Social Psychology of Risk

On the social psychology of learning.

ByDecebal Marin
2 Comments

by Decebal Leonard Marin, Managing Partner Corporate Dynamics

What always baffles me at the end of a course is a specific response I often receive to the question: “What is the most useful and interesting thing you learned in this course?”

The answer goes something like this: “There were a lot of interesting things. Many of them I was already doing but didn’t know they were called that, and others I already knew and the course just reminded me of them.”

Don’t smile, that is exactly how they phrase it.

Mixed feelings: gratitude for the positive appreciation, and frustration because I cannot figure out what concrete takeaways that person gained from the two days of training.

For the sake of objectivity, I must say that most participants do answer by mentioning concrete things. However, the response mentioned above is what drives me to write these lines, reflecting on the way we learn.

Entertain Doubt and the Defensive Mindset

Learning requires what Prof. Rob Long, in the Social Psychology of Risk, calls “entertaining doubt” – meaning having reservations and questioning whether my perception reflects reality.

Without the desire to critically question and deconstruct the things we already know, it is unlikely that we will succeed in learning new things.

Chris Argyris and Donald Schön—two researchers renowned for their contributions to organizational behavior and learning—describe two models and types of mindsets that govern human interactions:

  • The Defensive Behavior Model: A mindset focused on control, winning arguments, and self-protection, which often leads to blocking learning.
  • The Productive Learning Model: A mindset focused on collaboration and encouraging others to test and challenge their own assumptions.

I have noticed that the presence of defensive routines occurs more frequently among the most vocal participants. Unfortunately, the loudest ones are rarely interested in learning; most of the time, they just want to hear themselves give speeches in front of their colleagues about things they already know.

Hubris

Hubris—excessive pride or arrogance—blocks personal and professional development by creating the illusion that you have nothing left to learn. It manifests as a blind faith in one’s own knowledge and a resistance to new information.

It is fascinating to observe how some people hold the erroneous belief that they master a field just by accumulating a few basic concepts. Out of fear of appearing weak, they refuse to ask questions or admit they do not understand a concept being discussed.

The presence of confirmation bias—exclusively seeking out sources that validate what they already believe—makes them reject feedback and ignore the trainer’s corrections and arguments.

Replacing the desire to be right with the desire to explore and understand new perspectives is what unlocks learning.

The Influence of Organizational Culture

Learning and converting people to a new approach happens more easily if course participants experience a state of cognitive dissonance.

However, people’s reactions to cognitive dissonance vary. Although most want to find out more about the discoveries they have made, the presence and power dynamics of their workplace colleagues in the room inhibit learning.

The fear of being judged and labeled as non-compliant with organizational expectations creates blockages and activates defensive behaviors. The presence of these behaviors is an indicator of a lack of psychological safety within the organization the participants come from.

The influence of organizational culture on the learning process is stronger than we think. This is also highlighted by Lev Vygotsky in his Sociocultural Theory, which argues that an individual’s learning and cognitive development are social processes, actively mediated through culture and interaction with others.

Interestingly, I receive most of these types of responses in organizations that promote absolutist ideologies (“All accidents can be prevented” “Our goal = zero accidents”) and where admitting you are not perfect carries career repercussions.

In absolutist cultures, the response “There were a lot of interesting things. Many of them I was already doing but didn’t know they were called that…” is a self-defense mechanism. Through it, people are saying: “My position and the context do not allow me to admit out loud that I don’t know everything.”

Often, participants with managerial responsibilities believe that to deserve their position, they must always have all the answers, control the discussion and meetings, and, of course, the courses they attend. If you are busy doing that, you cannot learn at the same time.

Suspending your Agenda

The other day, a friend of mine — Valter Stanciulescu—sent me a video clip of Bruce Lee explaining the need to prepare for learning through a very interesting metaphor:

“A full cup can receive nothing. An empty cup can receive everything.” – Bruce Lee #mindset #fyp

In other words, you need to make a little room, or even empty “the cup of the mind,” before learning something new.

Preparing for learning also involves what Prof. Rob Long calls “suspending the agenda.”

“Suspending your agenda” does not refer to a specific agenda, but rather to building the capacity to set aside what you know so that you can discover what you do not know. This requires letting go of your own agenda, prejudices, authority, and the need to have the last word.

For someone in a leadership position who has functioned for years in a “I say what I know” working mode, suspending your agenda is no easy task. It requires a genuine desire to learn, as well as the capacity to observe, ask relevant questions, and actively listen.

I will stop here for now, but I continue to look for an answer to the question: “What should I change in the way I deliver my courses so that I no longer receive this baffling response?”

 

Decebal Marin

Decebal Marin

Decebal Leonard Marin is Managing Partner at Corporate Dynamics. (https://www.corporatedynamics.ro/) Based in Bucharest, Romania, Decebal runs training and consulting projects in cultural transformation, safety leadership and social psychology of risk. https://www.linkedin.com/in/decebalmarin/
Decebal Marin

2 Comments

  1. Well written Dec and some good thoughts.
    The key to understanding learning is movement. If nothing moves then there is no learning. I see all these conferences where safety people go to affirm confirmation bias, but there is no learning. Just ask anyone 2 weeks after a conference, what changed, what moved? If nothing moved then the conference was a waste of time and there was no learning.
    I find it fascinating in safety where everyone is a learning expert yet has no expertise in learning, nor can they tell you what their learning theory is. Most think training and schooling is learning. Interestingly school teachers do 4 years of study on learning but Safety knows all about it with a cert 3 in safety!
    The movement of data and the collection of information is not learning. The regurgitation of data is not learning.
    Perhaps read:
    Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically
    Donald Michael Learning to Plan and Planning to Learn

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