Welcome back to the third and final post in our series, “The Internet Boom and Office Politics: Not a Match Made in Heaven.” In Part One, we discussed a curious phenomenon called “The Dunning-Kruger Effect,” whereby less-competent individuals see themselves as more skilled than they are – a distorted perception that can make relating to others difficult, and working in an office environment problematic (for everyone). While challenges related to Dunning-Kruger can be seen in all sorts of business environments, problems are often compounded at the online sector, mainly due to the dynamic nature of the Internet itself.

As discussed in Part Two, and as anyone in the industry can tell you, things move fast on the web. Being successful requires tenacity, continuing education, and a keen interest in the moves of major players, like Google, for example – whose mere flick of its proverbial wrist can send an affiliate marketer or advertiser scrambling to stay in the game. With ground rules always shifting, it’s hard enough to manage a team, let alone compensate for a lack of insight on behalf of one or more players.

The goal of our closing post? To identify steps employers can solve the knotty problem.

Why it’s Smart to Treat Dunning-Kruger like an Infectious Disease

To mitigate the effects of Dunning-Kruger in the workplace, employers must diagnose the problem before it has a chance to spread. In the end, overconfidence is like a virus - it starts innocently enough but once it spreads the damage is likely done. Let’s look at a few targeted solutions as posed by Business Pundit:

1. Use as many measurable standards of performance as possible. Even idiots have a difficult time refuting concrete performance goals.

While by no means is this a quick-fix, once you establish continual metrics to measure team performance, it will be easier to see where the ball is getting dropped - and from there you can investigate how and why it happened. If discrepancies in performance are a product of communication problems, a failure to follow protocol, poor individual performance, or a general sense of malaise within a group, it will be easier to suss out once you have the facts - and only then can you start asking targeted questions. Numbers may not lie, but how the numbers got there is often up for discussion, which brings me to suggestion #2…

2. Encourage dissension and debate. This is tough, because if this is not handled properly, it can build a culture of negativity and risk aversion. Your goal shouldn’t be to avoid risk, just to expose and understand it.

‘Tough’ is an understatement - but it is my belief dissension and debate are necessary for growth.  ‘Tis true, encouraging debate among coworkers can lead to an open-forum where people feel comfortable tossing out whatever is on their mind, and if a group is already on shaky ground, more negativity could destroy any remaining motivation. Still, people need and want to be heard, and they want to find a solution. Listen to what is going on and set the tone. Praise decisions, actions, and ideas you find commendable, and offer constructive criticism regarding areas that need improvement. An unbiased voice of reason is often the smartest way to mitigate a hostile situation, especially one where leadership is undermined by frequent and complicated misunderstandings. Which leads me to suggestion #3…

3.  Show confidence in your best employees, even when they don’t have confidence in themselves.

This should be a given - often it is not. But when a group can barely function due to confusion regarding strategy, purpose, and overall goals, showing confidence in your best workers can set a long-lasting example regarding what is valued. While it can’t be expected that overconfident individuals will take the hint, it does reassure others they are on the right track…which can be just the little push a  team needs to finish a project in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, aka, someone who just doesn’t “get it.”

Ongoing education, team-building, and metaknowledge

The suggestions outlined above  are great ways to address Dunning-Kruger in your workplace, but it doesn’t stop here. Ongoing education across departments can also be helpful in educating team members. Someone who simply does not understand the scope of the industry in which he or she works can complicate a team’s progress, and when they think they have the understanding (overconfidence), it’s hard for anyone to convince them otherwise.

Similarly, team-building exercises, while sometimes cheesy, can work wonders on your bottom line. Is there real camaraderie among coworkers? Are people friendly by default or because time (and money) has been invested into creating a culture of co-appreciation? Find out. Anything that happens by default is not going to stand up over time - it must be nurtured.

Finally, and most importantly, get involved. Sit in on meetings, ask for notes, and continually ask “Why?” Metaknowledge is essential to understanding the depth and root of problems in the workplace. If there is someone on a team who consistently blocks progress (as is the case with Dunning-Kruger) and no one is saying so (for fear of retribution, being seen as a trouble-maker, or simply being accustomed to getting by without moving forward), ascertaining why things were handled in a certain way will bring you closer to identifying the issue at hand.

In the end, Dunning-Kruger, overconfidence, and related syndromes are a fact of life. They cannot be avoided, but they can be dealt with in ways that make our lives easier. If you’re lucky (and persistent), addressing these problems in your place of business may have positive side-effects - like happier workers, more productive teams, and bigger profits.

Until next time…

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Welcome to part two of our series, “The Internet Boom and Office Politics: Not A Match Made in Heaven.” While Charles Darwin once said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge,” David Dunning and Justin Krueger took the witticism to heart.

As discussed in our 1st post, Dunning and Krueger conducted a study to examine the relationship between personal competence and awareness. The findings suggested less competent people often fail to see their own inadequacy, and have difficulty recognizing value and skill in others, a phenomenon duly labeled “The Dunning-Krueger Effect.” The results of such egocentric thinking patterns are many: problematic personal relationships, frequent misunderstandings, and a lack of genuine support from one’s peers.

But the problem doesn’t stop there. Place a person under the influence of Dunning-Krueger in an office setting and relationships can suffer. In picking up where we left off last time, let’s look at some of the ways the Dunning-Krueger Effect can disrupt office peace.

The affect in the workplace

When interacting with a coworker who holds a skewed perception of reality (a defining characteristic of Dunning-Krueger), others can feel like hostages. Meetings are frequently held to achieve a common goal, but when a participant cannot see his or her role in the bigger picture, work can feel like an uphill battle – and gaining ground can be difficult. A team member who sees themselves as always correct can damn a group’s efforts with interruptions, misguided advice, and mistakes that result from a failure to cooperate. The rest of the group is left with the task of moving forward, despite internal sabotage, and many find themselves spending precious time brainstorming ways to work around the ‘problem.’ To say communication becomes strained is an understatement; to say productivity is halted is a fact.

The interoffice aftermath?

Frustration, for everyone, and in many cases, dissension among coworkers, a lack of motivation, and even bitterness - for being undervalued, under appreciated, and nary given credit for a job well done; after all, there’s little time for praise when the focus is on fighting fires.

Aside from dissension within the group, an even trickier consequence may surface, one that often involves some of the most talented individuals. If things do not improve, and the situation is not rectified by the powers that be, valuable and skilled but perhaps less vocal folks may seek refuge elsewhere, at a place growth and productivity is fostered, rather than stunted, by those unable to see the forest for the trees.

Why the spirit of the online sector compounds the problem

While Dunning-Krueger and related effects cause problems in all industries and walks of life, introduce them into the online sector, and things can get shifty fast. Whereas traditional brick-and-mortar operations tend to revolve around time-tested strategies, explicit job descriptions, and familiar modes of operation, in the online world things are less rigid, and rarely as defined.

The sheer nature of Internet marketing and technology is dynamic. Teams are made up of a slew of people with highly specialized talents, who may or may not understand the role played by their peers. Change is constant, strategic and technological developments are plenty, and knowledge is a mere click, study, or multi-variate test away. And while getting everyone on the same page is never easy, with key factors in flux, the challenge is magnified. Add a lack of insight on behalf of one or more parties to the mix, and it’s easy to see how quickly things can go awry.

The good news – there is hope

That’s right, folks. Where there is a will, there is a way. Since the prevalence of Dunning-Krueger and its toll on workplace relations has come to light, solutions have been investigated. There are innovative and exciting ways online companies can combat this thorny problem and improve workplace harmony…but you have to come back to find out what they are!

Until next time…

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The 2008 Inc. 500 list was released today and Wpromote was honored with the #243 spot. A 1,076.4% increase from 2004 to 2007 allowed Wpromote to grab the #1 ranking among Search Engine Marketing companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. We also received the #9 ranking among all online advertising companies nationwide and #18

for the general Advertising & Marketing group.

On this year’s list just under half the honorees were making their second consecutive appearance. Mothner said, “Wpromote is thrilled to be recognized as an entrepreneurial growth leader by Inc. 500 for two years consecutively. It is a testament to our mission of exceeding the expectations of our clients, which is made possible through the caliber of people on our team, the innovation of our technology and our ongoing dedication to raising the bar in the field of search engine marketing.”

Senior Whole Health topped this years list with $147 million in revenue in 20007 and a three-year growth rate of 31,525%! This is a Massachusetts based company that seeks to keep Medicare and Medicaid recipients out of nursing facilities by providing in-home alternatives such as visiting nurses. The largest company on the list reached the billion-dollar level, Vizio reported $1.9 billion in revenue.

This year’s Inc. 5000 list (the extended online version) “reveals tremendous growth, incredible variety, and a reflection of the times. The economy may be sluggish, but it hasn’t slowed them down. Together, they bring in $185.4 billion in revenue,” says Inc.com staff. Check out what else the Inc. editors had to say about the companies on this year’s list and their stellar performance.

Full Press Release of Wpromote’s performance can be found Here.

Full Press Release of the Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 lists can be found Here.

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The Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Lake Wobegon Effect. The Overconfidence Effect.

You may have heard of some or all these terms, or they may be new to you. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is your willingness to understand them - to learn their definitions, the context in which they apply, and absorb the knowledge to the best of your ability. Simple, right?

Not so fast.

For many people who experience the above-named effects, learning new things is a challenging task, not only for the person who experiences life through a sometimes crippling filter of self-importance, but also, for his or her peers.

The origin of Krueger-Dunning and related effects

In December of 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger published the results of a study they conducted with Cornell undergraduates. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between personal competence and awareness, using a series of tests designed to measure participants abilities in areas like grammar, humor, and logic.

The results demonstrated by and large that those who performed poorly on tests tended to overestimate their abilities, as well as underestimate those of their peers. Specifically, it was found that:

Overall, as Dunning and Krueger noted, study participants who scored in the bottom quartile on tests overestimated their ability grossly - imagining themselves to be on average 50% more skilled than they were. However, those who performed well on tests tended to underestimate their abilities.

In the end, those afflicted with the Dunning-Krueger effect tend to make poor decisions, inaccurate judgments, and experience difficulty communicating with and working with others.

What happens in the workplace

Take a group of people sitting at a conference table conducting a meeting. You have the meeting leader, which can be anyone - the director of a department, a CEO, the head designer of a creative team, or the communications manager - it all depends on the purpose of the meeting. Then you have the rest of the meeting participants. And then you have the person under the influence of one of the above-named effects, who, sometimes unintentionally, overestimates their worth in relation to his or her peers’, and has trouble making accurate assessments, due to a simple but deep seated lack of insight.

The outcome of this all-too-common workplace scenario? Come back to find out.

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