It starts at an early age. Swimming is forbidden. No walking on lawns. Playing is forbidden. Careful, the doors are locked. Subsequently, when we start working, the number of rules and regulations increases many times over. Use the service elevator after 8:00 p.m. Please submit Form 76Z. Your request is denied.
The situation is no better on the internet. After three unsuccessful attempts, your account will be blocked. Access to this page is denied. Your password must include at least six characters and one capital letter, two numbers, one and a half cups of chopped onion, two tablespoons of flour and 170 grams of chicken meat without skin or bones.
In this piece, we talk about common sense with
Martin Lindstrom,
author of
The Common Sense Department
.
Regulations and Common Sense
Most companies have many rules and policies – formal and not so
formal.
Many of them are in the form of separate documents. No one has ever analyzed them as a whole (because there are so damn many), just like none of us read the privacy or compliance information that comes up after a software update or download. We simply check the box next to “I Agree” in the hope that we haven’t signed a waiver for our own lives. What’s more, these rules have become part of corporate folklore. No one is able to take control of them, so employees become fearful.
Do you think your company is the only one that is so fearful and shackled by the rules? No, in fact, all companies are. Do any of you work in an organization that isn’t governed by a system of rules, regulations and restrictions imposed by the compliance and legal departments that dictate everything from the dress code to the manner in which they deal with clients?
But if employees are constantly being asked to adhere to the company’s bylaws and regulations, ignoring what their inner voice is telling them, they lose the ability to act independently – and give up their humanity.
In the end, regulations win out and common sense is defeated.
Empathy
The lack of common sense in companies (and in life) has an obvious, though indirect connection with the gradual disappearance of empathy. Remember the principles of common sense – the same ones instilled in us by our parents and teachers. Use an umbrella when it rains. Brushing your teeth. Saying “please” and “thank you.” To give way to pregnant women and elderly people on buses and subways.
Isn’t the essence of common sense to put yourself in the shoes of others and feel what they feel? As rational as common sense may seem at first glance, at an underlying level it represents caring, soul connection, and emotional identification with another person.
The essence of common sense comes down to empathy.
In business circles, the term is usually associated with sentimentality, tears, or cupcakes. Empathy doesn’t seem to fit into formal structures.
Blue and Green Scenario
Addressing the lack of common sense in companies, Martin Lindstrom uses a concept he borrowed from the famous Hollywood director
.
Alfred Hitchcock is known not only for his films, but also for his atypical approach to script writing. Hitchcock wrote two separate screenplays for each film he wrote and directed: a blue one and a green one.
The blue was a classic three-act script with dialogue, angles, shot plans and stage directions. At what point does James Stewart look out the window and see a neighbor wiping his knife? Blue script. Where should Tippi Hedren be standing when the birds attack her? Blue scenario.
The green script, on the other hand, focused on the feelings Hitchcock wanted to evoke in the audience, and they were timetabled by the minute and even by the second. Anticipation. Anxiety. Fear. Shock. Relief.
Scenarios in Business
In a company, the blue scenario describes causes, such as inefficiencies in current operations, whereas the green scenario reveals general consequences, say lack of common sense. While the blue scenario singles out departments not working together or systems and processes hindering productivity, green indicates where common sense – and in many cases empathy – is lacking.
It could be a customer service center that redirects callers to eleven different departments, or a weekly one-hour meeting held solely for its own sake.
Again, the blue scenario – fact-based, non-controversial and measurable – focuses on day-to-day problems, disruptions and incoherence, while the green one focuses on the consequences of those problems, which most often include a lack of common sense and empathy – between different departments or disparate units, between senior and middle managers, between employees and customers.
But what is empathy?
It is our ability to feel what others are feeling and to experience what they are feeling. The words “empathy” and “empathy” are often used synonymously; but explain the difference between the two as follows.
Suppose you and I are taking a sea cruise. There is a storm at sea and the waves are raging. I notice that you are standing on one of the outer decks. Your face is pale and you lean forward, gripping the handrail with both hands. A moment later I see you vomit overboard. If I had gone up on deck, I would have said: “Oh, you poor thing!” – and handed you a napkin, it would be empathy, but if I stood next to you and threw up too, it would be empathy.
Empathy means that we can identify with what the other person is experiencing. We empathize with someone whose mother recently died; a friend who was unfairly fired; or a family made homeless by a hurricane. Sympathy rarely implies deeper feelings. It often takes the form of the ostentatious polite interest we show day in and day out to friends, neighbours, shopkeepers. In America and Britain, for example, expressing sympathy is an obligatory cultural norm.
Empathy usually serves as a subtle decoration for our daily interactions and, beyond that, means little.
If empathy is so closely tied to common sense, how does its disappearance affect companies? The answer is that business today has squeezed out almost everything that can be called human. If something can’t be measured or quantified, it doesn’t exist. And databases determine what is right and what is wrong. An email is not delivered to the recipient, or our laptop can’t connect to the server? It’s our fault. Google Maps reports that the street we’re looking for doesn’t exist, and we think we got one digit wrong and that somehow it’s our fault.
What is right and wrong? Look in the handbook or instruction manual. Ask the human resources manager. Consult a compliance or legal professional.
The Cost
Companies pay a high price for reducing empathy. And above all, it comes at the cost of losing a loyal customer. One example is the case of an electronics store of a major European chain.
In an effort to demonstrate a high level of commitment to environmental responsibility, the store has introduced a new rule: if a customer who is paying for goods needs a plastic bag, he should pay for it. A woman was buying thousands of dollars worth of merchandise – a laptop, a printer, headphones and so on. After paying by credit card, she realized she needed a bag for sundries. “That’ll be one dollar,” the salesman said. But the woman didn’t have a dollar or change. “I’ll pay with a credit card,” she offered, to which the salesman replied that the minimum amount for all credit card transactions was $5. Amazing! This woman had just bought several thousand dollars worth of electronic equipment! She got so angry that she returned the entire item and told the salesperson that she wouldn’t even go near their store again. Isn’t she right?
Based on the book Common Sense Department.
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