Shocking!

In the first part of the experiment, dogs were placed in harnesses and subjected to electric shocks. Half of the dogs could stop the shocks by nudging a side panel with their heads, but the other half couldn't. The half that had no control over the shocks became anxious and whined, even after the experiment was over; the other half didn't.

Today, forty-five years later, we would never subject sentient beings to such cruel treatment except, perhaps, in the business world. Although few organizations would countenance the use of painful shocks, authoritarian managers running a tight ship, objectives handed down from on high, and stifling bureaucracy are subtler, but no less pernicious ways of exerting control.

In the second part of the experiment, the dogs were placed on an electrified grid in a box divided in half by a low wall. The dogs that had control in the first part of the experiment quickly learned to jump over the wall to avoid the shocks, while those that didn't just laid on the floor and suffered, even when the experimenters showed them how to avoid the shocks.

Psychologist Sheena Iyengar believes this experiment demonstrates how imperative it is for living beings to have control over their situation. Numerous other studies have shown that humans experience less distress and perform at a higher level when they have control, even if they never make use of it.

I've been to companies where the employees vault over walls as a matter of course, because they're actively engaged in making the decisions that affect their work. I've also been to companies where most people just whimper quietly in their cubicles. Asked for little and offering less, they've learned helplessness.

None of us want to be managing whiners, but few of us recognize how much we're responsible for the whining. Somehow it's easier to see whining as a character flaw than as a rational response to an untenable situation, particularly when our management has created it.

We may closely supervise, set stretch goals, and conduct the requisite performance appraisals, all in the name of what we've come to believe is good management, but it makes our job more difficult, our employees disengaged, and our businesses less successful than they could be.

People don't perform at their best when the boss is breathing down their neck, when they're driven by objectives they can't achieve, and when their managers deliver what they think is constructive feedback.

Rather than trying to thwart the natural inclination for self-determination, managers would be better off leveraging the psychology of their people. It's as easy as asking people instead of telling them. Share with them the demands of the market and the constraints of the business, and let them figure out how best to satisfy them, subject to your approval.

With just this simple shift in approach, there will be less of that irritating whimpering and more people vaulting over the obstacles to better performance, instead of being one.