This archive report was first published on 6 August 2020.
Conflict in the Quest for Improvement ¶
Thursday, August 6, 2020
For many of us, the pursuit of self-improvement is a lifelong journey. However, this quest can be fraught with challenges, particularly when working with others who may have different perspectives and emotional responses to feedback.
Ondieki, a Nairobi-based insurance firm employee, experienced this firsthand when he was tasked with working on a department project committee to redesign work tasks and restructure reporting lines. The committee consisted of his colleagues, including Atieno, Mutua, Njeri, Lengoko, and Juma.
However, Ondieki soon realized that his colleagues' sensitivity to criticism hindered progress. Lengoko and Atieno felt hurt when Ondieki suggested improvements, while Juma refused to budge on nearly every issue, insisting that he knew the best route.
According to social scientist Dolly Chugh, this emotional diversity is a common phenomenon. In her research, Chugh argues that people who feel they are good individuals, ethical people, or excellent workers have a diminished capacity to receive helpful criticism.
Chugh's research highlights that when people feel they are good, they become complacent and stop trying to become better. They also shut down temporarily from processing new information, making it difficult for them to accept criticism.
However, Chugh suggests that by adopting a mindset of being 'goodish' people, rather than good people, we can become more receptive to feedback and criticism. This mindset recognizes that we are all works-in-progress and that perfection is unattainable.
When managers present this concept to their staff and share their personal struggles with improving and continually becoming better, it opens up diversity and skills training wide open with much stronger results.
So, how can Ondieki handle Juma, the problematic employee? Chugh suggests using the 20-60-20 rule, where 20% of people will never change their minds, 20% will agree easily, and 60% will follow the majority. If you work with the lower 20% and do not hold the power to remove them, humanising issues proves far greater at changing minds than statistics, arguments, and figures.
