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When I studied decision-making in college, the thinking was linear. Stimulus A caused response B. I wonder, if have we have learned much since then… My undergraduate psychology classes were at Hamilton College, the alma mater of B.F. Skinner, a leader of behaviorism.
My graduate classes in developmental psychobiology were at Dartmouth College, the alma mater of Dr. Seuss and countless global leaders of business and industry.
Recently I read about neural clusters in our brains. Imagine several constellations or galaxies of brainwave activity. Both chemical and electrical activity. Like constellations or galaxies in the solar systems. Now imagine that these neural clusters are both elastic and dynamic. In other words, when we reinforce certain pathways or patterns (called functionalism) then we strengthen neuronal pathways. And when we learn new knowledge (like a foreign language or an insight) then we strengthen the neural constellation so that it can sort through the past memories (called schemas) to create some new sorting system (called data.) We know that some 60% of our behavior is patterned responses, monitored in the basal ganglia. And we know that most new knowledge causes stress.
No wonder humans resist change. Change, defined as any external new stimulus, forces us to re-sort data. Change requires the brain to work in new ways. The larger the organization, the more we resist change.
When faced with decision making options we often think of risk taking vs. risk avoidance. As if the world were so linear… My masters research on risk-taking behavior found that risk-taking is complex, like so many other human behaviors.
What if, instead, we adopted a non-linear view of decision making?
My revised model (of the moment, subject to change) looks something like this:
I wrote this book in 2007 when preparing for a relocation. Yesterday I re-read chapter 1. It provoked me, and it should provoke you.
Here you go:
Passionate Action, Chapter 1
To order the full book, go to https://actionlearnin.wpengine.com/main/page_products_products.php
Please forward this chapter to anyone who may need to be provoked!
Recently a client was struggling with two related issues: 1. How much to pay his employees and subcontractors, and 2. How to manage his accountant who regularly arrived late for scheduled meetings.
I suggested that he should bill the accountant at least $1.00 per minute that he is late.
“Huh?” He asked.
Then I reached into a day timer and showed him the following image. (I tried to find a better image online but was not successful.)
The column headings are Salary year/ Salary week/ Benefits= 40% Total salary/ Total week/ Value per hour/ and Value per minute.
For instance, if your salary per year is $70,000, your Salary per week is $$1,346, your Benefits are $538, your total week is $1,885, your Value per hour is $47.00 and your value per minute is $0.79.
So why wouldn’t you charge the accountant at least $1.00/ minute for being late? His tardiness is 1) expensive and 2) unprofessional. I urged him to charge a retroactive late fee. And I referred him to other accountants.
The second question is more complex. How much should you pay employees and subcontractors? The market response is “as little as possible, according to their value.” That is why we pay minimum wages and low salaries for remedial work.
For most business leaders, we are slow to pay others for remedial work.
The best business leaders, however, ALWAYS delegate low paying tasks to others. And they refuse to do remedial work.
Back to my client. I asked him, “So, what do you think your time is worth?”
He said, “At least $70,000/ year.”
I said, “OK then, why aren’t you excited about the opportunity to pay others $10-24.00 per hour to do work for you?”
And that, of course, led to a deep conversation about self-worth and the need to delegate low paying tasks to others.
So, what is your time worth?
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