That “Duh!” Moment

Over coffee recently I was telling someone about a recent study on changing work styles. As I told him about the discussion of the changing environment and the new ways people expect to work, his response was: “Well, duh.”

Now it’s worth mentioning that this person is 25, and only entered the workforce last year after completing a bachelor’s and master’s, so his working experience is limited, and his perceptions are shaped by changes in recent years. The meaning I took from his “Duh!” comment was that this was all common sense, but I don’t think he realized that, while it may seem like common sense to him, it is not necessarily common for people in leadership positions today.

As you grow professionally and move from lower levels of responsibility to a leadership position, you have experiences along the way that shape your views on how the world works. You go through changes in work styles, technological innovations, the transition from an industrial or agricultural economy to a knowledge economy, new immigration patterns…all kinds of changes. You see things progress along a path and get to where we are now, and so you know that things can be different, and the way we do things today is not simply “natural,” but instead is the result of an evolution in business.

The most important thing that shapes our perceptions is our own experience. Reading about things in school and hearing stories from others simply do not have the same impact. As a result, if you and your employees are coming from different generations (and we now have 4 generations in some workplaces), you may have very different views on what constitutes common sense. You have seen how we got to where we are today, whereas they were born into it. What makes sense to you may be a revelation to them, and ideas that you discover may be old hat to others.

When you happen across a “Duh!” moment, take it as a learning opportunity. Ask the other person why that seems so obvious, and you will gain a better sense of their perspective while also maybe seeing connections between concepts that you did not see before. At the same time, explain to them why it seems like a novel idea to you. As people enter the professional world they tend to base their perspective on what they see while not really knowing much about what came before. If they understand why things have been done a certain way before, that gives them a better chance of coming up with new ways of doing business that actually work; after all, there might be a very good reason why we do not do things a certain way, and they need to know that.

Each “Duh!” moment highlights a conflict in perceptions. Take the opportunity to address that conflict, and you are both likely to learn something.