Welcome to part two of my ten part series dedicated to cultivating the best environment for independent thinking. Next up, equality. Perhaps the easiest of the components to spot because, when you witness a meeting facilitated within a Time to ThinkⓇ environment, everyone is given equal time, equal turns and equal opportunity to think. But that simplicity belies the complexity behind this component. It’s an area of great tension, and perhaps the one I find myself struggling with the most because, in all honesty, I can at times be a little unequal in my thinking; dare I say it, a little bit snobby - but I’m working on that!
Our world is rife with inequality, and the gulf continues to widen in almost all areas of humanity, despite equality taking centre stage in most national constitutions. For the French, “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”! For the US, their 14th amendment (among others, including some yet to be ratified). As for the British, well, we don’t have a constitution, but we have a host of different laws and acts of parliament, and equality is sprinkled all over the place. (Please don’t take the Magna Carta as a starting point; we’ve come a long way since King John). Regardless, we all recognise the importance of equality, but so rarely do we actually pursue it.
Time to Think offers the following definition (or perhaps we should describe it as an overarching direction or guide) in pursuit of equality;
“Regarding each other as thinking peers, giving equal time to think.”
It comes across as a directive, and actively cultivating a culture of equality within the workplace can be a phenomenally powerful pursuit. Creating an environment where everyone feels equally heard invariably drives innovation and creativity. Voices that otherwise remain quiet are amplified and, with egos checked, it can be immensely liberating, sending psychological safety in the work environment skyrocketing.
But are we really thinking peers?
Placing snobbery and elitism aside, are we all equally capable of thinking well?
With my life-long bestie holding an MSc in Neuroscience, I cringe a little as I peek into layman’s neuroscience, but there’s a story to be told here. Science has now shown that we continue to develop brain cells as adults, through a process known as Adult Neurogenesis. Predominantly, this occurs in the hippocampus (the seahorse-shaped part, roughly in the centre), mainly associated with storing long-term memories and in making those memories resistant to forgetting (the latter part here is still under debate.) As a study of London cabbies undertaking ‘the knowledge’ - a detailed appreciation of the many complex roads and routes throughout London - demonstrated, by the end of their studies they had generated an above average number of neurons in their hippocampus; their brains were physically denser. So, how we live our lives, and how we direct our minds can have a physical and measurable effect on our brains. Physically, our brains are not equal.
But hold on. I’ve made quite a jump, concluding that enlarged mass in one area of the brain means that the owner of that brain can think better. That’s certainly not proven. In fact there are multiple studies looking at brain mass v’s intelligence in animals, and the two often don’t correlate, depending on how you define intelligence.
Interestingly, and conversely, neuroscience has also shown that stress is one of the most prolific causes for the retardation of adult neurogenesis. It slows down the creation of new brain cells. This is a key insight for the workplace manager. In most office environments, stress is rampant, and the one thing that promotes that stress is a lack of psychological safety. And the most powerful driver for psychological safety is a sense of - you guessed it - equality. So, irrespective of whether our brains are bigger or smaller, if we consider ourselves a team and we want to get the most out of the team, we need to treat each other as equals. (As an aside, in a number of polls, taxi driving sat in the top ten ‘most stressful jobs’. I suppose everything evens out in the end.)
the most powerful driver for psychological safety is a sense of - you guessed it - equality.
So perhaps the size of our brains is irrelevant, but what about skills, information and experience? Some people just know more than others, don’t they? Some people have experienced more than others, even if that’s only as a result of years spent on this planet. In this regard, we’re clearly not equal. People spend years developing expertise in specific areas, and so if the topic lies in that area, clearly they are going to be better equipped to provide solutions.
Except when they don’t. They may know more, but are they ‘thinking better’? More often than not, progress and innovation comes from thinking outside of the box. Often, it’s when people come together with different expertise that they are able to make a giant leap forward. This whole inquiry into whether we are or are not equal has completely missed the point, and also strayed a million miles away from the very clear directive offered at the start; to regard each other as thinking peers.
No, we are not equal in terms of what we know, or indeed in our ability to process data. But that’s OK, because the component is not a statement about the world, but rather a directive of how we should be. If we regard each other as thinking peers, and give each other time to think, stress levels drop, blood flows to all the brains in the room, and together we make leaps forward in our shared thinking.
Still, as a directive, it really isn’t easy for us humans, no matter how egalitarian we think we might be. We all play roles, and those roles change from moment to moment, some becoming a repeated narrative. When we walk into a room we walk in with our beliefs in tow; beliefs about ourselves and about others. We have agendas, some we’re aware of, some we are not. We position ourselves as more than or less than the other people as we constantly size ourselves up in comparison. We’re hard-wired to do this; to position ourselves in relation to others in terms of more than or less than, and it’s incredibly hard to overcome this evolved way of thinking. Nevertheless, the solution is simple (though much like attention, it’s an endless practice we will probably never quite perfect). All that’s required is a reminder of our equality in the sense that we are all fallible, unique human-beings. I know that feels simplistic and perhaps even naive, (like the tips you read in books like ‘the little book of calm’) but it’s true and well worth repeating to ourselves, over and over.
We’re hard-wired to do this; to position ourselves in relation to others, in terms of more than or less than
Equally, courage can be a useful tool when you enter into a team. With some tact, if you’re aware of your agenda, or become aware of your agena and the role you’re playing, see if you can share it. In doing so, you’ll set the precedent for others to do likewise. Personal agendas can drive dominance, passivity and even subservience in some cases. Only by daring to share them, can we have any realistic chance of getting past them and achieving the liberation of equality. Fractures in groups can and will happen in this process. You will shock and upset people, so the conflict averse will find it especially hard, but the potential for equality to follow with reflection and understanding invariably builds the team back stronger. Ultimately though, if you can walk into a room of new faces, replacing thoughts about yourself with excitement about what the others have to say, (perhaps even more excited about those people where your instincts scream ‘no!’) and a reminder to yourself that, whatever your role, it is just a role, and not your identity, then and only then can equality take precedence. If we can just recognise that, just like us and irrespective of the roles they're trying to play, they are also fallible, unique, thinking entities, then our minds will boggle and wonder at the excellent thinking which unfolds.
So, egos and agendas aside, as best we’re able, there’s still another significant barrier to equality in the work environment - time. More often than not, in order to apply our minds to a problem equally together, some information needs to be shared to get everyone on the same page, and that invariably takes time. It becomes a leap of faith when we choose to take the time. We need to believe that the investment of time will be rewarded, and it is, in three ways, provided we share our information with as little bias as possible. Firstly, pursuing equality through the sharing of information enables more minds to apply themselves to the problem. Those different minds will come at the problem from unique angles, illuminating it all the more brightly. Secondly, in doing so, these minds will feel united. That feeling of togetherness then increases psychological safety, decreases stress, gives neurogenesis a chance and liberates everyone to make more leaps forward, together. Finally, in sharing our knowledge with others, we tend to solidify and clarify them for ourselves. It’s a wonderful, virtuous circle and a win, win, win all round.
So we aren’t equal in so many ways, and regarding each other as thinking equals isn’t easy. Indeed it runs contrary to how we’ve evolved. Nevertheless, if we can walk into a room regarding everyone as thinking peers and lavishing each other with generative attention, excited about where the group’s thinking could go, then that’s when true innovation happens, and in the process, draws everyone a little bit closer. Doing this is a skill that will be constantly challenged and refined, but fortunately the first steps are easy; equal Time, equal turns and equal opportunity to think.
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