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April 05, 2006
Microinequities
I had the oppertunity to attend a presentation entitled "Microinequities: The Power of Small" recently. The presenter, Steve Young, is a very dynamic personality who kept the crowd entertained throughout a potentially dry subject matter. I only fell asleep twice in the 5 hours. Both for brief flickers of time (about 40 seconds).
The base premise of the talk was really how to help employee motivation and communication. The catch on this talk was to note the unconcious messages sent while talking to others, and how they are perceived by the receiving party. The short example used in the lecture was "I didn't say she stole the book." If you were to say this same sentence multiple times, you could change the meaning by altering where the emphasis is placed. This really just reminded me of the classic "how many ways you can say Dude" (unfortunately I can't find a link anywhere).
A little later the discussion moved towards filters, and how each person has their own set of filters that are instituted without realizing it. The problem of course becomes how to reset the filter, so that an employee no longer feels a manager is "out to get them" and return to productively working together. The examples used in this section reminded me of the hunting safety course I was required to take before acquiring my license. In that class they played a video for us, our goal was to count the number of deer in the scene. The question immediatley followed was, who saw the other hunters? Playback showed a bright orange hunter near each deer that no one really noticed. That was our filter.
What are some of these gestures? Using a case of flirting, we were given an example of flirting from a distance. When the recipient was asked to explain how she knew it was flirting, she couldn't. Similar scenarios were played out for introductions, normal communications, and passdown scenarios. They even used a case of having your dog smile, as a means to explain how you knew this.
Finally the discussion moved towards, how do you talk about these issues? How do you discuss with your manager or employee that they are sending you these negative vibes without sounding like a complete dork. A difficult task by any means.
The one point throughout the discussion that I consistently disagreed with was manners. Everything being discussed seemed like a huge case for keeping your manners in top form at all times. Steve addressed this briefly, stating manners is just the tip of the bubble, but I really disagree on that point.
As far as a presentation, it's worth checking out. It seems he does this talk at many different companies, and possibly universities. Check it out if you get a chance. At the very least, it's always good to watch an amazing speaker keep an entire crowds attention.
You can read more about this work at Diversity At Work.
Posted by Dan at April 5, 2006 06:14 PM