Whenever I mention ‘culture at work’ to someone I listen or watch for their first reaction. Inevitably, their first thoughts turn to learning a foreign language; etiquette and manners when visiting another country; or if you are in HR, either the values of their organization or Diversity and equal employment opportunities. What they focus on is structural diversity—who we are by how we fit into different categories of demographics, generations, language, race, etc.
I tend to think about instead is cognitive diversity—how they think about things, set priorities, or make decisions differently. There is a grand canyon of difference between knowing what you hear or see on the surface, and learning what goes on in their heads. Leaders who can focus on the latter, even when contradictory to their own views, have the essential skills of empathy and cognitive flexibility—the mental ability to switch between thinking about multiple concepts simultaneously, or switch one’s previous beliefs or thoughts to new situations.
Cognitive flexibility relates to a number of areas including learning theory, psychology, and neurophysiology. It relates to our working memory and how we make mental associations; how we inhibit or suppress some stimuli or focus on others; how we plan, consider reactions and make judgments; or how we shift our thinking and consider different paths. Those who are more flexible in this manner tend to exhibit higher degrees of fluid intelligence, comprehension, and reasoning fluidity. You can start to see why this is really important for leaders.
While language skills can help make your brain more efficient in delivering information cognitive flexibility develops new and alternative neural patterns. Apps like Lumosity or Fit Brains are one approach to developing greater cognitive flexibility. They emphasize different approaches to reinforcing or building neural pathways in your brain in a generic manner. It is exercising fitness of your mind. Research from Lumosity and others frequently point to its relevancy in everything from aging to physical or mental challenges.
Beyond Building Your Brain
When it comes to leadership there is another step beyond just having this degree of plasticity of how we think. In recent articles, I’ve written about language as a window into culture; Frederic Laloux’s look at self-management cultures in various countries; and Erin Meyer’s understanding different viewpoints through culture amps.
All these have a common theme that leads to understanding and building cognitive flexibility in how we work and collaborate. Developing cognitive flexibility in a generic manner is the start. Think of it as developing techniques and methods of analysis. It also builds a level of empathy for others because you are willing to see it from their view—you may still need to confirm in their mind that you have such empathy by describing or retelling their view.
The real challenge is having the framework to understand alternative views. The Culture Map book illustrates one such framework that describes different viewpoints by the countries they come from. For example, the following example from the book illustrates how different cultures view giving and getting feedback:
Managing Americans was proving much more difficult than [Sabine Dulac] could have ever imagined. Her new American boss, Jake Webber, had reported to Dulac that several of her team members had complained bitterly following their first round of performance reviews with Dulac. They felt she’d been brutal and unfair in her feedback, focusing heavily on the negative points and hardly mentioning all their hard work and accomplishments. Dulac was dumbfounded. The way she had provided feedback was the same style she’d used successfully with dozens of French employees with great success. Where were these complaints coming from?
This is one factor in the overall framework of Ms. Meyer’s book. If you only live in a mono-culture all your working life, you might not even know this is can be a cultural issue. It is what everyone around you does, and seems to be the right way—the only way. Correct?
Well, as you can tell, it can be an eye opener. Having cognitive flexibility could help here, but only if you are first aware that this is an area where viewpoints could be frequently be different. And even then it may not come to mind among all the possibilities that could send you in circles mentally.
How do you develop these mental frameworks? You could certainly learn them on your own based on personal experience. In fact, that is how people who have been successful managers for years often learn on their own. You could also learn from others such as the models from Laloux, Meyer, Gary Hamel or other management thinkers. Basically, we all need the frameworks and examples that make the scenario feel real to us.
Transforming your Organization
This type of flexibility is essential to perceiving or planning transformations in your business. Whether it is the way you work internally, or the way you engage customers and partners, you should start with the basis that the change being proposed, by definition, will be different. Discrete changes are easier to understand, negotiate, plan and manage. Per the Culture map framework, even conceiving of it may need to involve various people depending on your locality.
But as author and management consultant Ron Ashkenas wrote, there is a difference between change management and Transformation. Change management follows plans, and known methods. Transformation is much more non-linear, possibly involving many changes, but also involving a new state of mind about a particular model. If it is Digital Transformation, it is encouraging employees to take a new view on processes, as well as how we view leading, persuading, trusting and certainly communicating with others. These are precisely cognitive flexibility factors. You may recognize it under more popular banners as ‘changing organizational culture’, or ‘developing talent.’
What Mr. Ashkenas refers to is that multiple outcomes and possibilities might emerge, even ones you may not have thought about in advance. How willing are you to accept things that weren’t planned, and how willing you are to take on the unpredictable are both signs of your cognitive flexibility and your ability to lead.
Rawn Shah is a Director and Social Business Architect at Rising Edge.
