opinion | COLLABORATIVE WORKING
www.thehrdirector.com
EVEN DUCK QUACKS REVERBERATE IN AN ECHO CHAMBER
Businesses might well have been busy plugging the gender gaps and trying to eliminate
recruitment biases. But physical diversity does not guarantee a panacea for critical thinking and a variety of views. Even when all the inclusion quotas are ticked, the same ideas, issues and problems can keep circling around, if your organisation is stuck in an echo chamber.
ARTICLE BY ALEXANDRA ANDERS, TALENT DIRECTOR EMEA - CORNERSTONE ONDEMAND
Empowerment is a mindset that begins with leaders, lands with managers and filters through to the wider workforce, and that requires the C-suite to relinquish some control, in order to let staff bring new ideas and take ownership of things. Clearly, this only makes sense if the workforce is diverse and inclusive - not just demographically, in terms of genders, ethnicities, ages, or disabled people - but diversity in mindset. Many workplaces may well think themselves diverse, but if a business is populated with people that have been recruited and conditioned to have the same mindset, the same “ideas” will bounce around like an echo chamber. The reasons all point to a team that lacks diversity of thought, and a place where little of no empowerment is happening.
So, in an open-minded team, how do these echo chambers manifest? Put simply, it’s because we hire people who we think will fit in, who are, in essence “our kind of people”. There is plenty of research confirming that people are drawn to people similar to them. A study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 2018, discussed the causes which included; consensual validation, where meeting people with similar attitudes to us make us feel confident in our own attitudes. Cognitive evaluation, where we feel more positive about someone we know little about, on the basis that we have things in common; certainty of being liked, where we assume that someone we have a lot in common with is more likely to like us; fun interactions, where we assume we’ll enjoy time spent with people we have things in common with; and self-expansion opportunity, where we feel more likely to have self-expansion opportunities, by interacting with someone similar to us - even though that seems counterintuitive. In short, we feel we’ll get along better with people similar to us. That makes sense from a psychological standpoint, but isn’t very helpful for building a diverse workplace.
IF A BUSINESS IS POPULATED WITH PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN RECRUITED AND CONDITIONED TO HAVE THE SAME MINDSET, THE SAME “IDEAS” WILL BOUNCE AROUND LIKE AN ECHO CHAMBER. THE REASONS ALL POINT
TO A TEAM THAT LACKS DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT
So, what can we do to avoid echo chamber syndrome? A logical place, of course, is to start reviewing company culture, including hiring practices, how jobs are advertised jobs, how vetting for potential candidates is calibrated - looking for a good ‘cultural fit’, could suggest that successful applicants will be those most similar to existing people in the organisation. How often do we hear recruiters say they look for cultural fit in candidates? Similarly, only recruiting people from the top universities could be more about an objective to find similarities, not diversity - limiting the candidate pool to people, most likely from privileged upbringings and public schools, with a similar world view to each other, is not a route to diversity. If this is driven by a belief that people from the upper streams will be the smartest, then that is an assumption that could deprive the business from really special talent from neglected demographics. Speaking of culture, openness and transparency are paramount, to enable people to air thought and discuss opinions honestly - another problem endemic with surrounding ourselves with “people like us”, is that there’s very little disagreement, which is not conducive to diversity of thought and thinking outside the box. If people are afraid of upsetting the balance, throwing spanners in the works, then the echo chamber syndrome is a forgone conclusion. In terms of approach, managers and the C-suite are key in starting conversations and leading by example with critical thinking. That’s not to say you need to be mean or disagree with others. Rather, it’s a matter of creating a platform for ideas sharing and challenging opinions to achieve a better end result for everyone in the business.
•
FOR FURTHER INFO
WWW.CORNERSTONEONDEMAND.CO.UK
34 | thehrdirector | MAY 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
