I was riding with my parent this weekend who has Alzheimer’s. Clearly
she has difficulty integrating new information, due to forgetting or not
assimilating recent events that would change her world view.  Furthermore
she locks in her world view by retelling her world view supporting stories
over and over again, partly because she’s lost the ability to engage, to listen
and inquire. 

Her world view starts to look like it’s guarded by the Great Wall of China.
And then I thought, boy that can be uncomfortably  true of us
at work.   See if this makes sense to you.

You see with Alzheimer’s, you don’t update your world view.Â
Since you can’t remember stuff so well, recent events don’t have much lasting
effect on the world you carry around in your head.  And secondly, you tend to
discard feedback that your skills are degrading, and instead of integrating
the new data (because your brain isn’t working so well at integrating), you
get frustrated, and you get mad at others for not treating you consistent
with your “non-updated” world view of your self. 

Got that?  OK, you probably already know where this is going, but think
about what helps us keep an updated, reality based world view at work?

If you thought about listening, you’re heading down my path.
McKinsey Quarterly just published a guide to better listening as an effective
tool to improved decision making.  The Executive’s Guide to Better Listening.
It’s a good quick read, essentially concluding that listening is an under-
developed skill, and that listening skills help us make better decisions and
have longer, more successful careers.

Here’s what I wanted you not to miss.  Listening is one essential tool for
updating your views at work.  The key being, you and I need to keep our
“world view at work” open to reality corrections and updates.

Open to input can be as personal as recalibrating how valuable what you
believe you bring to the table is,  as defined by your team’s perceptions.

Open to input can be as singular as hearing what really is the biggest
value proposition your customers feel they are getting from you… and what
the biggest annoyances they have to put up with to do business with you.

By-the-way, what’s the sound of someone listening and then responding
with a closed world view?  You hear it all the time at work.  It’s the sound
of the person defending. 

The McKinsey article got close to that point when they described executives
as people who can ignore listening as a means of getting information, and
“focus instead on articulating their own views more effectively.” 

The writer offers this gentle poke in the ribs, “That approach may work
perfectly well if you already know everything.  For those who don’t …”
he suggests reading the article and getting better at listening.

More accurately –  it’s really about  listening for what purpose, isn’t it?

The funny thing about us as humans, is that we naturally seek out and listenÂ
to information that confirms our world view.  In fact when we really hang on
tight to definitions about:
- our personal value at work; what our product or service delivers;
- why customers should value us in return,
- how much money we should make, etc. it can be really difficult to listen in
a way that actively collects, probes, challenges and seeks to understand new
information.  New information that is so vital to keeping our world view
up-to-date, relative and accurate.

Making sure you are listening to what’s real and doing something about it,
is probably a good way to paraphrase Bossidy and Charan’s book,
“Confronting Reality; Doing what matters to get things right.”

Bottom Line:
So here’s my note to myself - “Don’t practice having Alzheimers at work.”Â
Keep reverifying reality, and the validity of your view about personal and
product values, your views about customers, the market, what works and
what doesn’t.  Listen, and as Bossidy and Charan suggest, do what
matters to create better alignment and reduce the disconnect
of defending. Defending is such a waste in life, isn’t it?