Better Think Tanking #4
Better Think Tanking #4
New year, same vision, more conversation
“Our vision is that by 2030, promotions to leadership positions in think tanks are as much based on people’s subject matter expertise as they are on their track-record in advancing their field with regards to a professional culture that’s dedicated to organizational development and honors the principles of diversity, progress and inclusion.”
Thanks for the interest, support and feedback we’ve received from you in 2020. We welcomed the new year reminding ourselves of our vision and how we want to honor it in 2021. Expanding the circle of perspectives and topics and creating spaces to involve many more of you in much-needed conversations on leadership, talent and organizational culture in the think tank and non-profit sectors. Stay tuned! But for now: off to our first content in this new year.
Strong Opinions Loosely Held - The Worst Idea In Think Tanking?
The think tank business thrives on ideas. But how do you feel about the discussion culture? Who dominates debates and which ideas persist? The best? Or the loudest? If you, like us, see a tendency to glorify a certain type of overconfidence, we may have found an explanation from Silicon Valley:
“The idea of strong opinions, loosely held is that you can make bombastic statements, and everyone should implicitly assume that you’ll happily change your mind in a heartbeat if new data suggests you are wrong. It is supposed to lead to a collegial, competitive environment in which ideas get a vigorous defense, the best of them survive, and no-one gets their feelings hurt in the process.”
The catch? This only works in small, like-minded teams with very little power differences, as Michael Natkin explains. Everywhere else, the loudest, most confident person states their case with certainty. Other people assume they really know best, or don’t want to risk public criticism and shame - especially if the loudmouth is senior or there is another power differential.
If someone does push back, Toxic Certainty Syndrome kicks in. The original speaker doesn’t hold their opinion as loosely as they think but will look for evidence that confirms it and try to reject contradictions - a natural tendency to want to win arguments and be the smartest person in the room.
“Diverse members of your team may be less likely to have experienced the collegial, open debate environment, and may feel uncertain of their position. This means you might not hear their ideas. Given the extensive research that shows diverse teams make smarter decisions, this is tragic.”
Here’s what Natkin suggests to do instead:
Add a degree of uncertainty to your statements, for example: “I’m 90% sure that (…).” This allows your ego to update your beliefs more easily and say “You make a good point. Now I’m only 60% sure”, in addition to a range of other benefits for your team.
When someone else makes an absolute statement, just say “It sounds like you are 100% sure of that, is that right?” This way, you get people to assess their level of conviction, sharpen their thinking and open up a nuanced conversation.
How do we know this will improve your ideas business? The author is 80% sure it’s helping, and we’re 99% sure it’s worth a shot.
A Tale of Samurais: Leadership and Self-Sacrifice
“People tend to think that the biggest deciding factor in their career is their talent or skill, but I don’t believe that. The way you process risk and handle fear has more impact on what kind of career you have than any other single factor.“
The further you progress professionally, the more you are held accountable for potential failure - and the less control you have over all the details that could go wrong. Eventually, you will be called on to answer for some disappointment or mistake, explains Marianne Bellotti. According to her, everybody has to sort out their relationship with fear, resulting in two types of leaders:
The Samurai, who embrace death. They see their role as protecting and empowering the people below them who do the real work. For them, it’s an honor to serve the team’s interests even if things do not go well for them personally.
Those that fear death and try to outrun it by avoiding responsibility or spinning the situation so that it is not their fault, putting the blame on colleagues - let’s call them peacocks.
If you had Samurai at all levels of your organization, they would grant colleagues the freedom to fail and learn, while admitting their own failures and taking on the challenge to constantly improve. But too often, the peacocks end up at the top.
Berlotti explains why: Fearing responsibility, they are in a constant state of anxiety. To avoid failure spiraling out of control, they try to outrun death by accumulating as much prestige as possible in form of titles, project value, salary, team size and power. Spending all their time trying to look busy and saving face by scapegoating others, peacocks climb the ladder as fast as possible without having the actual skills.
Samurai tend to have slower career progressions because they take satisfaction from their actual jobs and focus on building the skills that will make them better before hurrying to the top.
Your choice? Run fast and hope to pass. Or be a Samurai - but don’t self-sacrifice too much. It takes courage to confront your fears and be an honest colleague, while also making sure you get your fair share for the work that you do, including supporting others to do the same.
Who Do You Sponsor?
“What members of underrepresented groups (…) often need most is opportunity and visibility, not advice. They have to work extremely hard and be extremely good at what they do to combat the systemic privilege and unconscious bias at play in our work environments. They are consistently under-promoted and under-compensated for this work (…)”
When your organizations needs somebody to give an interview or a talk - who do you suggest? When you talk about people in your organization doing interesting work - who do you mention?
It’s great to have a mentor who gives good advice on how to master professional life. But studies show that women* (and nonbinary people) are over-mentored, and under-sponsored, as Lara Hogan explains. Sponsoring means suggesting somebody’s name for opportunities to do visible, valuable work. Anybody can be a sponsor - not just managers. So check out Lara’s tips on how to be a good one.
The Encouraging Story of Fiona Hill
Want to hear what sponsorship can look like in action? Listen to Fiona Hill tell her story: From growing up in poverty in the north of England to becoming the U.S. National Security Council’s Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia. It’s about class discrimination and the people who helped and supported her.
Hill also talks about Russian influence in the 2016 U.S. elections and the societal polarization that she regards as largely home-made. Her suggestion to invest in community-level solutions to overcome them couldn’t be more timely given past days’ events in D.C.
German: Wie der (erste) Job uns verändert
Der Berufseinstieg hat großen Einfluss auf unsere Charakterbildung - sogar größer als die Geburt des eigenen Kindes, erklärt Jule Specht im Interview. Männer und Frauen verändert der Einstieg dabei scheinbar tendenziell unterschiedlich: Männer werden gewissenhafter, Frauen verträglicher. Gewissenhaftigkeit trägt zum Aufstieg bei, Verträglichkeit und Teamfähigkeit nicht unbedingt. Wie hat der Berufseinstieg dich verändert?
What We Are Thinking About
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Theresa & Sarah