Magical Thinking

 
Remember that TV commercial where a wide-eyed guy's favorite football team scores every time he goes into his basement to get more beer, so he concludes he has "cracked the code," leaves his friends and goes down into the scary basement one more time "for the win"? That spot depicted a form of magical thinking, which according to psychologists Leonard Zusne and Warren Jones in Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking involves believing "that one's thoughts, words, or actions can achieve specific physical effects in a manner not governed by the principles of ordinary transmission of energy or information."

Magical thinking is a normal dimension of thinking in young children, of course. Toddlers routinely make illogical and unsound decisions--they just don't have enough information about the world yet to form more reasonable conclusions (more on that topic here.) At around age seven or eight most children begin to think logically and are better able to grasp cause and effect relationships, so they move away from magical thinking.

Yet magical thinking lives on in many adults--sports fans, athletes, coaches, gamblers, sailors, politicians and even business executives. Think of all the people you know who regularly engage in superstitious rituals-- following lucky routines, wearing lucky items of clothing, carefully avoiding any behavior or circumstance that might curse or jinx an undertaking or outcome. While such rituals might be irrational, they are not generally harmful and some experts even consider them to be potentially beneficial. Perhaps that's why the tagline for the beer commercial described earlier offered viewers this subtle reassurance:

“It's Only Weird if it Doesn't Work”

O course there is a darker side of magical thinking that can be problematic, particularly in business. It has roots in narcissism and can involve delusional thinking fueled by an unrealistic or underdeveloped understanding of causes and effects. Unfortunately, since experts believe we're "more likely to find a narcissist in the C-Suite than on the street" it follows that we're also more likely to find magical thinking in the C-Suite.

Here's the problem: a business leader with even mild narcissistic tendencies can be a compelling and disruptive leadership force even when he or she hasn't the slightest knowledge or understanding of the dynamics, the causes and effects, that shape a particular situation. Such leaders come across as supremely certain, energetic, decisive, strategic, visionary--even charming and charismatic in the short term. But they have a big blind spot: when they are in unfamiliar territory, they are incapable of recognizing and acknowledging their own ignorance or lack of understanding. They are confident, but not competent. Sadly, when they don't have the requisite information (or understanding, or knowledge) to make logical and sound decisions, they fall back into magical thinking--just like toddlers do. So their decisions are informed and driven by biases, superstitions, fantasies and faulty logic rather than by facts and evidence-based thinking.

I worked with a CEO years ago who was, among other things, a rip-roaring magical thinker. One of his more peculiar blind spots involved strategy. He categorically refused to even discuss the topic (he called it the S-word) and he would behave even more scornfully and abusively than he normally did if someone dared to bring it up. He made his magic belief mindset clear--if people just did their jobs, the company would flourish, so it was foolish to waste time thinking or talking or worrying about something as unimportant as the S-word.

I was reminded of that CEO (let's call him S-word CEO) the other day while listening to an HBR Ideacast featuring Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes, author of Putting Sales at the Center of Strategy. He was describing how companies often have a vision, or a mission, but they don't have a coherent strategy--because they have failed to make "explicit choices" about markets, customers, value propositions and competitive differentiators. Why is that important? Professor Cespedes:

"...it’s obviously difficult, if not impossible, for people to execute a strategy that doesn’t exist or that they don’t understand."

Cespedes went on to say that once a coherent strategy has been developed, it's vital for company leadership to ensure that the tasks and behaviors (plans and activities) performed by different company segments (Cespedes talked about Sales, but I took his comments to apply equally to all segments of a company) are focused on delivering value and helping to implement the strategy effectively. In other words, strategy should define the critical tasks and behaviors, not vice versa. Nothing very magical about that.

Well, that S-word CEO struggled with his biases and his fuzzy logic. He made more than his share of dubious decisions, and he caused some degree of harm and collateral damage in the process, but he was tenacious and persistent and he completed a multi-year run as CEO. As he walked out the door on his last day, I'm sure he was pleased with himself, and proud of how well he had steered the company during his tenure. What about his struggles, his setbacks, his ill-advised decisions, and the collateral damage he had caused? Not his problem. He accepted no accountability for anything that didn't work out well, since in his mind someone else was always to blame.

I've worked with many magical thinkers, but S-word CEO probably provided as vivid a demonstration as any I've ever seen of the power, and the wonder, of magical thinking in business. Maybe the beer commercial was spot on--maybe magical thinking is only weird if it doesn't work--and while it may not have worked for others within S-word CEO's sphere of influence, it sure worked for him!

Dean K. Harring, CPCU, CIC is a retired insurance executive who now spends his time as an advisor, board member, educator and watercolor artist.  He can be reached at dean.harring@gmail.com or through LinkedIn or Twitter or Harring Watercolors.

Just How Difficult Are You?

You are without a doubt the most pretentious, self-absorbed, arrogant, vain and ruthless little tyrant I have ever had the misfortune of knowing. You are emotionally unbalanced and delusional.  For some reason you believe you are special and entitled, demanding praise and attention and privileges you haven't earned and don't deserve--yet you are shamelessly uninterested in the needs and feelings of others. You exploit, criticize, scapegoat and treat others contemptuously, yet you can't tolerate a single word of criticism.  There's only one way to describe you. You are:

(a)  A real jerk

(b)  An infant

(c)  A CEO

(d)  A narcissist

(e)  Other _______________

People I ask seem to be able to identify, without hesitation or difficulty, somebody they know who fits this description, so they quickly and emphatically answer this multiple choice question.  Corporate types tend to choose answers (a) or (c) although in the write-in category (e) the most common answer is "A real asshole" (more on this crass yet technical academic term later.) Politicians, lawyers and ex-spouses also get honorable mention in (e).  Parents of young children, and students of Freud who have read "On Narcissism" (which introduces the concept of His Majesty the Baby) might choose (b).  Psychology majors and anyone who has ever read a book or an article in Time Magazine by Jeffrey Kluger tend to offer up the textbook answer (d), i.e., a person who behaves this way is usually described as a narcissist.
Most of us know the story of Narcissus, retold succinctly in a New Yorker piece by Joan Acocella called Selfie:

In Book III of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century B.C., we meet Narcissus, a young man so handsome that all the nymphs are in love with him. He doesn’t understand why; he wishes they would leave him alone. One day, in the woods, he comes upon a pool of water and leans over to take a drink. In the reflection, he sees his face for the first time, and falls in love. He swoons, he kisses his image, but he cannot have the thing he desires. In despair, he stops eating, stops sleeping. Finally, he lays his head down on the greensward and dies.

There are longer and darker versions of the story, but the prevailing theme is that Narcissus is so taken with himself that he is incapable of paying attention to anything or anyone else. Narcissism is sometimes described as a "fixation with oneself" but the American Psychiatric Association actually classifies it as a personality disorder.  In Selfie, Acocella also tells us that according to the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) the primary characteristic of narcissism is grandiosity:

Narcissists exaggerate their achievements and what they are certain will be their future triumphs. They believe that they are special and can be understood only by special people, of high status. They feel entitled to extraordinary privileges. (They have the right to cut in line, to dominate the conversation, etc.) They show no empathy for other people. They envy them, and believe that they are envied in return. They cannot tolerate criticism.

If you really want to dig into narcissism, there is no shortage of reading material out there.  I recently read Why Is It Always About You? The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism by Sandy Hotchkiss.  She describes seven categories of narcissistic behavior (Shamelessness, Magical Thinking, Arrogance, Envy, Entitlement, Exploitation, and Bad Boundaries) so well that if you read her book you might begin to feel a bit uneasy about your own narcissistic tendencies.  The good news is that if you worry about such things you probably aren't really a narcissist, but just to be sure you can take a quiz here.  It is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory developed by Robert Raskin and Howard Terry of the University of California, Berkeley. I felt a little better after taking the quiz.

Of course the world is teeming with all kinds of people we perceive as difficult, not just narcissists but an eclectic assortment of know-it-alls, liars, cheaters, whiners, complainers, slackers, back-stabbers, perfectionists, illusionists, abusers, bullies, tormentors, mean-spirited rogues, and otherwise nasty weasels.  Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford University, lumps them all into one descriptive category: assholes.  His entertaining book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn't establishes two tests for determining whether someone fits into that category:

• After talking to the alleged asshole, does the "target" feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled? Does he or she feel worse about him or herself?
• Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful?

Sutton also identifies twelve techniques assholes commonly use:

• Personal insults
• Invading "personal territory"
• Uninvited physical contact
• Threats and intimidation
• Sarcastic jokes and teasing, used as insult delivery systems
• Withering email flames
• Status slaps, intended to humiliate victims
• Public shaming
• Rude interruptions
• Two-faced attacks
• Treating people as if they are invisible

Any of this sound familiar? Of course it does. I hear you, and I feel your pain!  I can think of dozens of people I've worked with just in the past ten years who fit quite comfortably into this category. Sutton reminds us that even Steve Jobs, celebrated for his ability to imagine, inspire, motivate and create, was notorious for behaving poorly and routinely used many of these techniques. But while most of us have such tendencies and may slip into poor behavior patterns on occasion, there's a big difference between what he calls "temporary" and "certified" assholes: to qualify as "certified" you have to behave poorly persistently.  If you want to see where you fit on the scale, take Sutton's Asshole Rating Self Exam (ARSE, of course...would you expect anything else?) here, but steel yourself: if your self-rating score gets to a certain level, you will see this admonition from Sutton:

You sound like a full-blown certified asshole to me, get help immediately.  But, please, don't come to me for help, as I would rather not meet you.

Good luck, and be careful out there.

Dean K. Harring, CPCU, CIC is a retired Chief Claims Officer and an expert and advisor on property-casualty insurance claims and operations.  He can be reached at dean.harring@theclm.org or through  LinkedIn or Twitter.