Most people believe that their perceptions about a situation are accurate. For example, if I perceive an employee to be lazy, I’m confident that the employee is, indeed, lazy. The reality is quite different. Our perceptions are influenced by many factors, and people can perceive the same thing in fundamentally different ways. I’ve learned this first-hand not only while working with the team at crowdSPRING, but during my 13 years as a trial attorney – trying complex cases in front of judges and juries.
Why should you care about this? You should care because changing a situation (such as a bad work environment, poor team collaboration, etc.) doesn’t necessarily change perceptions. Many times, perceptions can be more damaging than the actual situation.
You also should care because perceptions impact performance. Startups – especially those with small teams – cannot succeed unless people perform well. I talk about these issues in the following 5 minute video.
What do you think? Do you agree that perceptions affect performance?
The fictional law firm on “The Practice” (on television from 1997 to 2004) was notorious for relying on “Plan B” – which involved creating doubt with the jury about their client’s guilt by accusing a third (usually innocent) party of the crime.
