Why We Don’t See the Forest for the Trees – A Cultural Thing?
By Michelle Malay Carter on March 27, 2008
Steve Roseler at All Things Workplace reported on a research study that examined cultural influences upon perception.
Systems Drive Behavior – Let’s Use Systems Design for Obtaining Engagement
Just in case you are new here, my blog is a soap box for building awareness around the fact that – systems drive behavior!!!!! If we don’t take a step back and look at the systems within which our employees are working, we severely limit our influence upon productivity and engagement. We can design for productivity and engagement instead of focusing our efforts upon “fixing” individuals through misguided coaching and training!
Study Summary – Bold Emphasis Mine
Participants viewed images, each of which consisted of one center model and four background models in each image. The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, sad) in the center or background models and asked the participants to determine the dominant emotion of the center figure.
The majority of Japanese participants (72%) reported that their judgments of the center person’s emotions were influenced by the emotions of the background figures, while most North Americans (also 72%) reported they were not influenced by the background figures at all.
“Our results demonstrate that when North Americans are trying to figure out how a person is feeling, they selectively focus on that particular person’s facial expression, whereas Japanese consider the emotions of the other people in the situation, said Takahiko Masuda, a Psychology professor from the University of Alberta.”
Drumroll Please
“East Asians seem to have a more holistic pattern of attention, perceiving people in terms of the relationships to others,” says Masuda.
“People raised in the North American tradition often find it easy to isolate a person from its surroundings.”
Do you see a parallel here? I’m OK. You’re OK. Let’s fix the system.
Shall I pack up my practice and move to Asia like Deming?
Filed Under Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy
Comments
7 Responses to “Why We Don’t See the Forest for the Trees – A Cultural Thing?”
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How much of that is because Japan doesn’t have the wide open Midwest? Doesn’t geography and the Nature we live in play just as big a part? I wonder if you might get the similiar results in New York City or Chicago as you might in Omaha or Peoria.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the comment. Those are good questions. Are you planning a PhD dissertation anytime soon? It would make for a good study.
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
This ability (or inability) to see what is going on beyond ourselves becomes critical as work veers towards the higher levels of complexity. Lets imagine that level six type positioning is about living simultaneously as a corporate citizen of multiple local cultures. Then, it would suggest that being able to read the signalling of those cultures is a requirement for survival. Being able to communicate to those cultures would be another, and more difficult, part of the challenge.
It may be that reading the environment, and particularly the human dimension, is experienced differently in parts of the world that dont have the western post-Reformation belief that the individual is the critical element in society. We read that mergers have been planned between two top people ‘who really get on well’. Sadly their systems and teams dont find the matching process so easy. Why did the bosses not know?
Jack
PS Just as an aside, the Japanese people whom I have met, have always humbled me with their humility. They check my thinking before asking questions. They ask my permission to use my ideas or approaches. They advise me of their progress. When they change my approach, they ask if they have got it right.
Westerners mainly criticise it and or steal it!
Hi Jack,
Thanks for the comment. Some interesting insights. I think you are on to something.
The article on the study makes another interesting point that: East Asians are accustom to read the air “kuuki wo yomu” of the situation through their cultural practices.
I don’t know that I have been teaching my children to read the air, but it makes a lot of sense.
Regards,
Michelle
Before you leave for Asia realize the study was out of the University of Alberta in Canada. I do think it makes a solid point about being more attuned to others and our impact on them.
Hi David,
Is there hope for us North Americas yet? Are we at least beginnig to ask the right questions?
Michelle
I’ve been taking Aikido for a number of years. the specific version is “Ki Aikido”
A foundation of this approach is “awareness”.
Our sensi (teacher) is a Japanese native, she continually asks. Where is your mind? What is your partners intention?
Through the examples she uses and stories she tells it seems clear the the idea of awareness is in bedded in the Japanese culture.