“My truth” or “your truth”…

Hi Maasina. I’m so glad that today we can speak about my truth and my reality. Uh, hi Annay, thanks so much for having me on the podcast. I can’t wait to hear about your Your reality. Yeah, so my reality concerns my thinking and the things I’ve heard said about millennials. Now I know people say that they’re quite tech savvy, concerned about managing their work-life balance. Yeah, that sounds plausible. Um, they all say that, um, millennials and Gen Z, they are pretty highly proficient with technology. They, they grew up during the rise of the internet and social media, you know.

Yeah, I think everyone says that and thinks that, and I think the millennials themselves even do and from what I gather, um, you know, they’re they’re not, they drop hop a lot. Yeah, it’s generally believed that um they do that and then also that millennials, they expect rewards or recognition without putting in the traditional amount of work, you know, I’ve heard that. Yeah, yeah, but, but what’s the truth? Yeah, exactly. Hold on a second, if it’s quite funny that we are comfortable doing this in a business context, right?

Yeah. They, they say they think we heard that it’s common knowledge. Yeah, and imagine making an important personal decision based, based solely on assumptions without any real evidence. For example, if you would make decisions about what educational or career path to take, or even your choices around health or medical treatments. Yeah, it makes me really curious, right? Imagine you get a medical treatment based on, everyone thinks that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I gather, I gather I should follow this career. It just doesn’t work, but Why do you think it is that we do this?

And, um, yeah, also, I guess, what do we miss out on? That, that, that’s, that’s what comes to mind, right? Both in our personal lives, but in our careers. That’s a good question. And, and I do believe, and I believe, um, that there are plenty of reasons why we don’t dig deeper. Um, first of all, I think, uh, we might be too busy. There’s lack of time or energy, and then sometimes it’s We simply decide to just do something instead of waiting or spending time for um alignment or we might be too comfortable, perhaps a bit lazy, overconfident, overconfident, that’s true.

Or even afraid of what we might uncover. Yeah, and I think we even think our reality is the reality, right? And I think in today’s really complex world that is that that is slightly lazy. And I think we do ourselves an injustice as well as, um, you know, the businesses we work in. But we’ve got some examples. Why don’t you share yours first of potentially what could happen in a business context if one actually bases your thinking on these types of assumptions versus, um, yeah, digging a bit digging a bit deeper, absolutely.

And I have actually two examples. So, um, First of them is, is from an executive team um I was a member of and um it was interesting. It was a new team and we had just started. And there was a decision made that uh we should all do a 360 degree assessment. So gather data on our own, own leadership and, and uh preferences. And we, we went through this exercise, looked at our own and each other’s results, and um suddenly we became more aware of one another, and it, it sounds really um promising, right?

Um, but what was interesting, it stopped there and I think this often Happens. So there was no further analysis, no digging into the team structures such as roles and responsibilities or into practises, collective competence, um, no discussion about the processes, um, that everyone could influence together. So we ended up with a better understanding of individual preferences and for sure. Um, of, of our boundaries, but, um, really without any real insight into how to move forward as a team. So we did data gathering, spent the time on, on getting that insight, but I’m not sure if we looked at the right phenomena.

I think, yeah. Is that your 360 data became your heard that people say, from what I gather. So you did the right things, but you stopped short of going deeper. Exactly, exactly. And, and I think that’s um a missed opportunity. Yeah, um, And the other example what I have, it’s then the, the opposite where the data gathering actually turned into a um Unveiling an unexpected truth. Um, or an unexpected view, perception. So I worked with a leadership team where um the leader recognised that things weren’t going well, and uh they reached out to me and um we used an assessment, a new assessment tool that measures leadership and teamwork from a communication competence point of view.

And we ran the assessment, each team member got a chance to evaluate how they as a team connect, collaborate and inspire each other. And we reviewed the results together, so um it was very insightful. The discussion started, began as it usually does with the leader taking over, starting with that one perspective, starting how it is, how, how that person sees the situation. But here’s the thing, it’s um. The data told a different story, and that one loud voice, it was just one perspective, one truth, and we, we then saw based on the data that others had a different view of the situation, but they just never had the chance to express it until that moment.

So, uh, the data gave them the opportunity then to finally speak up. And then to go deeper, right? So what I’m hearing from you there is gathering the data, not using it and going deeper, but then actually, if you do gather the data and you objectively look at it, it can open up potentially understanding. Exactly. Yeah. I think I have a 3rd example. So if we think of those two, avenues, I think the third option is then where the data is not telling us something, but actually paying attention to what it’s not telling us versus saying everyone says, um, I’ve heard that, etc.

Actually, if you’re really thoughtful around what it’s not telling you, it can also lead to some interesting Insights. So many years ago I worked at a, in the early days of the internet, let’s say that, I worked at a well-known marketplace, online marketplace. And uh we used to do really great employee surveys. But every year, we got the same data back, career development, communication, leadership, managers. So I think the surveys could be really suitable to anybody. So that was the first piece that we noticed. Then, a search engine competitor emerged in Silicon Valley, and I think we all know who this one is.

And, um, they started poaching talent. And we couldn’t understand why, because our employee survey data didn’t tell us why, and we thought that all our employees were leaving to go and join the search engine, because the search engine offered haircuts, free food, dogs in the office, etc. which was this story, they say, at the time. But then what we did is we actually said, well, we can do the same, and doing the same didn’t really help. Offering these additional perks didn’t really retain our people. And so what we ended up doing was again to look at our employee survey data, but this time through the lens of what is the data not telling us.

And what we discovered actually globally and across genders, across different age groups was actually Why people were moving. were not for the extrinsic benefits, but because they, they viewed these extrinsic benefits, um, as great. But what they felt when they were moving to the competitor was what they got there was intrinsic motivation. So they were recognised. They were given more autonomy than we gave them. They were really developed and they felt that they were changing the world, which was organising the world’s information at the time. And so what we then did is we pivoted towards focusing more on intrinsic motivation as a tool to retain people rather than extrinsic.

And I’ve really used that ever since, because I’m a great believer that extrinsic only goes so far. But if we didn’t pause to say, like you said before, we, we have the data. We thought we started using it, but then we looked at it from a different perspective of what it was not telling us, and I think all these three examples we give there really shows you that you need to engage with the data, then you can get to the real um interesting and insightful results. Yeah, that’s fascinating.

And I think there are countless examples like this where we operate blindly within organisations, ask the wrong questions, focus on the wrong factors, or Mm, they to ask the right questions, um, or to be inclusive and transparent in both the data collection and reporting the results so that you can actually support um and drive some action. And um I, I love the fact that you flipped the question and looked at it, looked at the data from a different angle. So what is it, what is the data telling us and what is it’s not telling us?

Mhm. Which actually, sorry, I was thinking you were gonna speak and I had a sip of cold drink there, but I actually um You know, it, it shows that Great answers and solutions don’t just come. It requires either a tool to a different conversation and it requires a bit of investment in time, thinking, etc. And speaking of tools, maybe this is a good plug. Sure. All right. Here comes my sales pitch. So, uh, I do have an assessment tool. Uh, it’s called Findings codes and uh you can check it out online at findings.define.

Um, it is based on research. I have a background in, in communication sciences and in leadership, uh, communication competence and, um. This tool gives you valuable data on, on um key aspects of leadership and communication in an organisation. So it, it takes a look at leader-member relationships, teamwork, peer interactions, and uh overall organisational communication. And what makes it effective and perhaps even unique is that it takes a relational approach to leadership and improvement. Like we talked about earlier, whose truth is it? Um, we all tend to see the world from our own perspective, right?

But recognising the um fact that truth is relative means that we acknowledge that other perspectives matter just as much and leadership is the same. It’s about those relationships. And to really understanding you have to look at both the leaders and followers’ views plus the context. And, and the same goes for teams and organisations. So you can’t just rely on the leader’s opinion, um, you need data from everyone to really see how people connect, collaborate and inspire each other, and what kind of processes, um, uh, practises and systems support these efforts.

And that’s where uh this, this assessment tool of mine comes in. So we measure competencies, processes and practises. Those are things that you can actually assess, change and improve. And um you will get a dynamic report that highlights then your strengths, opportunities and areas um where perspectives might differ. So it’s not only your truth but also the truth of others. And based on this data, you can then have a conversation. And the report and this approach is, is really designed to drive action. So you first get the insight um it is shared with the whole team or all participants so that we show and demonstrate transparency, also accountability, and um there’s an opportunity for collective improvement.

Making sure everyone um has a chance to voice up and has a chance to get uh involved in improving something that, that relates to themselves. And you know, it’s, it’s super easy. It’s, it’s not that uh time um intensive, it takes just 7 to 10 minutes to take it um online. And um yeah, that, that was the goal to create something that’s really useful and appreciated by, by people who, who deal with these things in business. So if I can summarise that, it’s almost about my truth or your truth, and then through your tool unmasking people metrics in the context of leadership and business, right?

So it’s my truth or your truth, and then it becomes. Exactly, exactly. Great, so that, that sounds really interesting and um I’m wondering if it’s maybe easier to do than, than people assume, right? Because it’s, particularly if we don’t think of my truth in isolation, but if we’re through your, what you’re saying they’re unable to see it as my truth, the team’s truth, the organisational truth. No one truth, but if we collectively understand our how we all see the world, not in isolation, we can probably get to a better place in terms of outcomes.

Yeah, I do believe so. So it’s, it’s really not that hard what I’ve experienced. In fact, it is often much easier to spend just a little time on insight gathering than to move forward blindly and then later of course correct. So I would, I would encourage everyone to um take that very cautious um approach and um And open yourself up to other truths. And I think, I think they can either do that with your tool, and if anybody is interested, I’m sure they can drop you either in the Link connect with you on LinkedIn or on your website, right, let you know.

Right, well, what a shame that we can’t carry on now because I have a whole other list of assumptions about millennials that I was ready to share, but I’m going to do that because what I’m taking away from today is that my truth is probably, together with their truth, your truth, there’s probably a different truth out there around all these assumptions with regard to millennials, amongst other things. Great. Let’s, let’s, uh, discover the truth. Thank you, Mayotina, and good luck with the launch of your tour. Thanks so much, Annami.

Thanks for having me on this podcast.