Blog Topic 9: Geography of Thought

Last week, we talked about rationality and irrationality. I asked you how you might use "irrational" thinking as a leader and still manage and create change and progress towards goals. This week, we talked about different ways of thinking - that cognitive processes are not universal but may also be affected by culture. So, now leaders not only have to deal with appearing irrational, but also have to deal with ways of thought (mind bugs) that may vary by country, ethnicity, religion, etc. This could easily be overwhelming. But, we've sought to make this manageable by describing the principals that underlie cultures (Hofstede's 5 characteristics), and the principals that underlie rationality.

In this post, think back to a time when you have had interactions where you experienced a "(mis)meeting of the minds." Have you had experiences which, in retrospect, didn't go well because you had different assumptions about causality or use of logic than your interaction partner? What is the geography of your thought and can how does it affect you in your interactions with others? What are the elements of your cultural mindset?

Irrational Thoughts

If I were a leader and I had to explain my irrational actions because they made sound sense to me, I would give distinctive reasons as to why my decisions were the right ones and why. I have to prove myself as a confident leader, one that has earned my subordinates trust - trust that they have placed in me to make the right choices, whether irrational or not. Also people have a tendency to rationalize their thoughts, even if the end actions are irrational to others.

I have a good friend who once spent $150 on a collector's edition of a game, when the rest of us spent $40 on the regular version. The collector's edition just included the game's soundtrack. When we asked him why he spent so much for so little, he simply replied: "Because I can brag about it." To the rest of us it was completely irrational. He had spent more than three times than the rest of us on the same game and had gotten minimal returns, but to him, his rationality behind his irrational decision was that he could brag to us and everyone else that he got the collector's edition.

There was another instance where I went to my local used bookstore. The store had given me a weeks worth of coupons that varied in amount between 20% to 50% and the coupons were only good for certain days, for instance: Sunday and Monday was 20% off one item, Tuesday and Wednesday was 40% off one item, etc. I ended up going to that bookstore all week just to cash in on small savings and I usually ended up buying more than one item, which was completely irrational, since I went in expecting to buy only one item and saving money. Instead I spent a lot more than I had expected to and ended up going to the bookstore more times that week than I had in the last two months.

Decision Making

I think when we refer to rational leaders making irrational decisions is more along the lines of they are making different choices in how to do a project. I think to the norm it is irrational however it may also be a better plan as irrational to the norm it may seem. I also think that to the employees of a leader some of his/her choices may seem irrational to the employee however that maybe because of lack of information on behalf of the employee. To be a good leader I believe it's a good idea to keep all your employees in the loop.

The presentation of information into a situation has different effects. For instance one time I went out and saw a sign saying “sale buy two for 1.50 each” while on the other hand I saw another larger bottle for 2.75. The funny part was that I bought the two for 1.50 each but later looked back and realized that the liquid amount of the larger bottle was more than the two that were on sale. End result was I paid more for less. If I had been introduced to this information earlier I would have made a totally difference choice. The only information that I had at the time was that it was on “sale” which made my choice for me.

Irrational Decision Making

People sometimes need direction from their leaders when they don't know what to do in certain situation.  When I am doing something irrational, I will explain to my followers why I am doing it and how it will have positive impacts in order to justify my decision. If my workers still oppose my decision at worker place, I will use my power to force them to follow me.

The way to present information certainly has huge impact on decision making. I remember that when I wanted to purchase a cell phone plan, I faced the choice between AT&T and T-Mobile. I already knew that T-Mobile 's plans were cheaper but it had inferior coverage compared to AT&T. When I checked T-Mobile's website, it said that "We have coverage where you need it". That let me I think that even though T-Mobile's coverage was not as good as AT&T's, I would still get covered where I needed most. So I signed a one-year service agreement with T-Mobile, and the result was that I suffered from dropped calls at home everyday. So it was the way T-Mobile represented it's coverage that caused my unwise decision. If I face the same choice again, I will absolutely choose AT&T as the service provider.

People sometimes don’t know what they’re doing so they’re looking up to the leader hoping that this person will lead them to the right directions by being rational and making the right choices. As a leader, if my actions and decisions make sense in an irrational sense, I could try to give reasons why such decisions are they right ones. I must show my confidence so people can trust my decisions.

It’s true that the way information being presented can influence decision-making. My aunt, who’s only a few years older than me, and I always go shopping together and we would take turn to drive. One time, it was her turn to drive us to the mall. But all of a sudden, my aunt suggested that we should go to Vacaville outlet. She hates driving anywhere that’s over 15 miles so she said I should drive. Of course I was lazy so I said no, too far. Then she asked me to drive us to Great Mall instead. First, I already felt guilty for turning down her first suggestion. Second, I thought well, Great Mall seemed to be less than half the distance. So it was a better choice and I agreed to drive us to Great Mall. If she was to ask me to drive us to Great Mall first, I probably would have said no. When I got home from the mall that day, I thought, wait a minute, she tricked me (haha). I ended up driving us to Great Mall even though it was her turn to drive that day. So the way she presented her requests has influenced my decision-making.

BUS262 Team6: Blog Topic: Predictably Irrational

It is true that followers want leaders to act in a way that is rational and expected. However, these expectations of a leader come from individuals that can be irrational sometimes. This situation makes it difficult for leaders to explain and defend their behaviors to their followers. It would be hard for me as a leader to explain my irrational behavior to people even if I truly believed in the behavior. There is simply no case to defend irrational behavior. However, I would defend that behavior by simply saying that the behavior is predictable by most people.

It is very surprising how the presentation of information can influence decision-making. Many marketing promotions have influenced me to purchase many products through the presentation of such promotions. One example of how I was influenced to purchase was when I received two sale coupons by the same store. One coupon stated that if I purchased $150 worth of stuff, I could get $25 back. The second coupon stated that If I purchased $250 worth of stuff, I would get $50 back. I used the second coupon because it had the larger dollar back amount even though I didn’t need to purchase that much stuff. In my mind, I wanted to take advantage of the larger savings. This was irrational behavior because I actually did not save as much as I thought because I purchased more stuff than I needed.

Blog Topic: Predictably Irrational

We are continuing our discussion of the human brain with last week's topic of irrationality. These findings suggest that humans are not rational, but are still predictable. This idea has two implications for you as a leader. First, people tend to expect leaders to be rational, to obey certain laws of physics, so to speak, yet, they themselves may act in ways that are not rational. This presents leaders with a conundrum: when you know your actions and decisions make sense, in the predictably irrational sense, but that they do not make sense in the traditionally rational sense, what do you do? How do you explain your decisions? How to defend them?

The second implication has to do with followers and their decision-making strategies. Following on the heels of our discussion of social influence, it seems that you could present information in ways to influence decision-making. Can you think of specific times that this has been done to you, or that, if you had known about it, you'd have changed how you presented information prior to a decision-making situation?

Perception

Even though I’ve taken numerous psychology courses I still had a hard time believeing there wasn’t a difference in size between the table tops. I’ve seen that photo over a dosen times and I still can’t seem to believe they are the same size. This made me start to think that maybe there are things in my life that even though I may feel so strongly about something it actually maybe incorrect and I need to learn to open to the idea of things not always seeming as they appear. There are so many times that my perceptions have been incorrect however I choose to stick to my original conclusion. I think this is the reason because I hate admitting that I was wrong and to do so would show I’m not very informed.

There have been numerous instances where others perception of me has caused a problem. They often viewed me as being quite and unsocial which has prevented them from talking to me or even allowing me to be part of the group. This is further from the truth and because of this I have had to go out there to really show them who the real me is and that I am very social and very outspoken.

Perception

       What surprised me from the last class was the danger of categorization. In the past, I always grouped people I knew into different categories based on my perceptions of these people. I did not realize that categorization could be so subjective that negative consequences could happen.

        

        I sometimes make mistakes because of my perceptions of other people. I remember that when I worked at a college, my supervisor always emphasized that financial aid recipient must have a government photo ID and a student ID to pick up their checks. Other workers and I thought that only a photo ID or a student ID was needed and  the supervisor was just too picky. Then one day a student came to pick up his check with only a student ID, and I gave out the check. But later it was found that the student picking up the check stole the student ID. Because my wrong perception of the supervisor, I made a big mistake that could have been avoided

         

       Not only I have misperceptions of people, but other people often have misperceptions of me. When I met some of my friends for the first time, I did not talk that much with them, so they thought I did not like them. But later as we knew each other further, my friends realized that I did not talk much because of my personality.

         

       Changing others' misperceptions of me needs time and effort. I will try to talk more with people perceiving me wrong, so that they will understand what kind of person I really am. I also try to change people's perceptions by actions. For example, when my manager thought that I was not competent, I showed him my capability by doing excellent work at the company.

Perceptions

I never knew how mind bugs would have such a strong impact on our perceptions. Now that I look back, I realized that subconsciously I my mind bugs have altered my perceptions about things and about people that I meet. I’ve always told myself “not to judge the book by its cover”. But for some odd reasons I tend to contradict myself by categorizing people and judging them without knowing them yet. For instance, when I first meet somebody, I’d have random thoughts shuffling through my head…oh, she looks friendly, oh she seems fake and I should not trust her, she looks mean etc. Based on those little thoughts, I’ve perceived people differently and I know that it’s wrong for me to do so. I need to change that. Not only that, I can be very stubborn. When I think that I’m right on certain things, I will not change my mind until proven wrong. Just like those two tables shown in class. I kept insisting that those two tables did not have the same surface area until our classmates measured them. That’s when I realized I was wrong. I realize like I must see things not just from one angle.
When others had misperceptions about me, I really didn’t care too much. They could think whatever they want as long as I know who I am. We all think differently and have different perceptions so I don’t expect them to think the same way as I do.
Now that I know mind bugs sometimes get in the way and influence my perceptions, I will be more cautious about my decision process. Before I make any decision, I’ll remember to double check if my mind bugs have led me to the wrong decision or wrong judgement about anything or anyone.

BUS262 Team6: Blog Topic 7: Perceptions

The lecture about mind bugs was extremely surprising. I had no idea how strong and quick to judge our perceptions can be. It really surprised me that my believes and perceptions can be totally wrong even if I strongly believe in them. For example, there was no doubt that the two tables were different. I was 100% confident that they had different surface areas. Unfortunately, my perception of these two tables was wrong. This really taught me a lesson about my behavior and judgment of things. I learned that perhaps I shouldn’t be quick to judge, even if I think I am fully right. For the longest time, I have been very stubborn with my believes. I now realize that I should always consider all alternatives when making judgments. I accept that the tables have the same surface areas. However, I still don’t understand how they can be the same.

There was a time when someone’s perception of me was totally wrong. One day at my old banking job, a customer started to ask me questions about my background. This customer did not believe me when I told him that I was born here in the U.S. He started to tease me and asked to see my green card. While I think this customer was trying to be funny, I found it offensive that he didn’t believe that I was born in the U.S. I think because I speak with a small accent, his perceptions of me led him to believe that I was not from this country.

Perception and Categorization

Going over my notes from class again, I was most surprised by the categorization factors that we spoke about in class. A great deal of categorization is done subconsciously. While I may have been subconsciously aware of it, I don't believe that I consciously knew I was doing it other than by instinct and intuition.

There have been times when my insights have led me astray. When I thought about it, I have a tendency to categorize people as "like-me", "popular", "friendly", and "do not approach." I have erroneously placed people into the wrong categories due to actions that I have observed. It has caused me some embarrassment in the past.

People often have wrong perceptions of me. A lot of my mother's friends think I'm the youngest child of the family, because I don't "act" the way a firstborn should act. Some of my ex-coworkers thought my name was Andy for the longest time. One of them said that I "look" like an Andy. To this day, I'm still not sure what he meant by that. To make matters even more confusing, there was another employee named Andy working in the same division as I was, although the incidents were not due to mistaken identity. Oddly enough, it's also not the first time I have been called Andy in my life. To date, I have been called Andy seven times by seven different people in completely separate environments. Maybe I should change my name.

It takes time to change people's perceptions. In the case of my mother's friends. I don't care enough to change it, since I usually don't see them very often and usually Mom corrects them anyway for me. However, in the case of my ex-coworkers, I told them time and time again that my name is Eric and not to attribute my work to Andy, which probably would have looked really bad on the performance reports if they had kept that up.

I still swear that those tables do not have the same surface area despite logic and geometry showing otherwise. That's part of the reason why I hate optical illusions. You can't trust your eyes.

Blog Topic 7: Perceptions

In class we talked about how mind bugs can alter our focus and lead us down the wrong path. We also realized that sometimes we use these mind bugs to our own advantage (such as when crafting our 2 truths and a lie) and sometimes these mind bugs led to errors. Did anything covered in class surprise you? How does these insights into human perceptual processes change your views of your own behavior, past and present? Have there been times in your life when your perceptions have led you astray? Or times when others perceptions of you have been erroneous and perhaps harmful to you? How do you deal with other's misperceptions of you? Do you still think those two tables did not have the same surface area?

Power

I don't think I'm at the level of being powerful yet. It's something that I still need to work on. I am very confident about myself and the decisions that I make. Often times, I try to empower others and bring out the best qualities in them. I don't force others to do anything that they don't want to do. I usually point out the positives and negatives and let people make their own decisions.

During the exercise that we did in class, I've learned that how we present ourselves to others can show how powerful we can be. So I need to be more aware of how I look and act in front of others. When it comes to exercising power, I don't want to be seen as a bossy person who commands others to get things done. I want to use compelling reasons to show why others should listen to my directions. I want others to voluntarily get things done my way because it's the right way, not because I told them to do so. To meet these power goals, I need to learn more about people's behaviors & motivations. Why are people acting certain way? What motivate them to do something? I want to be able to read people and influence them in a positive manner.

Power

I think that sometimes I am a powerful person. I can assign specific work to my subordinates and help them finish their work with the resources and knowledge I have at my job. I can also use different kinds of incentives to motivate my subordinates at work. I empower my workers by giving my workers great autonomy and sharing my knowledge of the work they are doing.

From this class, I learned how to show other people that I am powerful. I also know how use legitimate, reward, coercive, and information  power based on my working experience. However, I need to improve my skill of rational persuasion. Quite often I have some new business ideas, but I cannot persuade the managers that my ideas are feasible. To accomplish this goal, I will gather more information to support my arguments before sharing my business ideas with the managers, and I will also try to improve my logical thinking so that the managers can follow my arguments more easily.    

Power

I would have to say I am a powerful person when I want to be. I often like to see if the situation calls for me to be a powerful individual before I play that role. I don’t really hold any fear towards it but rather I feel that there is appropriate and inappropriate time. When I give my speeches and talks I have people come up to me telling me how deep and how it relates to their lives. I empower others through my own experiences and feelings. I look powerful on how confident and knowledgeable I am. I also like to be friendly and very sociable which is why I think people see me as being someone they can trust and believe in. The power I’d like to work on is the commanding one the type that you could use when no one is paying attention. I would like to achieve this by working with people who are a little bit more difficult to work with. I feel that this would put my skills to the test and help develop them in the areas that I want to work on.

BUS262 Team6: Blogging Topic 6: Power

I normally do not think of myself as a very powerful person. However, I do recognize that I have a lot of potential to be a very powerful and influential person. The little power that I do have right now I use to for a good purpose. People who know me will most likely describe me as someone that is always trying to help others. I think I empower others by sharing with them my work and overall life experiences.

During our recent Leadership classes, I learned a lot about power. I learned how to appear powerful and how to effectively exercise power. It was very interesting to learn that a person’s appearance can reflect power. Now, I am more alert of how I am presenting myself to others in order to look more powerful.

I would like to exercise power in a manner that is inspirational and compelling. Some of the ways that I will practice this kind of power is through increasing my confidence level and through being more assertive. I will also develop strong relationships with people in order for people to follow my leadership and power.

Power

Personally, I don't think I am a powerful person. While I would like to be someone who can empower others, I don't believe I'm at that level of influence yet. In class, we talked about different types of position and personal power. As somebody who adheres to the saying "knowledge is power," the most prominent type of power that I use and exert is information power and rational persuasion.

In the future, I would like to learn how to use charisma. While this is often a trait that is seen as innate, it can be developed. To meet this goal, I need to be more active, to speak my mind more often, and overall become a more positive person. In order to rub off enthusiasm, the leader must be enthusiastic as well. Because I'm the type of person that remains in the background, I need to push and pressure myself to be more assertive, but at the same time know when it is proper to use power and when I should back off.

Blogging Topic 6: Power

Do you think about yourself as a powerful person? Do you think of yourself as someone who empowers others? We talked about how to be powerful, how to look powerful, and how to exercise power over the past few weeks...and many of you will be graduating in a couple of months...what kind of power do you feel ready to exert and what kinds of power would you like to cultivate? How are going you to meet these power goals?

Conflict and Negotiation

I thought that I was doing just OK in the negotiation. It was true that my score was OK, but many other students had higher scores. Also, I was not surprised to see that my partner's score was only half of mine because my partner compromised in many areas.

In most part of the negotiation, I was quite tough. I started high and kept on pressing my partner to accept the offers I gave him. When the partner was persistent in a specific area in the negotiation, I tried to compromise a little bit to accommodate my partner's demand while not losing too much ground. I preconceived that my partner would be weak as a recruitee in the negotiation because he would not walk away easily.   

I don't think that my performance in the negotiation reflects my general approach to conflicts. I often compromise in conflicts and will avoid conflicts if possible. I always care about other people's need and feelings, and I often try to reach agreements that will benefit all parties in conflicts.

From the negotiation, I leaned that I can be more aggressive as a leader. I can use press others to accept conditions that they don't like using my influence, instead of always compromising in conflicts.