The Biggest Danger to Your Organisation

organizations around the world

are currently obsessed with data and

this makes sense right

leaders believe that if they can just

get the right data and the right

information

then they’ll make better decisions well

i’m here to tell you

that’s not true that actually leaders

are fundamentally

hardwired to make some pretty poor

decisions

add in the multiplier effect of big data

and we’re talking about some

very scary potential results but there

is a way out of this

leaders can actually rewire themselves

to stop behaving this way they can

actually rewire

their own data there’s just one problem

which is this cannot be learned

intellectually

you can’t read it in a book or be told

to stop behaving this way

we are so fundamentally hardwired not to

be open

in the way that i’m about to be open

with you that the only way that you can

get access to this different way of

being

is to discover it for yourself

well how do you do that you can start by

being open

start by listening to this conversation

like you’ve never

had a conversation like this before stop

trying to figure it out

or know where it’s going just let it

unfold

i invite you to set aside your normal

way of listening

which is like a commentator up in the

stands judging what’s going on

down there on the field

and instead i invite you to listen like

you’re actually on the field

right here with me like everything i’m

saying

is about you and can make a real

difference in your life

like this conversation is about you

are you willing to do that

then let’s begin the first thing to get

is that no matter who you are

what your title is or how accomplished

you are

you are a human being this is true for

the co

for the ceo members of parliament

top scientists renowned experts everyone

we’re all human and as humans we are

fundamentally hardwired

to hide we all have experiences in our

lives that teach us

that hiding is safer we take a risk we

put ourselves out there

and when we get shut down we learn not

to do that again

so we learn to hide aspects of who we

are

things we think might make us look

stupid or look bad

we hide from situations that might

embarrass us

even people’s names when was the last

time you were in a conversation and you

forgot someone’s name

and instead of just asking them what’s

your name

you waited and hoped that someone else

would say it so that you could pretend

like you knew it all along

we all hide

this is how it works i’m three years old

i have this big yellow velour chair in

my room and i’m standing on it

and i’m holding a tube of lipstick and i

color the deepest darkest red circle i

can on my stomach and now i’m covering

the chair

my horse with war paint oh yes

i am preparing for battle and i am so

excited

and then i hear something on the stairs

dad’s coming and in that moment i know

i’m in trouble as my dad walks in i dive

behind the chair

lisey he says what are you up to and i

just freeze

and act like nothing

like hoping he won’t know that’s me that

did that to the chair

and that’s it in that moment my brain

hardwires

a formula for hiding this one works so

that anytime i think i’m in trouble

i immediately act like i don’t know what

you’re talking about

i didn’t know anything about that and

just like that

the wiring is in place the year i get my

driver’s license i get pulled over for

doing 78 miles per hour in a 55.

the officer walks up to my window and i

tell him hysterically

that it was impossible for me to know

that i was going that fast

i cried i actually believed myself

and that’s the point is i didn’t sit

there and decide

how to respond my hard wiring did

my brain went into its automatic mode of

hiding and i

had no say in the matter but it gets

worse

because that wiring it comes with us to

work

so now i’m 28. i’m a leader

i lead teams all across the u.s but when

things go badly

i dive behind the chair a staff member

comes and tells me

she has serious concerns about the way

we’re running some of our programs

and i just act like i don’t really know

about that doesn’t make sense

but actually i do no matter how

successful i am

i can’t be with making mistakes and i

never get

it’s because i’m desperately looking for

somewhere to hide

i used to treat people awfully

what i did i blamed my teams

that’s the kind of leader i could be

today

i have a choice i don’t treat people

like that anymore

our wiring to hide to lie

to fake it’s pervasive it runs you

and you don’t even know it your hard

wiring not you

is making decisions every day and you

have no say at all

i do an exercise with senior leaders i

put them

in an almost very embarrassing situation

almost

right before embarrassment happens i

have them stop

and they get to see for the first time

what their brains are doing they see

what they say to themselves

and they see what they do automatically

with

no chance of acting differently

in that moment one woman saw that when

she was 10 years old she was standing in

front of a class

and her teacher said to her you’re not

as smart as you think you are

39 years later she never spoke in

meetings and she didn’t know why

what she saw that day was her wiring

she had decided if she ever spoke up she

might get found out for being stupid

so she stayed quiet now this woman

speaks

and she let’s just say she

is not stupid

so let’s get a glimpse into how your

brain is running your life

with or without your permission so

wherever you are

i invite you to just gently close your

eyes

just close your eyes and just breathe

in and out just breathe

and start to notice the part of your

brain

that’s about judging what does it say to

you

it might sound like this is a pretty

dumb exercise

especially over video

it might sound like her voice is pretty

annoying

mine sounds like this room is freezing

just breathe and start to notice the

part of your brain

that’s about winning it might say

i could give this talk better or

i would have picked a better topic mine

says

i hope this is the most interesting ted

talk ever

just notice

notice that part of your brain that’s

about hiding

and about looking good it might sound

like

i hope i don’t look stupid with my eyes

closed

it might say if anyone asks i’ll say i

was just playing along

mine says what were you thinking telling

the whole world

what a crap manager you used to be

just notice

your brain is constantly talking to you

all day long it’s manufacturing things

it’s judging you and it’s judging other

people

it’s trying to win it’s making sure you

look good

that your faults are carefully hidden

and make darn sure you don’t look stupid

at work or in public

just notice that chatter in your brain

it never goes away

it’s looking at data

it’s making decisions

it’s coming with you to one-on-ones

it’s showing up at board meetings in

every organization

around the world

now open your eyes

now you’re starting to get a glimpse

into what’s happening

into who’s making decisions really

often when i run workshops like this

with senior leaders

i introduce myself the normal way i’m

lisa barrett

yale university i have an mba from

insead

became a partner at age 27 i’ve won tons

of awards

was a director at coursera set up a

venture capital fund

was a chief scientific advisor and

director of analysis at the uk ministry

of justice

and responsible for one of the largest

connected data projects in government

improving the ability to make decisions

for millions of people in fact probably

most of the country that’s who we say we

are right

our cv but what if we introduced

ourselves differently

like who am i really

for example one thing i

don’t normally share with people but

that did shape me is that i grew up in a

privileged family

and i remember taking some friends to my

grandparents house and the way that they

responded made me incredibly

embarrassed i never wanted to be seen

that way again

so i started acting like i didn’t have

much money i bought my clothes second

hand and by the time i was in my 30s i

didn’t feel comfortable spending money

on myself at all in fact i felt guilty

after i was hit by a car my boyfriend at

the time

begged me to get specialist medical care

and i told him

i couldn’t afford it

the way that i saw myself and hiding

from what i from how i grew up

it impacted how i treated myself and my

relationships with other people

it impacted everything

learning to be open about that has

allowed me to take better care of myself

it’s also allowed me to be proud of

myself and the decisions i’ve made in my

career

because i do care that everyone has

access to the kind of opportunities that

i

had growing up so the truth is

i am a successful business leader but

i’m also a human being

and when i introduce myself that way in

a room the whole room changes

even now maybe you can feel between us

we’re in a completely

different space from when we started

because the truth is underneath our

wiring

we all want to be seen

what does this have to do with data

everything do you know how difficult it

is for a senior leader to say that they

don’t have a clue what the blockchain is

that they don’t have any idea whether

it’s even relevant to their organization

or not

do you know how impossible it can feel

as a senior leader to be handed a

proposal

or a set of algorithms or a technical

product and be able to say

i don’t understand this our brains will

always tell us to hide that is how we

are wired

but it doesn’t have to be that way i

first saw this in very stark relief when

i worked alongside the guys who

literally built netflix

these guys are legendary and what i

noticed is they just kept asking really

simple questions

they would say things like how does it

work show me

or i don’t understand why are we doing

this

they would stop presentations and say

i’m sorry i just don’t get it

can you walk it through again can you do

it step by step

this is incredibly rare

leaders are not naturally inclined to

admit when we don’t get stuff

and i’m talking about decision makers

all over the world who are more likely

to pretend than to say

i don’t actually understand this massive

decision we’re making

these are people running major

corporations with vast amounts of

personal data who are investing heavily

in artificial intelligence these are

policy makers

who are writing the rules for how

privacy the exchange of information

the economy and personal rights will be

dictated in the future

these are the people running companies

and countries

around the world they’re all obsessed

with data

and they should be but they should get

very interested in the data

in their own heads because as i told you

at the beginning this is not something

you can just be told or read in a book

you won’t just start acting differently

you have to discover it for yourself

but when you discover something for

yourself like maybe you’ve started to

discover

something for yourself here today

you’ll always have that and the desire

to hide by the way

never goes away i consider myself to be

a sort of expert in these things and yet

i found myself

massively hiding at the beginning of

covid

i started a job in a new company with as

an exec

and as i got on zoom and met my

colleagues i realized there was

something

i really didn’t want them to know and

that’s that i don’t have children

because my brain was telling me how can

you be a real exec

if you don’t have kids did it impact my

ability to make good decisions you bet

it did

i was spending most of the time thinking

about not having that conversation than

paying attention to anything

that we were meant to be talking about

it really took something for me to tell

my colleagues not only that i don’t have

kids but this massive story had created

about it

but when i did it was hugely freeing and

the thing is

i want to be a great leader and great

leaders

have to constantly give up hiding

i don’t think the world wants more

leaders who are going to stand up and

pretend they’ve got it all figured out

that they have all the answers

i think the world wants people who are

going to stand up and say

i don’t know but we’ll figure it out

together

not hiding is so not normal

but it’s necessary for greatness and for

the type of leadership that makes any

kind of real difference with people

and for being fully alive and i know

that if you’re on the edge of this thing

if

you’ve been pretending for a long time

then this sounds terrifying

like what if you don’t have all the

answers

what if you have to put up your hand and

say i have been pretending

i don’t understand this stuff what if

you’re a senior leader you’re meant to

have it all figured out

and you really don’t

well welcome to the club

thank you for being bigger than the need

to hide

you