Working with instead of against human nature
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What happens when leaders underestimate or don’t understand the power of human nature? Projects fail or take forever and processes are circumvented or ignored.
Smart people pick their battles carefully and good leaders don’t pick fights with human nature. But in order to work with instead of against nature, we must first understand it.
Hugh Howey spent the last three years sailing around the world. It’s given him an opportunity to live in many countries. His craziest discovery is how universal human nature is. We tend to focus on a few differences to group ourselves but take for granted the many things we have in common.
Sure, human nature doesn’t always appear rational. But ask Dan Ariely about how predictably irrational we are. Then you’ll realize this critical truth: Human nature is largely consistent and understandable.
This is why leaders need to develop listening skills, second person perspective taking and empathy. And if we really aren’t going to beat them, then we must commit to joining them. That means learning about the power of incentives.
“The iron rule of nature is: You get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.” - Charlie Munger
As a leader ask yourself:
- Do we have some goals and processes that are losing battles in disguise?
- What behaviors or outcomes am I seeing because we’ve spilled some sugar on our organizational floor?