To illustrate this problem, I am going to share a story that took place in a well known large company. I have made slight changes to the names of the people involved, but everything else in this story is accurate. Soon after Darian was hired it became apparent that he was not likely to be a good employee. He was assigned to a high level security group and was required to undergo a background check to receive a security clearance (a process that normally takes several weeks to complete) before he would be allowed entry into his group’s building.

In the meantime, he was assigned a temporary position on a different project that did not require a security clearance. Within a few days, Darian stopped coming into work. A few weeks went by and Darian was called to see what was going on. He said there was no reason for him to come in until his security clearance was authorized. When his security clearance was granted, he routinely showed up late for work; without ever calling to alert anyone. While at work he was ineffective and clearly not interested in being a team player.

Whenever he was assigned a task that he could not complete, he’d generally spend a day or two on it, without ever seeking assistance, and then eventually re-assign it to his assistant Ming right before it was due. This caused Ming to be unfairly blamed for the work not being done.

Eventually, Darian’s manager, Ted, started receiving customer complaints about Darian, and they kept coming nearly every week (35 in all). He also received five separate complaints of harassment from female co-workers. Usually in the form of women asking him for something work related, and Darian saying he would do it if they agreed to go out for a drink or dinner with him etc.

Ted was beside himself as he repeatedly complained to his superiors, but received no support. Finally Ted was able to trade Darian to another group for one of their problem employees. As you may have already assumed, there is a racial component at work here too, as one is White and the other is African-American.

As soon as Ted got rid of Darian, Darian filed a racial discrimination complaint against him. In his complaint he alleged that Ted only assigned him support issues that were beneath him to do. During the time in question, Darian had been assigned 30 support issues to work on. However, during that same time period, his manager Ted had worked on over 100 support issues. The only people who supported any part of Darian’s frivolous claims were two other unproductive and disgruntled workers in the group.

I’ve left out some details but fortunately, Darian’s claim was found to be without any merit at all. You might think after all of this they would have showed Darian the door. However, even after all of that Darian is still employed at this company (and you can be pretty certain there have been continuing problems with Darian).

Think for a minute what that does for morale within the company. Ted’s superiors were rebuked for repeatedly failing to back Ted up, or take any disciplinary action on Darian. Despite the rebukes, the only thing that has changed is that Ted is now more disillusioned than ever and probably a lot less productive than he could be or was, before Darian showed up.

Had the company possessed a culture that supported and rewarded good employees and took swift action with less desirable ones, they would have lost one drain on the companies bottom line (Darian) and likely increased the productivity of another (Ted) by making him feel valued and supported. In addition, the rest of the company would have benefitted as workers respond to fairness without fail.

You may be wondering why I felt compelled to mention the racial component in this story. I did that to illustrate how our brains automatically jump to conclusions when we are digesting information. Had I neglected to mention differing races were involved, you still would have made assumptions about Ted and Darian’s respective race(s) that fit with your life experience. Ted is African-American and Darian is White.

A majority of the people who have heard or read this story jumped to the opposite conclusion. It is also interesting that few, even for an instant, questioned their conclusion. Our brain likes to be right and as soon as it comes to a conclusion it will automatically look for evidence that supports its conclusion and ignore evidence to the contrary. Our brain also plays the odds, based on our previous experiences.

You probably associated the name Ming in the story with someone of Asian heritage and in this case you would be correct. You likely also associated a discrimination complaint with someone of a minority race and in this case, you were wrong.

The human brain does not like to work any harder than it has to and automatically takes shortcuts such as those described here. That’s why I always tell my clients: “If you don’t control your brain, your brain will control you.” When it comes to decision making the reality is most of us are passengers along for the ride, but we think we are driving the car.

You can follow Sam on Twitter: @SuperTaoInc

Posted in The Mind Side Blog