“To err is human; to forgive, divine” isn’t it?
The dichotomy of rational thinking and emotion in organisational culture – part one
In 1711, the English poet Alexander Pope claimed, “To err is human; to forgive, divine” about human nature and how he perceived it. In short, we have thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and we can forgive. Fast forward a few hundred years here in post-COVID-19 New Zealand, and the Jacinda Ardern phrases like “be kind” and books on ‘empathy’ are fresh in people’s minds. The former Prime Minister recently released her new book, ‘A Different Kind of Power,’ which provides memoirs and insights into her leadership. This has many talking points on organisational culture to be visited and reviewed in the future; however, in this blog post, I wanted to focus on rational thinking and emotions.
The Delicate Balance: Emotion vs. Logic in Organisational Culture
The debate on logical and emotional thinking in organisational culture is fascinating. On one hand, emotion plays a crucial role in fostering a positive work environment, building strong relationships, and inspiring motivation and creativity. Emotional intelligence can be viewed as key to effective leadership, teamwork, and communication. It helps in understanding and addressing employees' needs, resolving conflicts, and creating a sense of belonging and commitment. On the other hand, logic and rational thinking are essential for making clear, data-driven decisions that promote efficiency, consistency, and rational problem-solving. It helps in setting measurable goals, tracking performance, and making strategic plans based on factual analysis.
Is it that simple - dial-up emotion or rational thinking to improve the organisation culture?
With the vision of Culture 360 in mind and our approach, I want to explore this topic from every angle. Look at different views, perspectives, and lenses. Firstly, we will straw man the argument for emotional thinking, then steelman the argument for thinking logically and rationally. Following that, we will flip the argument and reinforce the need for EQ and emotions and critique logical thinking. Because this is a wide topic, there will be several parts to this blog, so please read on, enjoy, and question as you go!
Emotions and Feelings – What is the difference?
There is a growing trend in the literature and its application in emotions at present, and could be in vogue, other guises, such as gut feeling and EQ, are often used in several articles I have recently read. Generally, there is a focus on letting emotions and feelings guide the teams, workplaces, and organisations with their culture. There are some subtle differences between emotions and feelings; they are closely related, but they serve different roles in how we experience the world.
Emotions – This is more of an umbrella term; they are automatic, biological responses triggered by stimuli, like fear when startled or joy when receiving good news. They are universal, short-lived, and often come with physical reactions such as increased heart rate or blushing.
Feelings - On the other hand, are the personal or subjective interpretations of emotions. They develop as we process and reflect on our experiences, making them more subjective and long-lasting. For example, the emotion of fear might evolve into a feeling of anxiety over time if you continue to dwell on a frightening experience. Essentially, emotions happen first, and feelings arise because of how we interpret them.
This debate is a dichotomy that starts in the human brain; it is grounded in psychology and the processes of our grey matter. It plays out in our behaviours, then influences our cultures, our societies, our politics, and beyond…
The Psychology Bit – Our Brains!
You may remember the previous blog post the Chimp Paradox The Chimp Paradox: Your Inner Chimp and Your Culture — The Culture Room this fits nicely here – Dr Steve Peters noted from his sports psychiatrist lens, that our brains can lie to us and we are being “hijacked by our chimps” (the limbic centre of the brain). The chimp has its drives and values, which essentially can play out in our behaviours. In the parietal part of our brain (the computer) negative experiences and memories also taint our thoughts from the past, the human brain is like Teflon for good experiences and Velcro for bad and this can keep us alive at times! Our negative experiences can weigh heavier on us, essentially, this is why negative news stories make the headlines on the national news because we gravitate to them. Essentially as people, we want to be loved and avoid being hurt (physically, mentally, emotionally) and the chimp (the limbic part of our brain) wants to keep us alive by avoiding threats and meeting its own needs too – the troop (safety), food, shelter, sex and so on. This is where the focus on EQ as a driver in culture starts, we are weighted toward acting out of emotion because of the limbic centre and our chimp's needs, but is that a good thing?
The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters
Are You Your Thoughts, Emotions, and Feelings?
Dr Sam Harris, from his neuroscientist angle, observed in several of his podcasts and books, “You are not your thoughts and feelings,” “they creep up on you…where do thoughts come from and where do they go to?” “the thoughts come up from behind you and they seem to be you”,” Are you the thinker of your thoughts or the observer?.” Why You Are Not Your Thoughts - Sam Harris. Harris, on his ‘Waking Up’ podcast (and popular phone app) goes on to advocate for practicing meditation and mindfulness as a useful tool, to step back and observe your thoughts come and go like passing clouds, try to lean in and understand where those thoughts came from and where they went to? Where do your thoughts and feelings come from…are they you?
Many of you will be familiar with Anthony Robbins of movie fame in Shallow Hal opposite Jack Black and the Netflix documentary ‘I Am Not Your Guru.’ Robbins leans into this subject in one of his many life advice podcasts and interviews stating, “Your experiences create your emotions.” Fundamentally, your emotions are in a state of flux, depending on stimuli, your current mental state, your personality traits, your current environment, your upbringing, your beliefs, and your values. We will visit beliefs regulating emotion in the next part of this series. As we stated above, you then attribute these emotions to feelings because of the experiences you have had.
Robbin’s once mentor, the late and great Jim Rohn covered this in a business leadership podcast, he covered the uses and issues with emotions in your life Emotions - Jim Rohn “Your emotions can run away with you…imagine being able to base actions on logic and reason rather than fear or anger”. You could go as far as to state that some people will be at the whim of moment to moment, emotion to emotion. Emotions and feelings are subjective, so should we base organisational culture solely on them?
Susan David in her article Recognizing Your Emotions as Data, Not Directives advises us to see emotions as data, not directives.
“Your feelings reflect your emotional response to the world. However, it’s important not to confuse your feelings with reality itself, or to let them dictate your actions. This is what I mean when I encourage people to see their emotions as data, not directives. Think of them as one data point among many to consider as you move forward.”
Fizzy Drinks, Emotions, and Teaching
When I was a teacher in England, I remember an exercise the teachers completed in a workshop that demonstrated a student’s daily life. Teachers were asked to stand in a line and each shook the same bottle of 2-litre fizzy drink and read out a statement to the audience which demonstrated the daily life of a student, for example, “I missed the bus today and was late for college”, “I argued with my mum today”, “I lost my bag”, “I didn’t sleep well last night as my sibling was sick”. It was akin to shaking a bottle of fizzy drink every time you have a thought or a negative feeling. After about 2-3 minutes of this, they opened the drink bottle, and obviously, there was a sugary beverage everywhere! The point being made was that even before the student arrived in your class, the touchpoints they had met along the way would have moulded their experience and therefore their emotions and feelings. It will have had them in a certain mental state, which affected their mood, motivation, and engagement to be in class that day. In short, their headspace was not good, and their emotions may be all over the place. This made for a fun time for the teacher when dealing with 20-30 students. To echo a counsellor friend of mine on this subject, “You never know what’s going on for people in the background,” so it always pays to approach rationally, and objectively, and understand before moving into action.
The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Adam Grant (Professor at the University of Pennsylvania) specialises in organisational psychology, and he drilled down into the dark side of EQ.
“Mental health is not about being happy all the time. It is about learning to handle the full range of emotions. It is normal to feel grief after loss, anger at injustice, and fear of danger. Resilience lies in putting our feelings in perspective instead of letting them define us.”
He goes on to explain the darker, more insidious side of emotional intelligence. The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence | by Adam Grant | Medium
A summary of those key points and other research:
Industries and Professions - It is dependent on your industry and profession, the military, law, academia, or high-performance sport, is not always receptive to emotions at critical moments, as it relates to high-pressure environments, it is rational thinking, fine margins, results-driven, where emotions can cloud judgments. In some instances, i.e., the military it can lead to catastrophic results.
Manipulation – Cicero (Roman emperor 106- 43 BC) believed emotion was the key to persuasion – The Lex Fridman Podcast with guest Gregory Aldrete explained Roman's and Emotions . Fundamentally, this shows that emotions can be used for manipulation and have been for thousands of years. In more recent history, Grant alluded to this on another pivotal moment with Dr Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream” as a play on emotions.
Entertainment and the Silver Screen - Think about movies on the ‘silver screen’ at the cinema, the emotional scenes, are you being moulded and manipulated by the director, actors, the script, the music, the scene? Your limbic centre is being hijacked, and it may even relate to past experiences in your own life. The Rocky movies are built upon US bravado, good vs evil (a pesky Russian Ivan Drago or Mr T as Clubber Lang), and pumping up audiences to the tune of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor. Similarly, the Spielberg movie Jaws used sound effects and a music loop to pre-empt the shark attacking some unaware swimmer in the sea. This was used to manipulate your emotions and feelings, i.e., anxiety, fear, and suspense in relation to the movie experience. How Movies Masterfully Manipulate Emotions?
Diversity - Some people are more emotional than others, which is a nod to personality traits. on average, females are more emotional than males, women are generally more interested in people, and men are more interested in things (gadgets et al). However, we do see the norms change, more feminine males and more masculine females across genders. Therefore, females are more likely to gravitate towards how something feels, i.e. emotions in the workplace or teams.
Limbic Centre - To take Hugh Laurie’s character Dr House and his phrase one step further from “Everybody lies” to everyone’s emotions, can lie to them. It relates to an earlier blog article with Dr. Steve Peters’ research and his book The Chimp Paradox, which focuses on the limbic centre of the brain and our behaviours. It is important to lean in, recognise what is going on for you, identify why, and act accordingly.
Personalities - Some people are not emotional beings at all, and that is fine; it can be due to personality traits, upbringing, or sometimes a condition. It is a diverse spectrum; others are overly emotional, and it can become a distraction, especially in team situations or office environments. We’ve all encountered the person talking about their personal lives or the weekend for the first twenty minutes of each day, sometimes disrupting the open-plan office.
Tough times, tough people - Specific groups may not show emotion, this can be generational, societal, cultural, or straight-out suppression. Think about your grandparents or stories of great-grandparents during oppression, hardship, and wartime. There is an argument here that these groups of people were far more stoic than later generations and a product of their environment. As stated by Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”
Political Trends - the pendulum swings and it's akin to political approaches and views, predominantly the political groups on the left of centre are generally associated with being more attuned to emotion, and people with the right of centre are attributed to self-responsibility and fiscal responsibility. Most recently in the US with Donald J Trump and here in New Zealand with Christopher Luxon we have seen conservative (National) and republican governments voted into power who have then focused on austerity measures and fiscal changes, leading to redundancies.
Fluid Beliefs & Emotions —Beliefs, be they religious, political, or sports-related—can be in a state of flux. I am sure you can identify people who have either found religion or opted out of it, changed their political votes, or given up on their sports team. Emotions are similar, and we move from one overriding emotion to the next depending on the stimuli, environment, context, or our conditioning.
Diverse Emotional Interpretations - What one person calls happiness may feel like relief or contentment to another, highlighting our emotional diversity. Some people have less of a tolerance for anxiety or stress compared to others. One situation may make one person feel safe and another unsafe.
Contradictory Behaviours - Even when logic reveals harmful behaviours, like smoking, impulsive decisions, and a lack of control, can still prevail. Example: A smoker, fully aware of the risks, might still indulge due to momentary impulses. Why? Our rational brain tells us it's destructive to our bodies, but we still choose to do it (like many other vices) …our limbic centre has seized control, seeking another hit.
Are Emotions in Organisational Culture Helpful or Harmful? Examining Their True Effect
Roles and Responsibilities - Managers and leaders have come to me in the past and have had a conversation about their roles and responsibilities extending beyond work. Example: an employee who was having a tough time in their personal lives and was extremely emotional at work about it. The managers then took it upon themselves to check on this employee outside of work time to make sure they were okay. While this is admirable, the question is, where does your managerial or leadership responsibility start and end? Secondly, what responsibility does the employee or team member have when managing their own emotions and behaviours? It is important to consider whether managing our emotions is solely our responsibility or a shared effort among our communities.
Limits of Emotional Focus - While validation is beneficial, an overemphasis on constant emotional support can lead to dependency and reduced personal growth. Example: A workplace that continually seeks external praise may eventually see diminishing returns in employee motivation. Where do the benefits start and end when validating emotions in a team or the workplace? What is the right amount?
Emotions in Culture - Having witnessed some organisational culture resources focused on emotions and having used them within teams and national structures has opened some robust conversations. Example: An employee may identify, for example, I want to feel ‘happy’ or ‘embraced’ or ‘supported’ and they do not want to feel ‘judged,’ ‘controlled’ or ‘impatient.’ Given Grant’s article above, is it achievable to feel or not feel all these emotions…certainly not all the time. We should be feeling a range of emotions and be able to lean in, recognise, understand, and manage them when they arise. This takes time and training to master. We should see emotions as data and not directives all the time (Susan David). Seek to recognise and understand rather than react. Having said that, I think we all recognise that safety is a number one priority in most roles, be it physical, psychological, or emotional. As discussed above, there are industries where this does not happen because of the specific role or environment, and while it is mitigated, it is not always guaranteed. I do enjoy these resources and the conversations they facilitate but view them as part of a wider puzzle than solely the tool to evolve a whole cultural model.
My Experiences in Workshops - From my own experiences, if this is agreed upon in a formalized culture workshop between leaders and staff/teams, but is not followed, there can, and have, been repercussions with staff using the lack of agreed-upon emotions or behaviours as evidence to push back on leadership. This fuels the debate of whether this encourages a healthy environment, with teams or staff taking accountability and managing upwards, or if this contributes to conflict and undermines those in charge. If a manager or leader facilitates these workshops rather than 1) an independent specialist, 2) is not trained or endorsed, or 3) is not genuine and accountable, then the culture built will be compromised at some stage in its evolution.
Think of your own experiences as a leader, manager, staff member, or team member. Can you relate to any of these points or scenarios in your previous or current positions or environments?
To summarise, this blog article focused on critiquing emotions in organisational culture, i.e., straw-manning the approach as a first step of a Culture 360 review. This series of articles will continue with the next one, making a case for being more rational and logical in organisational culture, then turning its attention to the need for increased EQ and steel manning this perspective.