Jekyll and Hyde Decision Making – Valuing Perspective

True multiple personalities within one person are an unfortunate clinical condition that most of us, thankfully, will never experience or even encounter. We consider this to be the stuff of movies with plots that give us a glimpse into a strange world of twisted motivations and confused spirits. While multiple personality disorder (MPD) is rare and difficult to diagnose, our oversimplified lay definition for this is a condition characterized to be at least two distinct and recurring identities alternatively controlling a person’s ability to make rational decisions. To get an idea about how this works, there is no need to refer to research, books or movies. We only have to go as far as the bathroom mirror and take a glimpse at ourselves.

In perfectly normal people, situational personality shifts are triggered by a number of things. The most common theme is when those circumstances cloud the ability to value and apply perspective.

1. When our environment influences our decisions, the outcome can be different from anything we would have predicted in advance. Stressful situations can escalate emotions until they overshadow logical thought processes and instinct takes over actions. Sometimes it is merely an uncomfortable feeling that causes the reaction to make irrational decisions. There is a knee-jerk reaction to avoid discomfort by moving on to a different thought or activity.
2. Most people are affected by interpersonal influences that clouds decision making. This is usually brought on by variability in others’ actions conflicting with our own variability. Complications arise when control of actions and decision making shifts from internal to one that involves group thinking. There can be a bandwagon effect that moves decision making in the wrong direction because a temporarily strong personality drove it that way.
3. Organizations can insert cultural influences into the situation that can either alleviate the environmental and personal aspects of decision making or make the situation worse. In a worst case scenario that has a total lack of perspective, there are usually two solutions to fix split personality decision making: Change the people or change the culture.   

Reactive thinking that happens as a result of our personalities being torn in different direction can only be solved by consciously backing off and making an honest assessment of the cause and effect relationships at work. Mediation of differences can be internal to each individual or through group interaction and analysis. As long as human beings are involved, there will be human error. Managing the human resource is hard, so many choose not to manage it. The company that fails to do the hard work necessary to encourage a collaborative culture will fail. Tackling problems as they arise and working together for solutions will create an engaged employee base and will succeed.

 

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