“You trained your team not to solve problems,” I stated flatly.
Rafael pushed against the table. There was a little teeny tiny vein in his forehead that was beginning to show. “By giving them the answer, I was training them not to solve problems? Ridiculous!”
“Say that again.”
“What? By giving them the answer, I was training them not to solve problems?” Rafael loosened his grip on the table. His head slowly moved from side to side. “So, it was me after all.”
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I would like to thank Jim Heller and his two TEC groups in Milwaukee for their kind hospitality last week as we explored the research of Elliott Jaques and his findings on Time Span. Elliott Jaques – Part II, is now available.
This is what I like to call a learned helplessness.
It happens not only within workplaces also within families, friendships, and especially classrooms.
I was faciliting a critical thinking workshop for a classroom and everytime the students started to diagree and not understand the solution they looked to the teacher and the teacher would swoop in and tell them what to do.
In the follow up meeting I was speaking with the teacher and she said “i just wish they would be able to think things through on their own”.
I thought learned helplessness was what happened when you get punished no matter what you do, so you end up doing nothing, because it’s safer?
I see your point though.
You have to give people the freedom to fail.
Justin,
Learned helplessness can happen in many ways with many flavors. Punishment is a powerful teacher, with unintended consequences.