Monday, March 05, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Penderaan Emosi lebih sakit daripada kecederaan fizikal, Kajian Mendedahkan
Sejak berdekad-dekad lamanya, satu kepercayaan bahawa "kayu dan batu boleh mematahkan tulang, tetapi kata-kata tidak akan menyakitkan seseorang". Namun, The Press Trust of India (PTI) telah memetik satu kajian yang mendedahkan bahawa sakit akibat penderaan emosi adalah lebih mendalam dan mengambil masa yang panjang untuk pulih berbanding sakit pada anggota badan. Ringkasnya disimpulkan sebagai "makan dalam", iaitu ianya tak nampak tapi sukar untuk dilupakan.
Kajian pasukan antarabangsa menunjukkan bahawa patah hati amat menyakitkan dalam banyak kes yang dikaji. Ketua pengarang Dr Kip Williams, dipetik oleh The Daily Telegraph, berkata bahawa kedua-dua jenis kesakitan sangat dirasai pada masa kejadian belaku, tetapi kecederaan emosi mempunyai kemungkinan untuk berulang-ulang, berbanding kesakitan fizikal yang dirasai hanya satu waktu tertentu iaitu waktu kecedaraan berlaku dan dalam proses pemulihan. Selepas pulih tiada lagi dirasakan kesakitan itu.
"Kenapa kita selalu merasai kepedihan atas segala penginayaan sosial dan kesakitan sosial lain? Ini kerana kita gemar untuk mengingati kembali kejadian-kejadian itu dan menyimpannya di dalam ingatan kita," katanya
Dr Williams daripada Universiti Purdue, Amerika Syarikat dan rakan-rakannya daripada Universiti Macquarie dan University of New South Wales di Australia melaporkan penemuan ini berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan ke atas empat pengujian.
Untuk kajian ini, para penyelidik merekrut para sukarelawan yang telah diminta untuk melupakan atau menghilangkan kesakitan lampau mereka dengan menulis secara lengkap tentang kejadian tersebut dan bagaimana mereka merasainya.
Kajian pasukan antarabangsa menunjukkan bahawa patah hati amat menyakitkan dalam banyak kes yang dikaji. Ketua pengarang Dr Kip Williams, dipetik oleh The Daily Telegraph, berkata bahawa kedua-dua jenis kesakitan sangat dirasai pada masa kejadian belaku, tetapi kecederaan emosi mempunyai kemungkinan untuk berulang-ulang, berbanding kesakitan fizikal yang dirasai hanya satu waktu tertentu iaitu waktu kecedaraan berlaku dan dalam proses pemulihan. Selepas pulih tiada lagi dirasakan kesakitan itu.
"Kenapa kita selalu merasai kepedihan atas segala penginayaan sosial dan kesakitan sosial lain? Ini kerana kita gemar untuk mengingati kembali kejadian-kejadian itu dan menyimpannya di dalam ingatan kita," katanya
Dr Williams daripada Universiti Purdue, Amerika Syarikat dan rakan-rakannya daripada Universiti Macquarie dan University of New South Wales di Australia melaporkan penemuan ini berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan ke atas empat pengujian.
Untuk kajian ini, para penyelidik merekrut para sukarelawan yang telah diminta untuk melupakan atau menghilangkan kesakitan lampau mereka dengan menulis secara lengkap tentang kejadian tersebut dan bagaimana mereka merasainya.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
When Smart People Resist Change
by Nancy Dailey, Ph.D. and Kelly O'Brien
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." This saying captures the culture of many organizations these days as they struggle to reinvent themselves, stay competitive, or grow. Why, when organizations are filled with smart, successful people? Successful people got where they are because they were good at what they do. But the same skills that made them successful can also make them closed to learning new things and embracing change.
The research on "experts" and "smart people" reveals a shared characteristic -- the ability to transfer learning to new problems. They can transform their mastery of concepts and information from a set of facts into usable knowledge. Experts can quickly identify what is relevant, which is why they are good problem solvers. But what happens when smart people confront problems outside of their experience or knowledge base? When the analogies and metaphors drawn from their knowledge reservoir don't make sense in the current environment?
Framing the right problem
The problem then becomes one of framing. How smart people go about defining and solving problems is at the core of this dilemma. We see this with technology conversions when all resources get allocated to software selection and installation, while ignoring culture change and real-time impact on day-to-day operations.
Chris Argyris' classic Harvard Business Review article, Teaching Smart People How to Learn, speaks to this "smart people" dilemma. Often the smartest people have the most difficult time learning. He postulates that highly professional and successful people rarely experience failure and therefore never have the opportunity to learn from failure. So when the inevitable failure happens, they "...become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the "blame" on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it most."
Failure is inevitable
When an organization undergoes significant and fundamental transition, it is exactly when the system needs all of its really smart, successful people ready to address the new problems that will be unleashed. And failures -- some big, some small -- are inevitable. The inability to quickly learn is a huge obstacle if the key players can't accept that they are on a steep learning curve, step up to handle failure, and adopt a personal learning ethic that others can model. Unfortunately, the norm is far more often that people finger-point, play the blame game, and generally back away from owning what are reasonable and predictable missteps along the way.
How smart people can embrace change
Argyris attributes this dynamic in organizations to the lack of "double-loop learning" or the lack of critical reflection and honest feedback. His remedy for smart people: reflect critically on your own behavior, identify the ways you may inadvertently contribute to the organization's problems, and then change how you act. You must learn how the very way you go about defining and solving problems can be a source of problems in its own right. Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you're immune to lifelong learning. Importing new ideas from other mindsets and seeking out role models during times of transition or chaos are noble strategies for accelerating your own learning curve. Show others how really smart you are, not how far you can dig in your heels.
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." This saying captures the culture of many organizations these days as they struggle to reinvent themselves, stay competitive, or grow. Why, when organizations are filled with smart, successful people? Successful people got where they are because they were good at what they do. But the same skills that made them successful can also make them closed to learning new things and embracing change.
The research on "experts" and "smart people" reveals a shared characteristic -- the ability to transfer learning to new problems. They can transform their mastery of concepts and information from a set of facts into usable knowledge. Experts can quickly identify what is relevant, which is why they are good problem solvers. But what happens when smart people confront problems outside of their experience or knowledge base? When the analogies and metaphors drawn from their knowledge reservoir don't make sense in the current environment?
Framing the right problem
The problem then becomes one of framing. How smart people go about defining and solving problems is at the core of this dilemma. We see this with technology conversions when all resources get allocated to software selection and installation, while ignoring culture change and real-time impact on day-to-day operations.
Chris Argyris' classic Harvard Business Review article, Teaching Smart People How to Learn, speaks to this "smart people" dilemma. Often the smartest people have the most difficult time learning. He postulates that highly professional and successful people rarely experience failure and therefore never have the opportunity to learn from failure. So when the inevitable failure happens, they "...become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the "blame" on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it most."
Failure is inevitable
When an organization undergoes significant and fundamental transition, it is exactly when the system needs all of its really smart, successful people ready to address the new problems that will be unleashed. And failures -- some big, some small -- are inevitable. The inability to quickly learn is a huge obstacle if the key players can't accept that they are on a steep learning curve, step up to handle failure, and adopt a personal learning ethic that others can model. Unfortunately, the norm is far more often that people finger-point, play the blame game, and generally back away from owning what are reasonable and predictable missteps along the way.
How smart people can embrace change
Argyris attributes this dynamic in organizations to the lack of "double-loop learning" or the lack of critical reflection and honest feedback. His remedy for smart people: reflect critically on your own behavior, identify the ways you may inadvertently contribute to the organization's problems, and then change how you act. You must learn how the very way you go about defining and solving problems can be a source of problems in its own right. Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you're immune to lifelong learning. Importing new ideas from other mindsets and seeking out role models during times of transition or chaos are noble strategies for accelerating your own learning curve. Show others how really smart you are, not how far you can dig in your heels.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)