Zivit Inbar

The Coronavirus (CODVID-19) that is currently impacting the national and global economies is certainly having a significant negative effect on the confidence and optimism of SMEs and business managers said DifferenThinking CEO Dr Zivit Inbar. However, it is only the latest of an ongoing stream of negativity that inundates business world daily with messages of fear!

Commenting further, Dr Inbar said fear is not good for us, our teams or businesses as it could potentially kill a commercial enterprise!

“In order to successfully overcome these challenges, business owners and executives must keep optimistic and build an organisational culture that is based on resilience and optimism”, affirmed Dr Inbar.

“In fact, leaders must add these important core skills to their personal tools”.

Fear is a chain of reactions in the brain that eventually causes our body to go into a ‘flight-or-fight’ mode as a response to the stress.  When we experience fear and stress, one of the cognitive biases we prone to have is the Pessimism Bias.

Pessimism bias is when we see things as worse than what they actually are and/or when we exaggerate the likelihood that negative things will happen to us.

The pessimism bias affects our emotions, judgement, decisions and behaviours.

Dr Inbar continued, “Naturally, we behave differently when we are in stress, bad mood and feel insecure than when we are happy and optimistic.  The problem is that moods and pessimism are contagious, especially when they are presented by the leader who sends a message of being out of control”.

“There is evidence that pessimism is a product of social interactions and experience and spreads across companies very fast.  With lack of communication, team members tend to make their own interpretation of what’s going on and from there the road to reduction in productivity and increase in employee turnover is quick as a lighting”.

In her courses, presentations and workshops, Dr Inbar stresses that leaders are human beings and it’s natural to feel fear and uncertainty at times; we all have moods… This is why it is so important to build a culture of optimism and positive thinking that will balance and help us in bouncing back during difficult times as is being experienced at present as the result of the Coronavirus.

“While we tend to think about optimism as an individual trait, it can also be considered as a characteristic of the organisational culture”, said Dr Inbar.

“When teaching leaders interviewing skills, I always start with the concept of ‘lemons’. ‘Lemons’ for me are those that are constantly pessimistic, bitter, complaining, speak only about problems – never bring solutions and often spend lots of time gossiping around the office. ‘Lemons’ are contagious and if you think that you can make lemonade out of them- think again!

“It is most likely that they will influence the team and culture than that they will change their nature and become positive thinkers.  Admittedly, positive thinking and optimism can be learnt, but you cannot force people into acquiring new soft skills – it needs to derive from them”.

For the individual, optimism is the characteristic in the basis of positive thinking.  For organisations, having a culture that is based on optimism is a powerful indicator for business success.

Optimism culture means that individuals have a positive attitude towards the future of the company and their employment, which leads to high productivity. Optimism is also associated with high levels of career planning, achieving career goals and developing resilience- the capacity to bounce back in the face of adversity.

Dr Inbar offers the following tips for developing a culture of optimism:

• Communication – develop open, transparent and positive communication across the company.  Team members need to know what is happening in the business – the good and the bad.  However, while there are always risks and threats, do not focus only on what’s going wrong.  Include messages about stability and show that you and the leadership team are in control; there is a plan to tackle the issue, it is just another natural bump on the way.
• Innovation – develop an innovation culture by encouraging every team member (regardless of role and seniority) to come up with initiatives to improve processes, products and services and allow team members to try new ideas (even if they ‘fail’).  Reward both failure and success, as they are crucial for learning.
• Learning – shift the focus from failure vs. success to an ongoing learning organisation.  Implement project reflections and retrospectives to learn what the team have done well and what the team needs to do differently next time.  There are methods you can use that focus the discussion on future learning; short sessions of up to 15-30 minutes.
• High-Performing teams – shift the focus from hiring individuals that know how to perform certain technical tasks to building teams of people that complement each other (both hard and soft skills).  Reward teamwork and collaboration, rather than individual KPIs.
  Complement leadership – surround yourself with leaders that complement your knowledge and soft skills and balance your emotions and cognitive biases.
• Celebrate success – shift the focus from what is going wrong to acknowledging success and how you and the team got there.

The post Re-energising business optimism will be the major challenge post Coronavirus appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Zivit Inbar

Shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers and stakeholders have grown weary of seeing scandalous headlines condemning large businesses and institutions as they lurch from one crisis to another. From a royal commission about child sexual abuse, to misconduct in the financial sector, age care quality and safety, exploitation of disabled people and so on and on….

Why do organisations need to have fires and Royal Commissions in order to understand that there is a problem?

What is it that leads executives and workers alike down a destructive path of bad behaviour and notoriety that destroys businesses, financial wellbeing, shareholder value and reputations in the process?

The answer is an appreciation regarding the neuro-processes of leadership decision making.

Decision making is difficult! Especially when the outcomes are far into the future and it is hard to calculate what would have happened had a different decision been made.

All decisions are affected by inherent biases of the individuals and teams involved in making them. We are all biased…it’s how our brain is wired!

Our thinking process is performed using two systems:

1. the automatic thinking (system 1) – fast, automatic and effortless; and
2. the systematic (system 2) – the slow, controlled, rule based, effortful process.

When a new skill is being learned, system 2 is being applied. By practicing the skill and becoming proficient, we transition to using system 1.

For example, when driving an unfamiliar road, we are usually using system 2. This is also why so many car accidents happen near home (when we are driving the same way every day we are using system 1).

Yesterday in an interview, one of the fire fighters combatting the bushfire disasters mentioned that they had so many practices and drills over the years, that when the fire near his hometown erupted, they all acted fast as if on ‘auto pilot’.

That is the power of using system 1.

System 1 is based on the heuristic thoughts, our biases. Using this system saves us time and energy. Using system 2 all the time is simply not feasible.

The problem within organisations arises when senior executives and staff are using system 1 instead of system 2 for making important decisions.

Adding to this complexity is that we are often unaware which system we are using at a certain time. So, we find ourselves believing that we are using system 2, while actually we are basing our decisions on our inherent biases.

We cannot see through our neuro-processes and sometimes make decisions without knowing what actually lead to them…what influenced us.

There are over 175 biases and each affects us differently. Some explain more than others the failures in decision making at management, board and policy making levels.

For example: WYSIATI is when our brain convinces us that What we (You) See Is All There Is.

This means that we are convinced that there is no need to look for further information and hence make decisions based on current knowledge, which causes us to consult with people who think like us, look for the information that supports our beliefs and ignore contradicting information and opinions.

The good news is that there are diagnostic tools that can help decision makers in business understand the inherent biases that they tend to use individually and as a team and learn how to design decision-making environments that mitigates these biases. The diagnostic tools are based on Decision Science, which is a relatively new field combining behavioural economics, psychology and neuroscience.

In short, it could be the solution for those organisations seeking to ensure 2020 is not another year of lost productivity, goodwill and value. Executives, teams and employees should be proactive and learn how to design a decision-making environment that shields from these biases and facilitates better decision-making outcomes and results.

By Dr Zivit Inbar, CEO 

The post Why do organisations need a crisis to understand they have a problem? appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Zivit Inbar

The message that ethical behaviour and making decisions based on what is best in the long-term for an organisation’s reputation, financial welfare and sustainability is getting through said Dr Zivit Inbar founder and CEO of DifferenThinking a boutique consulting firm specialising in strategic people, culture, ethics, leadership and performance services.

Commenting further Dr Inbar said recent high-profile cases of unethical behaviour together with changes in community expectations makes every business vulnerable and it jeopardises their financial viability when they are exposed.  This means that culture, ethics, innovation and decision making – the core pillars of leadership are more important than ever.

As a general observation, people and businesses are not unethical – however, problems arise if ethical behaviour is not ingrained in an organisation’s DNA and decisions made at all levels are unable to ask the fundamental questions ‘what is the right thing to do and by whom’ affirmed Dr Inbar.

“Companies love to extol the merits of their corporate culture and virtuousness of managers and staff that are collectively dedicated to maximising shareholder returns, the environment, inclusiveness, equality, etc.”, said Dr Inbar.

“But the word ‘ethics’ is very different with a far deeper meaning and implications.  Even a business that adheres steadfastly to the rule of law can still be operating unethically”.

Warren Buffett once said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”.

Dr Inbar continued, “Once unethical practices and behaviours are exposed and trust is lost – the momentum of the irrevocably damaged reputation accelerates the decline and ultimate destruction of the business”.

“This very sobering realisation is why organisations can no longer rely on the mantra that ‘this is how we do things here’ as a shield or excuse for unethical behaviour.  They need to keep improving from within and the key to strengthening processes and behaviour can only come from the top”.

Hence the primary theme and purpose of DifferenThinking workshops ‘Culture Ethics & Innovation – are led from the top’ that provide practical tools for managers to develop ethic-first cultures within their businesses.

These tools, coupled with Dr Inbar’s own research about the role of boards in corporate ethics, provide a unique resource and service for the business community.

Dr Inbar concluded, “It is heartening to observe that business leaders in growing numbers appreciate that a reputation for ethical behaviour builds trust both internally and externally with organisation’s stakeholders who rely on the business to conduct itself ethically in all dealings.

“I’m also confident DifferenThinking workshops and programs will continue to be supported by organisations keen to reduce risks and empower their human capital”.

The post Ethics is good for business – at last the message is getting through appeared first on AdviserVoice.