Presentation to AHRI’s OD&D Chapter
Melbourne | 13th May 2014
Quentin Jones & Margherita Larné-Jones
Directors, CLS360 Pty. Ltd.
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CD
Listeners are advised that this presentation is rated CD.
It may contain statements that cause discomfort,
irritation, and possibly a desire to argue vigorously with
the presenter.
If you experience any of the above, you are likely
experiencing symptoms of ‘Cognitive Dissonance,’ a
common condition in homo sapiens that can only be
treated with large and frequent doses of hard evidence.2
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Cognitive Dissonance
§  A feeling of psychological discomfort by holding two
opposing beliefs and attitudes simultaneously.
§  Leon Festinger, a social psychologist, developed
the theory more than 50 years ago:
!
1.  We are sensitive to inconsistencies between actions and
beliefs and are more comfortable with consistency than
inconsistency, seeking homeostasis, or balance.
2.  Recognition of this inconsistency will cause the
unpleasant experience of 'dissonance,' motivating an
individual to reduce or eliminate the dissonance, and
achieve 'consonance' (i.e., agreement).
3.  Dissonance is resolved in one of three basic ways: a)
change beliefs; b) change actions; or c) change
perception of action (Festinger, 1957).
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Question
What if you were confronted by the evidence that
most of your leadership development tools and
practices were not supported by modern science?
You experience a whole lot of Cognitive
Dissonance expressed as frustration and
resistance, which if you embrace, opens up to an
exciting world of discovery, of unlearning, and
relearning.
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Alvin Toffler
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those
who cannot read and write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Alvin Toffler
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Unlearning…
§  Think of an occasion in your life when you have
‘unlearnt’ something.
§  It may be:
o  A belief e.g., the earth is flat
o  A value e.g., personal, religious
o  A practice e.g., burns treatment (Ariely, “Predictably
Irrational”)
o  A model e.g., leadership
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Around Leadership
§  “Around Leadership:
Bridging the ScientistPractitioner Gap” by
Patrick Vermeren
§  “This book is...a
theoretical and
practical handbook for
leaders.” (p. 4)
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However…
New research is giving us profound, fresh insights
into how our brain distorts reality – cognitive
biases – reducing our capacity to learn and
unlearn, and ultimately change.
Cognitive dissonance and the associated
cognitive biases distort our perceptions, hindering
our learning and unlearning.
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Some Common Cognitive Biases
§  Confirmation bias: The tendency to search for or
interpret information in a way that confirms one's
preconceptions. Confirmation bias is related to
the concept of cognitive dissonance, whereby
individuals may reduce inconsistency by searching
for information that re-confirms their views
(Jermias, 2001, p. 146)[27].
§  Sunk costs bias: The irrational consideration of
sunk costs when making decisions about the future.
§  Self-serving bias: The tendency to claim more
responsibility for successes than failures.
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Some Common Cognitive Biases
§  Belief bias: When one's evaluation of the logical
strength of an argument is biased by their belief in
the truth or falsity of the conclusion.
§  IKEA bias: The tendency for people to place a
disproportionately high value on objects that they
partially assembled themselves, such as furniture
from IKEA, regardless of the quality of the end
result.
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Your Cognitive Biases
§  Chat to your group about your experience of
cognitive biases:
1.  Which ones do you observe yourself doing?
2.  Which do you observe others doing?
3.  What are some outcomes of these biases?
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Debiasing
§  Cognitive biases can be controlled.
§  Debiasing is a technique which aims to decrease
biases by encouraging individuals to use controlled
processing compared to automatic processing
(Baumeister & Bushman, 2010, p. 155).
§  Taking an evidence-based approach to our work
and life is central to being more rational – versus
being ‘predictably irrational’ - and ultimately more
effective.
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Science is like a candle in the dark (Carl Sagan) Copyright © 2007-2014. Licensed exclusively to CLS360 Pty. Ltd.
Our Belgian Partners
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Evidence-Based
(EB)?
Experience-­‐
Informa/on-­‐
Evidence-­‐
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What is EB?
§  “Be committed to ‘fact based’ decision making—
which means being committed to getting the best
evidence and using it to guide actions,” (Pfeffer &
Sutton, http://evidence-basedmanagement.com/).
§  EB Medicine: Studies have shown that only about
15% of physicians’ decisions are evidence based.
§  In short, what guides them is what they believe
rather than the latest and best knowledge of what
actually works (Sackett, D. et al., 2002. EvidenceBased Medicine: How to Teach and Practice EBM.
London: Wolfe).
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Why is EB important?
§  Risks of non-evidence based
o  Ethical (EB)
-  False accusations (parents,…)
-  Damaged self-image & self-efficacy
-  Worsening of behavioural problems
-  Post-traumatic stress
-  Wrong career decisions
-  Losing perspective of earning more
-  Categorisation and prejudices
o  Legal: liability
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Why is EB important?
§  Last but not least:
We are sure it works!
You can be sure it works.
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Evidence-Based Criteria
1.  Sound theory
o  Convergent with other scientific domains: biology,
evolutionary psychology, physics…
o  Empirically tested hypotheses (confirmation or falsification/
refutation)
2.  Statistics
o  Internal reliability of scales
o  High test-retest stability
o  Convergent validity
o  Predictive validity
3.  Published in peer-reviewed, A1 journals – replication,
meta-analysis
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Our Belgian Partners
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Literature Review – Popular but
Non-evidence Based
§ 
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§ 
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§ 
MBTI®
Situational Leadership (II) ®
Transactional Analysis
LIFO ®
Kolb learning styles
Thomas-Kilmann Instrument
Yearly appraisal talk with score
Belbin Team Roles ®
Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs
Mehrabian 7/38/55% myth
Robert Quinn (meta!)
Change & Kübler-Ross
(classic) Time Management
1921 (Jung), 1942 (Myers)
1969
1961
1967
1984
1970
1921
1969
1943
1967
1983
1969
1919
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…and bring science in!
§ 
§ 
§ 
§ 
Evolutionary Psychology
FFM or personality or Big Five
CBT protocols
Proven pedagogical methods
1981
1986
1995
o  Priming (1964) & self-convincing
1993
1974
1999
1997
o  Behavioral Modeling Training
o  AER (after event reviews)
§  A true circumplex!
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Still missing: a good leadership
measure
§  Evidence-based quest for a leadership tool
o  Commercial tests: ILS (Hay Group), Quinn
Competing Values, SL & SLII (Hersey, Blanchard)
o  Scientific tests: Syroit, MLQ (Bass & Avolio)…
-  Not the full range of leadership (e.g., MLQ no
passive or aggressive)
-  Reliability of scales too low (e.g., MLQ .60)
§  Only the ‘bright side’ of leadership, not the
‘dark side’ (destructive) of leadership
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What is Leadership?
§  At the core of recent leadership thinking is the
idea of influence.
§  A leader’s unique role is to influence others.
§  And to influence others is to interact with others,
and this is expressed uniquely in a leader’s
interpersonal behaviour.
§  Arguably, leadership is interpersonal behaviour;
how leaders behave towards others and how
others react in turn will determine their influence
in any given situation and ultimately be the
measure of them as leaders.
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What is the CLS360?
§  CLS360 stands for Circumplex Leadership Scan
360°
§  The CLS360 is an evidence-based, scientifically
rigorous assessment
§  Designed specially for leaders, it measures
leadership interpersonal behaviours
§  A leader’s behaviour along eight different
leadership styles is plotted onto an interpersonal
circumplex
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The CLS360 – 4 Quadrants, 8 Styles
§  Quadrants:
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
Charismatic
Democratic
Avoiding
Autocratic
§  Styles
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
Inspirational
Coaching
Participative
Yielding
Withdrawn
Distrustful
Authoritarian
Directive
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Sample CLS360 Results Plotted on
the Leadership Circumplex
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Predictive Validity: Effectiveness as Rated
by Others
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General Manager Wholesale
Ideal
Self
Total Raters
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Copyright © 2007-2014.
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Copyright © 2007-2014. Licensed exclusively to CLS360 Pty. Ltd.
CD
Listeners are advised that this presentation is rated CD.
It may contain statements that cause discomfort,
irritation, and possibly a desire to argue vigorously with
the presenter.
If you experience any of the above, you are likely
experiencing symptoms of ‘Cognitive Dissonance,’ a
common condition in homo sapiens that can only be
treated with large and frequent doses of hard evidence.
36
Copyright © 2007-2014. Licensed exclusively to CLS360 Pty. Ltd.
Questions
§  Any questions?????
§  For further information please contact us:
o  Quentin
[email protected] or 0419 531 533
o  Margherita
[email protected] or 0477 299 829
o  CLS360 website
www.cls360.com
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