Are you living on the edge?

Don’t push me ‘cos I’m close to the edge; I’m trying not to lose my head” goes a memorable line from the hip hop classic, “The Message”, released by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1982. The lyrics provide a social commentary on the stresses of inner-city life in New York at the time. Forty years on, the line still provides helpful insight into the human condition.

Why do so many of us spend our lives close to the edge? 

We all regularly encounter people who seem wired most of the time. This frame of mind often results in jumping to the wrong conclusions and poor decision making. Or, to put it more kindly, actions based on beliefs that are not grounded in sound data and thoughtful analysis.

This reasoning was explained by the late Chris Argyris, the business theorist and Harvard Business School professor who died in 2013.

Argyris likened human decision making to ascending a small ladder, the “Ladder of Inference”, which takes us on a climb from observations to actions and examines what happens in between. Cogent Content’s version looks like this.

In summary, we are all inclined to make decisions based on what we believe to be true. These beliefs are based on the conclusions that we’ve drawn. Sometimes these conclusions are based on assumptions built entirely on a set of meanings that came about because we chose information that was framed by preconceived ideas. 

The world is awash with data, and the availability of that data accelerates all the time. The Internet placed rocket boosters under this trend. We have now reached a situation where we can create our own truth based on information sourced from our personal social media echo chamber.

To make matters worse, every time we climb the ladder of inference, our beliefs harden.  This influences the data we select next time we are called on to make an important choice, 

We all spend far too much time on the top rung of the ladder. It’s time to slow down, descend, and revisit the available data.

Here’s an example from industry. Some years ago, I was present during a board room conversation about poor production figures in a pizza factory. The customer, a well-known high street retailer, was getting jumpy about empty shelves. A visit to the factory floor quickly identified the problem. The operators were doing their best to work around some yellow warning signs.  The signs signalled a greasy oil slick on the floor on the supply route to the production line. This slowed throughput and resulted in shortages, but there was a good deal more to the story than that.

“Why don’t they simply clean up the bloody mess!” yelled an irate product manager as another batch of tomato sauce slopped onto the floor thanks to an operator awkwardly manoeuvring around the cones.

A harassed looking team leader hovered in the background. “Why hasn’t it been cleared up?” I asked quietly. “We have; umpteen times”, she replied. “The cleaning crew are hopeless. I imagine that they’re hiding in the canteen as usual”.

I left the charged atmosphere behind and went in search of the cleaning crew boss. I found him in the canteen, drinking a cup of coffee.

“I suppose you’ve come to see me about the mess on the floor near the pizza line?” he observed wearily. “Why? I’ve had a team on it for the last week, before and after every single shift.  But the pool keeps forming. There’s oil coming through the ceiling. The engineers were up there all night. They’re useless!”

I left him to his coffee and went in search of the engineering manager. “About the oil leak above the pizza line…” I began.

“I guessed that when I saw you coming up the stairs “, she retorted. “We only ever see you when there’s trouble. We had a team up in the roof last night; and the night before that. We’ve replaced a faulty oil seal five times, but every time we change it, it leaks within hours of the line restarting. Why? Well, I thought there was something wrong when they changed suppliers. The old oil seals were black. The new ones are green, but that lot upstairs insist that it’s the same specification. I just don’t think these new seals are up to the job”.

My next stop was the purchasing manager. “I gather we’re obtaining some of our spare parts from a new source”, I began. “Absolutely”, he replied. “Here’s Why. We get a great deal with the new supplier. It keeps the bean counters in the finance team off my back, and we’ve got enough stock to keep us going for the next six months”, he added.

“Thanks for telling me that, but I wouldn’t count on it”, I said, closing his door behind me and making a mental note to fix a meeting with the Chief Financial Officer. A conversation about cost versus quality was needed.

My journey down the ladder of inference took me from the board room to the factory floor and back again. I’d met a lot of stressed-out people on the way, but at least I’d discovered the real cause of the oil spill.

The “5 whys” is a valuable technique to ensure that a root cause of a problem is identified. Find a way of tactfully asking the question “why?” several times. The approach was introduced into the Toyota Motor Company in the 1950s. Its creator, Taiichi Ohno, established the technique as the basis of Toyota’s scientific approach to troubleshooting.

Here at Cogent Content, we use the technique to help clients find their story.

If you feel that you are spending too much of your time close to the edge, get in touch. We can help you get down the ladder of inference - without losing your head.

References:

 1. Argyris, C. (1990) Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning. Pearson.