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One of the reasons performance
appraisals are so difficult and

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challenging is because they're fraught
with cognitive biases on both sides,

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the appraiser and the appraisee.

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And the purpose of this conversation is
to introduce some of these biases and

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understand how to overcome them.

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So we’ll talk about three
key cognitive biases.

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The fundamental attribution error,
the illusion of transparency, and

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the self-fulfilling prophecy.

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The fundamental attribution error
helps us understand the asymmetry, and

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how we attribute successes and
failures, for ourselves versus others.

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When I think of myself any my successes,

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I tend to make predominantly
internal attributions.

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I did well because I'm capable, I'm
skilled, I'm motivated, I'm hardworking.

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But when I fail, I more likely
to make external attributions.

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I didn't have the right boss.

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My teammates sucked.

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I didn't have the right
support from the organization,

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the right resources from the organization.

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What happens is this attribution
flips when we think of others.

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When I think of others, their successes,
they have a great boss.

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They have a great team.

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They had all the support they
needed from the organization.

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When they fail, it's all them.

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They're lazy.

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They're incompetent.

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Just think of how much asymmetry and

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perception the fundamental
attribution error creates.

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When you're just approaching
a performance appraisal.

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In this case, awareness of
the attribution error helps greatly,

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when you approach
a performance conversation.

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In the second course we'll also talk about
ways to systematically collect objective

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data to make sure that you infuse,

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More objectivity into performance
appraisal conversation.

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Now, the second bias that is very
prevalent in performance appraisals,

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is so called illusion of transparency.

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What that means is that we believe we're
more transparent than we're really are.

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So let me give you an example.

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One of the wonderful illustrations of
this bias was done by Elizabeth Newton

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in her doctoral dissertation
when she was still at Stanford.

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She designed an experiment where
she asked a group of people to

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tap out a familiar tune.

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Such as a song, Happy Birthday to You,
or an american anthem, and

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the second group of participants
was supposed to guess that song.

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Now when she asked the tappers
as to how many listeners,

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what percentage of the listeners,
would actually guess the song correctly.

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They said about 50%.

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In reality,
less than 2.5% guess the song correctly.

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And that's a great example
of illusion of transparency.

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Sometimes also referred to
as the curse of knowledge.

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Were as a tapper,
I hear the song in my head.

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I hear the lyrics.

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I hear the music, and
it is very difficult for

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me to envision the mindset
of the audience.

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That doesn't hear that music,
that doesn't hear the lyrics.

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We find this problem quite often when
experts communicate expert knowledge

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to a non-expert audience.

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There's often a massive comprehension gap,
simply because the experts cannot always

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envision and embrace mindset
of the non-expert audience.

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In performance appraisals,
I may believe that the goals,

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the expectations, the feedback I
communicate you is abundantly clear.

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But you walk away from this discussion
guessing as to what exactly I meant.

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In this video,

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count the number of times Miranda
engages in the illusion of transparency.

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To give you some context,
Miranda is one of the movers and

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shakers in the fashion industry and
she just hired Andy as her assistant.

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Andy is an aspiring journalist and knows
very little about the fashion industry.

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Take a look.
>> That's not what I asked you.

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I couldn't have been clearer.

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There you are, Emily, how many times
do I have to scream your name?

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>> Actually it's Andy.

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My name is Andy, Andrea, but
everybody calls me Andy.

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>> [LAUGH]
I need 10 or 15 skirts from Calvin Klein.

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>> Okay, what kind of skirts do you
>> Please bore someone else with your

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questions.

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And make sure we have Pier 59 at 8 AM
tomorrow and remind Jocelyn I need to

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see a few of those Satchels
that Marc is doing in the Pony.

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And then tell Simone that I'll take
Jackie if Maggie isn't available.

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Did Demarchelier confirm?

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>> The Demarchelier?

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>> Demarchelier, did he,
get him on the phone.

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>> Okay.

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And Emily.

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>> Yes?

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[MUSIC]

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>> That's all.

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It's just the cavalier disregard.

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>> You can see there are multiple examples
of illusion of transparency in this

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short segment.

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Miranda believes that Andy is supposed
to know what skirt she is asking for.

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That Andy is suppose to know the names
of the famous fashion photographers,

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such as Demarchelier.

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And she believes that her long stares
are sufficient to communicate to Andy

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that her dress style and
her shoes are not acceptable for

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someone working in the fashion industry.

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So again,
we need to recognize that a lot of us

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fall prey to this illusion
of transparency bias.

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And when you communicate feedback,
goals, expectations,

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it's really important to understand
that people are on the same page.

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One of the most effective ways to do so,
is continuously ask questions,

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to make sure that people
understand what you're saying.

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It's also a very good idea to ask people
to restate back to you what you just told

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them, especially when it comes to
critical goals and expectations.

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And the final challenge in performance
appraisal I would like for

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us to talk about It's called
the self-fulfilling prophecy.

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It was first discovered by Rosenthal and
Jacobson, who went into schools,

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approached teachers, and said,
these 20% of students, based on our tests,

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show unusual potential for
academic and intellectual growth.

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They give the names of those
students to the teachers.

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Now, at the end of the year,
the students labeled as intelligent

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registered a statistically significant
gains in their IQ, much more so

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than the other students in the class.

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Now, what's the catch?

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The catch is that these students
who were labeled as intelligent

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were chosen at random.

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They were not at all different
from the rest of the class.

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And the idea here is that our
expectations can become self fulfilling.

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If I believe you are capable,
you're skilled,

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I'm much more likely to trust you
with developmental opportunities.

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To make external
attributions when you fail.

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To forgive your transgressions and

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much more likely to devote more energy,
time attention to train and develop you.

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The opposite is true if I don't believe
you're capable, I'm less likely to

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trust you with developmental
opportunities, and I'm certainly less

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likely to spend time and energy on you,
in terms of your future development.

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Now, this effect was subsequently
replicated in a variety of professional

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settings with airmen,
pressers, welders, mechanics,

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and so on, where people were randomly
assigned to this high aptitude group.

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Who was in this high aptitude group was
very well known to the supervisors.

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And at the end of the training sessions,
the high aptitude pressers, welders,

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mechanics, airmen

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rated considerably higher in terms
of objective performance scores.

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They received high ratings from their
supervisors and even their peers.

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They were less likely to
leave the organization.

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I really like this quote from a famous
american 19th century poet and

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writer Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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He said treat a man as he is,
he will remain so.

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Treat a man the way he can be and
ought to be,

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he will become as he can be and should be.

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Approach people with an open mind.

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Focus on their strengths and
unique skills, develop those skills.

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By the same token, reserve your negative
judgement and negative evaluation,

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especially early on when you're just
beginning to work with someone.

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This is because in those circumstances
your judgement is particularly likely to

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be erroneous, you don't have enough
data points to reach a valid conclusion.

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Always keep in mind that your expectations
of others can become self-fulfilling.