inflation of expectations
DESCRIPTION
Management of change may draw great lessons from the management of inflation.TRANSCRIPT
Inflation of ExpectationsA new approach to change management
Ali Anani
A B
One route from A to B
A
B
A 2nd route from A to B
A
B
A 2nd route from A to B
Tarzan jump is invariably unlikely
A
B
A 2nd route from A to B
A will go downhill to C before eventually moving up to B
C
A
B
A 2nd route from A to B
A will go downhill to C before eventually moving up to B
C
The journey from A to C and then C to B is full with emotional changes
The Emotional Journey of Change
Shock
Denial
Anger
Guilt
Depression
Excitement
Hope
Understanding
Acceptance
EmotionsEmotions
The Emotional Journey of Change
Shock
Denial
Anger
Guilt
Depression
Excitement
Hope
Understanding
Acceptance
EmotionsEmotions
Inspect the trough of the curve. What do you notice?
You notice that a very strong negative emotion (depression) is adjacent to a mild positive emotion (understanding on a trough
This proximity leads to high unpredictability for any change in one emotion will affect the other in a highly complex way. This leads to chaos.
Depression Understanding
Change is linked to
expectations
This inspires the borrowing an idea from
long-run Phillips Curve
http://tutor2u.net/economics/presentations/a2economics/macro/PhillipsCurveNAIRU/default.html
Without getting into details, when opposites are adjacent to each other a stabilizing line will encounter chaos
NegativePositive
Stabilizing Line
Sensitive to minor changes
The fixed line is extensible to many systems that are affected by expectation. This line is NOT limited to the Phillips Curve only
NegativePositive
Stabilizing LineNegative
feedback loop
Positive feedback loop
Negative expectation
Positive expectation
Negative attitude to Change
Positive attitude to Change
Changes are linked to expectations. This is same as expectations of inflation
InflationUnemployment
Highest -ve Lowest
+ve
Expectation Curve
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/4/26/disillusionment-curve.html
The theory is pretty simple: the higher your expectations of a thing, the deeper your dissatisfaction/disillusionment when experiencing the thing itself
A story to illustrate this point further
I accepted under pressure a part-time job as a lecturer in a private university ¨ I gave the first open book exam. I still remember how students reacted in disbelief of the new reality that they could harmlessly open a book during an exam ¨ All students, except for two, finished the two-hour exam in one hour ¨ The two remaining students complained that time was not enough
The students reported to other teaching staff how they had two hours to solve such an easy exam and were allowed to open books on top of that ¨ The staff accused me of giving an easy exam so that students would enroll in my class ¨ I corrected the exam and the class average was 16 out of 30 ¨ The staff who complained about me alluring the students to enroll in my classes had a different view (guess it)
This time they warned me of the forthcoming trouble that students had high expectation and that they pay high fees and therefore would revolt against me ¨ I challenged them if one student would complain. The trick was to manage the students’ expectations ¨ As I went in the class I asked each student to estimate his mark. The class average was 23 out 30
I went on to tell the students that I was going to solve the exam first ¨ The realization of the students that the exam was within their domain and that they did not give enough serious thinking to the exam grew as I went on solving it ¨ Having finished solving the exam, I asked to students to reevaluate their possible grades ¨ The average dropped to 12 out of 30
I distributed the exam papers and not a single complaint was made ¨ The students expected an average of 12 and they got 16. That exceeded their expectations. Had I distributed the papers when their average expectation was 23 I would have run into trouble
The dissatisfaction/disillusionment curve explains my story very well
http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1003:vision-from-the-top-2012-david-lloyd-intelliresponse&catid=161:software-articles&Itemid=1073
My students example falls into this shapeLow expectation, that raised the bar to the top of the curve
Exam trigger
End of exam
Declining expectations post exam
Waked up to the tricks of exams
Improved results in subsequent exams
Chaos
Today’s expectation
s
Tomorrow’s expectations
Stabilizing LineOf expectations
Sensitive to minor changes
Greed escalates. Taming the expectations of students tamed also their greed for even higher grades in future exams.
Tomorrow’s expectations are based on today's resultsLower the results of today so that you may tame the results of tomorrow
We need to add the stability line
This way we may manage change leaning upon the
experiences we gained from trying to
manage/mismanage inflation