There is often a mistaken idea about how decision-making in STEM organizations works. It’s based on the assumption that STEM leaders are calm, driven by data and facts, and are mostly using the left hemisphere of their brains. It’s easy then to overlook the role of emotions and non-rational factors. This is the case, particularly when leaders are “in the hot seat” and are called to make decisions under stress.
Last week gave me a good lesson on this, albeit in a different context. I took a training course on catamaran sailing. My first time on a sailboat was over 30 years ago, which means I consider myself reasonably competent in handling a boat. However, this was my first time on a cat. Our instructor had a similar history. She’s been teaching sailing courses for decades. She’s been on catamarans before, but it was her first time teaching on one.
There were four students, so we took turns doing various maneuvers, including docking the boat. Docking is one of the most stressful situations. The boat moves towards a solid object, but it has to maintain a certain speed to maintain control, so there is a high risk of damage to the boat.
Sam was the first at the helm to attempt to moor the boat. The stress got the better of our instructor. The closer we got to the dock, the more rapid her commands became. It quickly came to the point that the commands became confusing and overwhelming. Then the commands also came too quickly for her own good; she gave a few wrong commands and had to reverse them, which resulted in overall mayhem. Our instructor started to yell at us, especially the helmsman, and the maneuver completely fell apart. With a lot of luck, we made it to the dock undamaged.
Kudos to our instructor for recognizing what went wrong. In the debriefing, she acknowledged that it was her actions that had created the chaos and made it difficult for the entire crew.
Fast forward to Keri’s turn for the next docking attempt. This time, everyone was apprehensive about how it would turn out. We were all cautiously hopeful because of the honesty of the debrief. Unfortunately, the entire situation repeated itself.
Fast forward again, with Nina at the helm, and once again, it was pretty much the same.
Finally, it came to be my turn at the helm. I knew if I handled the situation like everyone else did, it would unfold in the same way, yet again. When the instructor went into ‘stress mode,’ I decided to shut out her flurry of commands. I decided not to attempt to execute the commands and instead make my own decisions to get the boat safely to the dock. She noticed that calm actually helped, so she quieted, in return. It ended up being the smoothest docking of the trip. Again, kudos to her for the self-awareness. In the debriefing, she thanked me for ignoring her frenzy and keeping everyone calm.
The lesson from this: sometimes leaders are trapped in their own patterns. This is also true when it comes to decision-making in STEM organizations. As much as everyone knows that being trapped in patterns is not helpful, often no one does anything to change it, and the dysfunctional pattern repeats itself. As Albert Einstein famously said, “Doing the same thing again and again, and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.” If you see this happen, have the courage to do things differently.
Sometimes a little bit of micro-mutiny can be helpful.
Take the next step
Where do you see the same negative pattern happen repeatedly, while no one does anything about it? In which situations do you see unhelpful patterns in your leadership, yet no one raises it as a topic of conversation? What are instances where you see your team getting stuck because something does not get addressed? Have the courage to step out of the patterns and raise the performance of the entire team.
Related articles on Decision-Making in STEM Organizations: Metrics that Matter in STEM Organizations, Scientists Make Great Leaders! What!? Really??