"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." -Pat Riley
DOES IT BOTHER YOU WHEN PEOPLE WRITE EMAILS IN ALL CAPS?1
EARLY IN MY CAREER, I WAS ON A LISTSERVE WHERE SOMEONE WROTE EMAILS PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY, AND THE EMAILS WERE ALWAYS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS. I THINK HE THOUGHT THAT DOING SO MADE IT CLEAR HOW STRONGLY HE BELIEVED IN WHAT HE WROTE.
Shortly after I joined this listserve, I realized that I should ignore this person's emails and that, quite frankly, very little of what he wrote was substantive.
HOWEVER, BECAUSE HE ALWAYS WROTE IN ALL-CAPS, I CANNOT UN-SEE HIS EMAILS TO THIS DAY.
Clearly, I need to lighten up.
This person created an external stimulus to get the listserve’s attention. Since I’ve never forgotten these emails, mission accomplished. And if an annoying but relatively innocuous choice by someone I barely know can disrupt my equilibrium, I shudder at the thought of how much salient stimuli impact my attention.
Hopefully, it’s relatively easy for you to identify the “main thing” in your leadership role; to succeed at this central priority, you must maintain balance amidst countless large and small stimuli.
But it’s much harder than it looks.
Attentional Bias
At first glance, the idea that we all have trouble paying attention to our most important priorities seems obvious. Everyone knows that strategic focus is a weak spot for many organizations.
However, this weakness spans major priorities to small changes that should not make a difference, but for the basis of this week’s heuristic, the attentional bias (which means exactly what it sounds like.)
By way of example, take a look at the photo below:2
This picture is an exhibit used to demonstrate what today is known as the “Stroop Effect,”3 a reference to John Ridley Stroop’s 1935 article on interference in verbal reactions.4 Here’s how it works:
In the first group, each word's color corresponds to its color name (i.e., the word “Green” is in green, the word “Yellow” is in yellow, etc.)
In the second group, we see the same words, only the color of these words does not correspond to the color designated by the word itself.
When a person is asked to identify the word “Purple,” they find the word faster when the colors correspond than when they do not.
While there is no reason why a word describing a color and the color of the word must be the same, Stroop finds that our minds are conditioned to associate a color with a color word to the point that we cannot effectively assimilate a mismatch, even if it only adds a second to our reaction time.
Raising the stakes, if our minds are conditioned to focus too much on something as simple as the color of a word and the word itself, imagine how much more time our limited attention can be drawn to things that matter little to our success, yet occupy a great deal of our time.
In particular, Stroop and other researchers find that the attentional bias has a particularly strong effect on things we perceive to be external threats (the key word being “perceive), such as:
Calling a senior staff meeting because someone wrote a nasty but uninformed comment about your organization on social media.
Monopolizing time with the 2% of members/parents/congregants/students who demand too much of your time.
Major news events have an ancillary relationship to the organization’s core mission yet draw top leadership into writing statements and scheduling emergency visits with little impact.
(I can see you nodding glumly right now.)
The impact of threats on our attention led several psychologists to identify something they call attentional threat bias (ATB), where our mind is pre-disposed to see things as threats, even when they are not because evolution results in human beings having an “efficient and accurate detection and identification of cues associated with threat and danger.”5 However, just because our mind is more sensitive to threats does not mean that every threat we perceive is the major priority of the moment.
This brings us back to Pat Riley's quote.
The “main thing” is not always screaming for our attention; it is usually unsexy and grueling, requiring time and focus. And if we ever wonder why too many organizations seem to be focusing on what would be charitably called “nonsense” instead of real work, we need to look no further than a paucity of attention.
True North
When I lose my balance, I reach for my true north.
Friends and colleagues who know me well probably hear me use this term occasionally; to understand it fully, read Bill George’s book True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. True North (TN) is a simple idea but essential to internalize when needed.
If attention is fickle even for the most disciplined leaders under the best of circumstances, imagine how hard keeping attention becomes under difficult circumstances. When external stimuli come seemingly out of nowhere to disrupt equilibrium, it is easy to forget what keeps us grounded. Much like gravity, George argues that the best leaders are ones who have a clear understanding of the “internal compass that guides you successfully…who you are as a human being at the deepest level.”6 Like north on a compass, TN is a force that can keep a person moving in a forward direction even when bumps over along the way.
George argues that TN typically connects to what he calls personal “crucibles,” moments where we “test…our limits” in a manner such that these moments permanently impact “our lives and our self-perceptions.”7 While one’s immediate reaction to this statement is to assume that George wants us to find our TN through tragedy, George argues that finding one’s crucible is less about tragedy and more about “the real test[s] of your character…[that can be] transformative experiences that empower you to reframe your life's meaning.”8
During my journey, some personal crucibles came through tragedy, like when I lost a close friend from USY when I was 16.
But other moments came from inspiration, like when the synagogue in which I grew up moved to a new location rather than die a painful death.
Still, other examples were goal-oriented, like the first (and, to date, only) time I ran a marathon to raise money for AJWS.
And, of course, I started Moneyball Judaism during a personal crucible.
The examples vary, yet what they share in common is that I can summon these examples and how I move from one chapter to the other each time a new, unexpected disruption comes my way.
This common thread is one reason why George’s concept of TN is so powerful when you think about where you give your attention as a leader. The toughest moments in leadership journeys always involve some disequilibrium, whether from without or within. And yet remembering one’s TN allows us to get our feet back on the ground when we might otherwise fall down. George writes:
“It is hardest to cope with crucibles when you're in the midst of them, as you may feel so much pain that you cannot see the lessons that come from the experience. To navigate through a crucible, you need to believe in yourself and your purpose in life and summon the inner strength and courage to endure. These difficult times also require the affirmation and support of those closest to you.”9
The best part about TN?
While I’d argue that everyone needs to have a TN to be successful, TNs remain unique to each person, even if they are something from which we can all benefit. At a time when much of the Jewish world needs a common language to stay grounded, finding our individual TNs is a great place to start.
AND is the Future
90
Moneyball Judaism would not exist without the scholarship of Daniel Kahneman, who died this week at 90.
May his memory be a blessing.
What I Read This Week
Can Some People Afford Luxury Beliefs?: We live in a time of great wealth inequality, but typically this refers to material possessions, not mental states. But do luxury beliefs exist?
Curing Addition Sickness in Organizations: Sometimes, organizations claiming they want to innovate add layers to processes to the point where excellent performance becomes rare.10 Here’s an article on the symptoms of “addition sickness” and how to cure it.
Our Genes, or Our Environment?: Our friends Chris Worsham and Bapu Jena describe a fascinating study about childhood allergies in Amish and Hutterite communities. The findings are a window into a scientific debate about how our environment affects our health.
Why Trans Kids Have the Right to Change Their Bodies: Protecting trans kids saves lives. Thorough and thoughtful.
ChatGPT is Funnier Than You: Well, kind of. And not.
Remember, Yoni: You get one guess.
Fun fact: I used the Stroop Effect for my 8th grade science fair project.
Ibid., 60.
Ibid., 62.
Ibid.