In a word: because of fundamental attribution error. Wikipedia describes FAE as: “the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors.” What does that look like in practice? Like this: Tim taps his foot impatiently, looking around the meeting room. “I’d like to get started because we have a lot to cover,” he says, “but as usual Mary is late.” “I think she was finishing up the interim report,” Greg tells him. “She ought to be here any minute.” “She’s always finishing up something,” Tim snaps. “She just doesn’t seem to place the same importance on being on time that the rest of us do.” What the FAE says is that we tend to see the actions of others as driven by their intentions, motivations or personalities, rather than by the situation they perceive themselves to be in. But…
I often open teambuilding sessions with this question: what’s the best team experience you’ve ever had? What made it great? The answers I get usually fall right in…
When I became a corporate dropout, my colleagues said I would miss being part of a team, part of a learning organization. How could I possibly have stimulating…
In a recent issue of Newsweek, Sharon Begley writes about how cultural experience can change the brain in a column called West Brain East Brain. Many of us have already…
When I was younger I used to think it was cool to be “macho”. Being macho meant being “one of the guys”, however that might look in the organization I…
One of the most frequent questions clients ask me with regard to teambuilding is, “How do we create some new — or better — team norms? And how do…
On the mountain rescue team I volunteer for, there is often a need for clear, unapologetic, command and control leadership. When we’re out in the wilderness, organizing 25…
Earlier this week I posted a blog entry on several Linkedin groups called “Respect Looks Different to Different Generations”and the ensuing discussion, especially on the Training and Development…
Respect looks different to different individuals, of course. But I’m particularly fascinated by how generational differences influence our concept of respectful behavior in the workplace. During a recent generational…
Roger Martin began an interesting series of blog posts on Harvard Business Publishing this week. In the first, he explains that all human beings seek happiness in a sense of…
Patrick Lencioni, in Silos, Politics and Turf Wars, says that great teams often form around crisis. There’s nothing like a financial disaster or other organizational threat to bring…
During a board meeting of a non-profit rescue group I volunteer for, one of our incident commanders requested money for leadership training. “We spend thousands on field skills training…
A key point in teaching conflict resolution skills is that you must separate the people issues from the problem. That doesn’t mean you can ignore the people issues or the emotional…
No, I’m not talking about home ownership or winning the lottery. I’m talking about our national presumption that you can be anything you want to be, as long…
I’ve seen a lot of discussion posts on Linkedin lately from people considering whether to make a move into the consulting world, and asking for advice on the…
I often do a simple but powerful exercise in teambuilding sessions that is designed to bring out teammates’ blind spots about their informal roles on the team, as…
I was once contracted to do some customer service training for the HR department of a financial services company that had just undergone a merger. When I talked to…
Yesterday during a diversity class, this interesting topic came up. One of the participants was a white male who held the title EEO Officer, and he shared his…
In an excerpt from the book Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets reprinted by TIMESONLINE, Mary Buffet and David Clark talk about Buffett’s obsession with obsession: “In Buffett’s world the…
Susan couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she felt as though things were not going well with her new boss. When she came into his office…