:20:21.319 contingency theory. Think about it. If the buildings 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:24.380 is on fire, do you want a leader who stops to 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:27.420 ask, hey, everyone, how are we all feeling about 00:20:27.420 --> 00:20:29.960 the smoke levels? Let's form a committee to brainstorm 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.440 some potential exits. No, I want a leader who 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:37.619 screams, go out the back door now. Exactly. In 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:40.140 a crisis, you want high initiating structure 00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:42.799 and probably low consideration. But if you are 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:45.079 running a creative ad agency and you're trying 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:47.140 to come up with a Super Bowl commercial, that 00:20:47.140 --> 00:20:49.819 screaming dictator style will kill every single 00:20:49.819 --> 00:20:51.779 good idea in the room. In that case, you need 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:53.960 high consideration. You need psychological safety. 00:20:54.140 --> 00:20:56.759 Right. So a good leader isn't a specific personality 00:20:56.759 --> 00:20:59.480 type. A good leader is a chameleon. They adapt 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.740 their style to the situation. But there's another 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.059 theory here that feels painfully real to anyone 00:21:04.059 --> 00:21:07.200 who has ever been part of a team. LMX, leader 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.680 -member exchange. This one hurts because it's 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:12.740 so true. LMX theory challenges the idea that 00:21:12.740 --> 00:21:14.960 a leader treats everyone on their team the same. 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.460 It says that leaders form unique one -on -one 00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:20.380 relationships or dyads with each employee. Which 00:21:20.380 --> 00:21:22.380 inevitably leads to the in -group and the out 00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:24.500 -group. Or, as we all called it in elementary 00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:27.440 school, the teacher's pets and, well... Everyone 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:29.539 else. But this isn't just about liking someone 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:32.720 more. It fundamentally affects how they work. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:36.500 Profoundly. If you are in the in -group, the 00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:40.019 boss trusts you. You get more autonomy. You get 00:21:40.019 --> 00:21:42.539 the benefit of the doubt. If you screw up, it's 00:21:42.539 --> 00:21:45.779 viewed as an honest mistake or a learning opportunity. 00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:48.259 And if you're in the out -group... You get rules. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:50.799 You get monitored. You get micromanaged. If you 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.779 screw up, it's seen as proof of your incompetence. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.140 And here's the really twisted part. Because the 00:21:57.140 --> 00:22:00.140 outgroup is micromanaged and distrusted, they 00:22:00.140 --> 00:22:03.359 tend to perform worse. Which confirms the boss's 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.839 initial bias. It's a self -fulfilling prophecy. 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:08.079 The leader's perception creates the reality. 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:10.420 That is brutal. It makes you realize how much 00:22:10.420 --> 00:22:13.380 power a manager has to shape an employee's entire 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:16.099 reality at work. Which is why transformational 00:22:16.099 --> 00:22:18.180 leadership is considered the gold standard now. 00:22:18.339 --> 00:22:20.099 It's the inspiring stuff, right? The motivational 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:23.200 speeches. Yes. Transformational leaders don't 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:25.980 just engage in a simple transaction, I pay you. 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:29.299 You work. That's transactional leadership. A 00:22:29.299 --> 00:22:32.019 transformational leader offers a vision. They 00:22:32.019 --> 00:22:34.619 stimulate you intellectually. They make you feel 00:22:34.619 --> 00:22:37.000 like your work matters to some larger purpose. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:39.480 It sounds a little bit like a cult leader. The 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:41.420 line between a transformational leader and a 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:45.380 cult leader is often just ethics. But yes, it's 00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:47.900 about tapping into that deep, intrinsic motivation 00:22:47.900 --> 00:22:50.140 we talked about with Hertzberg. Okay. So we've 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:51.720 looked at the person. We've looked at the boss. 00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:54.660 Now let's zoom all the way out. Section five. 00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:58.599 The organization. The macro level. The big picture. 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:00.759 We hear the word culture thrown around constantly. 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.319 We have a great culture here. Usually that means 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.440 they have free snacks and a casual dress code. 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:07.680 But the source material says that's not culture. 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:10.500 Those are just artifacts. Correct. This is Edgar 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:12.640 Schein's model of organizational culture, and 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:15.180 it's brilliant. He visualized culture like an 00:23:15.180 --> 00:23:17.940 iceberg. Okay. The 10 % sticking out of the water, 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:20.140 those are the artifacts. The ping pong table, 00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:22.799 the open plan office, the jargon people use, 00:23:22.980 --> 00:23:25.680 the company logo. It's the stuff you can see 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:28.079 and hear. But you can't judge a company by its 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:31.000 ping pong table. No. You have to go deeper. Just 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:33.460 below the surface, level two is espoused values. 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:36.079 This is what the company says it believes. It's 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:38.759 the mission statement on the wall. We value integrity, 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:42.240 safety first, customer obsession. But we all 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.079 know companies that have integrity written on 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:46.279 the wall and then go on to lie to their shareholders. 00:23:46.660 --> 00:23:48.880 Enron had a great mission statement. Exactly. 00:23:49.539 --> 00:23:52.039 Espoused values can be aspirational or they can 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:54.240 be pure PR. That's why you have to dive all the 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:56.880 way to the bottom of the iceberg. Level three. 00:23:57.569 --> 00:24:00.869 Shared basic assumptions. This is the deep stuff. 00:24:01.130 --> 00:24:02.990 This is the really deep stuff. These are the 00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:05.569 unconscious, taken -for -granted beliefs about 00:24:05.569 --> 00:24:08.250 how the world works. The unwritten rules that 00:24:08.250 --> 00:24:10.869 everyone knows but nobody ever talks about. Give 00:24:10.869 --> 00:24:12.710 me an example of an assumption. Okay, imagine 00:24:12.710 --> 00:24:15.769 a company that says they value innovation. That's 00:24:15.769 --> 00:24:17.990 their espoused value. They even have a cool innovation 00:24:17.990 --> 00:24:20.730 lab with whiteboards and beanbags. That's an 00:24:20.730 --> 00:24:24.630 artifact. But deep down, the shared basic assumption... 00:24:24.890 --> 00:24:26.910 The unwritten rule that everyone knows but nobody 00:24:26.910 --> 00:24:30.369 speaks is mistakes are fatal. If you screw up 00:24:30.369 --> 00:24:33.089 a project, your career here is over. So nobody 00:24:33.089 --> 00:24:36.089 innovates. Because real innovation requires the 00:24:36.089 --> 00:24:38.470 risk of making mistakes. Right. The assumption 00:24:38.470 --> 00:24:41.390 always eats the value for breakfast. If you really 00:24:41.390 --> 00:24:43.750 want to understand a company, ignore the writing 00:24:43.750 --> 00:24:45.990 on the wall. Watch what happens when someone 00:24:45.990 --> 00:24:48.349 makes a big mistake. Watch who gets promoted. 00:24:48.750 --> 00:24:51.369 That tells you the real culture. That feels like 00:24:51.369 --> 00:24:53.660 it connects to national culture, too. The sources 00:24:53.660 --> 00:24:56.519 mention Hofstede's work on this. Geert Hofstede, 00:24:56.759 --> 00:24:59.079 a Dutch researcher who did landmark work for 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:01.660 IBM. He showed that you can't just take a management 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:04.920 style from, say, New York and drop it into Tokyo 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:08.359 and expect it to work. Culture runs deep. What's 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:10.519 the specific dimension where that friction happens? 00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:13.700 Power distance is a big one. This measures how 00:25:13.700 --> 00:25:16.339 comfortable a culture is with hierarchy and inequality. 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.180 So high power distance would be? In high power 00:25:19.180 --> 00:25:21.480 distance cultures, like many in Latin America 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.200 or Asia, the boss is the authority. You do not 00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:26.140 challenge them publicly. It's seen as deeply 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:29.339 disrespectful. The hierarchy is rigid and accepted. 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:32.279 And low power distance? Think of a tech startup 00:25:32.279 --> 00:25:35.720 in Silicon Valley. The 22 -year -old intern might 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:38.220 interrupt the CEO in a big meeting and say, actually, 00:25:38.259 --> 00:25:40.880 I think that's a bad idea and here's why. In 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.160 a low power distance culture, that's seen as 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:46.240 innovation and speaking up. But in a high power 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:49.079 distance culture, that's insubordination. You'd 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:51.960 be fired on the spot. I can see how that would 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:54.859 cause massive problems in a global team. If an 00:25:54.859 --> 00:25:57.160 American manager goes to a high power distance 00:25:57.160 --> 00:25:59.940 country and says, my door is always open, please 00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:02.319 give me your honest feedback. And then nobody 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.599 says anything. The American thinks, wow, my team 00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:07.160 has no ideas. But the employees are thinking. 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.220 I respect you too much as my boss to ever correct 00:26:10.220 --> 00:26:12.720 you in public. It's a fundamental misunderstanding 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:15.279 of cultural assumptions. There's one more macro 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:17.099 concept I want to touch on because it uses this 00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:20.079 really interesting biological metaphor, organizational 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:23.519 ecology. Yes. This treats companies like species 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:26.059 in an ecosystem. It's about their birth, their 00:26:26.059 --> 00:26:28.380 growth, and their death. This makes me think 00:26:28.380 --> 00:26:30.960 of dinosaurs. That's a perfect analogy. Imagine 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:34.829 Blockbuster Video. In the 1990s, it was the T 00:26:34.829 --> 00:26:37.549 -Rex of its ecosystem. It was huge, dominant, 00:26:37.750 --> 00:26:39.930 perfectly adapted to its environment of strip 00:26:39.930 --> 00:26:42.609 malls and physical VHS tapes. And then the asteroid 00:26:42.609 --> 00:26:45.049 hit. The asteroid was the internet, streaming, 00:26:45.450 --> 00:26:48.809 Netflix. Organizational ecology says that Blockbuster 00:26:48.809 --> 00:26:50.630 didn't die just because the managers were stupid. 00:26:50.789 --> 00:26:53.289 It died because the entire environment changed 00:26:53.289 --> 00:26:56.710 and the organism itself, told DNA, couldn't evolve 00:26:56.710 --> 00:26:59.269 fast enough to survive in the new climate. So 00:26:59.269 --> 00:27:01.849 it's survival of the fittest. But for corporations? 00:27:02.250 --> 00:27:04.730 It is. The environment selects the organizations 00:27:04.730 --> 00:27:07.029 that have the right fit. If you don't fit the 00:27:07.029 --> 00:27:10.250 niche anymore, you go extinct. It's a humbling 00:27:10.250 --> 00:27:12.109 reminder that companies aren't permanent. They 00:27:12.109 --> 00:27:14.109 are just temporary solutions to a particular 00:27:14.109 --> 00:27:16.490 problem in time. Okay, let's bring it into the 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:19.450 present day. Section 6. Contemporary issues. 00:27:20.009 --> 00:27:22.390 Because the workplace is changing faster than 00:27:22.390 --> 00:27:24.869 ever. It is. The walls are coming down in more 00:27:24.869 --> 00:27:28.619 ways than one. Literally and figuratively. One 00:27:28.619 --> 00:27:32.160 major topic is diversity and inclusion. And the 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:34.180 sources make a really important distinction here 00:27:34.180 --> 00:27:37.920 that I think is key. Diversity is the mix. Inclusion 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.039 is getting the mix to work well together. That's 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.019 a great way to put it. For a long time, companies 00:27:43.019 --> 00:27:45.059 just focused on diversity, you know, getting 00:27:45.059 --> 00:27:47.019 different looking people in the room, representation. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:50.440 But if you have a diverse room, but the culture 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:52.599 demands that everyone act the same way, think 00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:55.619 the same way, and conform to the dominant norm, 00:27:55.859 --> 00:27:59.170 you... completely lose the benefit. You lose 00:27:59.170 --> 00:28:01.109 the whole point. The benefit is supposed to be 00:28:01.109 --> 00:28:03.589 different perspectives. Right. We call it cognitive 00:28:03.589 --> 00:28:06.109 friction. If everyone in the room has the same 00:28:06.109 --> 00:28:08.329 background and thinks the same way, you get groupthink. 00:28:08.529 --> 00:28:11.630 It feels smooth and easy, but it leads to terrible 00:28:11.630 --> 00:28:14.869 decisions. Diversity introduces a healthy friction. 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:17.390 It makes decision -making harder and slower, 00:28:17.569 --> 00:28:20.869 but the outcomes are almost always better. Inclusion 00:28:20.869 --> 00:28:23.650 is the skill of managing that friction productively. 00:28:23.769 --> 00:28:26.029 Another modern issue that feels more relevant 00:28:26.029 --> 00:28:28.650 than ever is work -family conflict. This brings 00:28:28.650 --> 00:28:31.109 us right back to the iron cage, but now the cage 00:28:31.109 --> 00:28:34.599 is in our pocket. The smartphone. Exactly. Chester 00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:37.579 Barnard, an early theorist, said we act differently 00:28:37.579 --> 00:28:39.700 in our work roles than in our personal roles. 00:28:39.859 --> 00:28:42.640 We put on a mask for work. But now, with Zoom 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.799 calls from the kitchen table and Slack messages 00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:48.559 at 10 p .m., that mask is slipping. The boundaries 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:51.440 are almost gone. And the conflict isn't just, 00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:55.220 I'm busy. It's about incompatible demands. Yes. 00:28:55.819 --> 00:28:59.180 That's the key. Your boss demands you be on a 00:28:59.180 --> 00:29:02.119 client call at 5 p .m. Your daycare demands you 00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:04.859 pick up your kid by 5 p .m. You cannot physically 00:29:04.859 --> 00:29:07.819 be in two places at once. That creates a massive, 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:10.799 unrevolvable stress. Before we wrap up, I want 00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:13.019 to touch on how we know all this stuff. The research 00:29:13.019 --> 00:29:15.099 methods. Because we keep saying research shows, 00:29:15.220 --> 00:29:16.819 but what does that actually look like? Are people 00:29:16.819 --> 00:29:18.519 just handing out surveys? Surveys are the bread 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:20.180 and butter, for sure. That's the quantitative 00:29:20.180 --> 00:29:22.980 side. But some of the really cool cutting -edge 00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:25.200 stuff is happening in simulation. Computer simulation? 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:30.019 Yes. Agent -based modeling. Imagine a customized 00:29:30.019 --> 00:29:32.640 version of The Sims or a video game, but for 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:36.400 an office. Researchers create these virtual employees 00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:39.759 or agents. They program them with specific traits 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:42.839 based on real psychological data. This one is 00:29:42.839 --> 00:29:45.039 grumpy. This one is a narcissist. This one is 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:47.440 highly motivated and collaborative. And then 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:49.619 they just hit play and see what happens. Pretty 00:29:49.619 --> 00:29:53.190 much. They run the simulation. thousands of times 00:29:53.190 --> 00:29:55.869 to see what happens does the team succeed does 00:29:55.869 --> 00:29:58.390 a toxic rumor spread through the network does 00:29:58.390 --> 00:30:00.470 the narcissist eventually take over the team 00:30:00.470 --> 00:30:03.529 it allows us to test complex theories that would 00:30:03.529 --> 00:30:06.490 be way too expensive or frankly unethical to 00:30:06.490 --> 00:30:08.750 test on real humans right you can't intentionally 00:30:08.750 --> 00:30:11.690 introduce a bully into a real team just to watch 00:30:11.690 --> 00:30:14.519 what happens But you can in a simulation. It's 00:30:14.519 --> 00:30:17.140 helping us model our own messy behavior to understand 00:30:17.140 --> 00:30:19.480 it better. It's really the future of the field. 00:30:19.619 --> 00:30:22.039 That is fascinating. So let's try to synthesize 00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:23.980 all this. We've covered a lot of ground. We have. 00:30:24.509 --> 00:30:26.809 We started with the chaos of the early factory, 00:30:27.029 --> 00:30:29.529 moved to the iron cage of efficiency, discovered 00:30:29.529 --> 00:30:31.789 the importance of human feelings at Hawthorne, 00:30:31.890 --> 00:30:35.349 realized our brains are bounded, explored the 00:30:35.349 --> 00:30:38.430 dark side of incivility, decoded the hidden rules 00:30:38.430 --> 00:30:41.630 of culture, and ended up with computer simulations 00:30:41.630 --> 00:30:44.589 of virtual employees. It's a massive journey. 00:30:45.029 --> 00:30:47.650 But for you, the listener, what's the big takeaway 00:30:47.650 --> 00:30:50.609 here? For me, it's that work isn't just a place 00:30:50.609 --> 00:30:54.599 you go. It's a complex social system. And if 00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:57.140 you are frustrated by your boss or your team 00:30:57.140 --> 00:30:59.880 or your own lack of motivation, don't just blame 00:30:59.880 --> 00:31:01.380 yourself or the people around you. Look at the 00:31:01.380 --> 00:31:03.259 structure. Look at the incentives. Look at the 00:31:03.259 --> 00:31:05.599 culture. It gives you a toolkit to diagnose the 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.799 problem. Oh, this isn't just a personality clash. 00:31:07.940 --> 00:31:10.460 This is a classic in -group, out -group dynamic 00:31:10.460 --> 00:31:13.359 being created by my manager. Exactly. Naming 00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:15.940 the demon gives you power over it. It allows 00:31:15.940 --> 00:31:18.119 you to see the system behind the frustration. 00:31:18.599 --> 00:31:20.900 I want to leave everyone with a final provocative 00:31:20.900 --> 00:31:23.279 thought. Something that's been brewing in my 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:25.599 mind as we talked about organizational ecology. 00:31:26.019 --> 00:31:27.980 Let's hear it. So we talked about how companies 00:31:27.980 --> 00:31:30.980 are selected by their environment. Only the ones 00:31:30.980 --> 00:31:33.740 that fit the market survive. And we talked about 00:31:33.740 --> 00:31:37.700 how we, as employees, have to adapt to the company 00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:39.700 culture to survive inside that organization. 00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:42.660 We put on the mask, we do the emotional labor, 00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:45.859 we adapt, or we get selected out. So here's the 00:31:45.859 --> 00:31:48.299 thought. If the companies are being shaped by 00:31:48.299 --> 00:31:50.660 the market, And we are being shaped by the companies 00:31:50.660 --> 00:31:54.619 we work for. Are we really shaping the organization? 00:31:55.420 --> 00:31:58.339 Or is the organization slowly, over thousands 00:31:58.339 --> 00:32:01.700 of hours, over decades, fundamentally reshaping 00:32:01.700 --> 00:32:04.160 who we are as a species? That is the ultimate 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:06.480 question, isn't it? If we spend 90 ,000 hours 00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:09.019 inside the iron cage, eventually the shape of 00:32:09.019 --> 00:32:10.920 our soul might just start to match the shape 00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:12.759 of the bars. Something to think about doing your 00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:14.460 next performance review. Thanks for diving in 00:32:14.460 --> 00:32:15.220 with us. Always a pleasure.