Why I Never Make Assumptions About Workplace Attitudes

We gather useful lessons along our career paths. Some lessons are learned through trial and error — others the result of complete serendipity. These lessons greatly enhance our formal education, by teaching us to question each of our steps along the way. I experienced one of these lessons quite early in my career, while exploring employee dissatisfaction with a newly minted team-based product development process. Fresh from my qualification exams, I confidently predicted that the experienced problems were associated with the "nuts and bolts" mechanics of the team process itself. (Of course, there was a twist operating, that I did not foresee.)

It was early in the teaming journey for this organization — just as the Japanese were beginning to impact US manufacturing. Bringing together various functions into product development teams was an entirely new way of conducting their work — and the change was a bit of a shock. Integrating teaming into the existing workplace culture was turning out to be a bit of a bumpy process. As might be expected, the differing functional areas didn't always see eye-to-eye on product priorities. Executing compromises concerning product details often proved to be a dramatic, exhausting process.

We all were aware, that teaming would become a permanent fixture in the development process, and core leadership was quite committed to make improvements and forge on (exactly why I was contacted). We did our best to gather possible "pain points" — being sure to cover the team basics (size of the team, role clarity, team leaders, etc). However, at the last moment I received an unexpected wake-up call to let me know that my initial predictions may have been off the mark. The reason? An experience a core leader shared with us — just as we were making final survey edits.

Apparently as he left the facility the day before, he struck up a conversation with an employee while making his way to his car. At some point, it became quite evident that the employee had no idea who he was or what role he played at the facility. This rang an alarm for all of us, as you can imagine.

We promptly drafted some candidly worded questions to capture this potential concern, realizing that some of the issues they were experiencing might have nothing to do with team mechanics. The problems may have been related to leadership visibility — something that wasn't often considered at that time. With the radical shift to teaming, there was a possibility that employees needed more convincing that core leadership was behind them.

As it turned out, there was a perceived lack of core leadership presence in the teaming process. Just as the lone employee in the parking lot — team members were actually unclear as to who was actually "running the show". All in all, the teams not only needed to know their core leaders better, they craved some form of physical leadership presence within the teams themselves. The optimal level of involvement needed to be determined, but the broader issue was now in plain view.

If the core leader hadn't mentioned his experience, I would have missed this key component entirely.

What I learned from this experience:

• Obsess over competing explanations. When there is an issue within your organization, never assume the reasons behind it are obvious — and try not to treat the situation as an "open and shut" case. There are usually layers that interact to form the root explanation. Whether you are examining culture or employee engagement, try not to draw early conclusions — as this may cloud your judgement.
• Listen, and then listen some more. Pay close attention to the dynamics of the group you are trying to understand. Do your very best to gather the "back story" and pay keen attention to "tangents". Keep posing questions until you are satisfied that your detailed history captures the changes in process, or direction. Record all of your hunches and represent these topics in your interview process, survey or poll.
• Prepare for the unexpected. I've never been involved in an attitude assessment (customer or employee focused) that didn't reveal something surprising. Prepare for this possibility. Attitudes are often complex. Be poised to act on the findings.

This experience changed how I approached future projects. I know longer make assumptions about what is influencing a workplace issue. If a client inquires about a prediction concerning attitudes, I try not to offer a forecast. However, I do attempt to calm their nerves and offer the following, "We'll get to the bottom of this. But, we want to get it right. Let's just see what emerges."

Have you ever made a prediction about employee or customer attitudes that was inaccurate? What have you learned from the experience?

Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Organizational Psychologist and coach. She also writes The Office Blend.