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Performance is becoming a big part of my life. First, my kids are in competitive swimming, how do I help them be resilient through all the difficult moments? Second, after I ran my first marathon, I’m constantly training for the next race. How do I listen to my body but still transcend discomfort? Third, I’m working on simplifying performance management in the workplace; how can leaders help develop a sense of control in those they work with? Today, I’ll focus on the last one, sharing a story that resonated with me that demonstrates the power of choice.

Choice Experiments

You’ve probably heard of the physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment on classical conditioning, he conditioned dogs to salivate when a bell was rung. Over time, dogs were drooling in anticipation of food once the bell rang, even if it never came.

Decades later, psychologist Richard Solomon’s lab investigated classical conditioning with a negative twist, the playing of a tone was associated with an electric shock, they were testing fear conditioning. The conditioned dogs heard the tone as a warning sign that a shock was on its way. After 24 four hours, the dogs were placed in a box with a small barrier that was easily escapable. Solomon believed the dogs would try to escape, but they didn’t, the dogs just sat there.

They did another experiment, and in this one, for half of the dogs, they had a way out, all they had to do was press their heads against a panel to turn the shock off and they quickly learned how to end it. But, for the other half, the panel didn’t work. Then, in the second round, every dog had the same opportunity, the dogs were in a place with a small wooden barrier that they could hop over to avoid the shock. The dogs that learned to escape shocks in the first experiment jumped the barrier. The dogs that had no way to end the shocks in the initial experiment? Despite the same opportunity and capability to hop to safety, they didn’t. They had lost the ability to try. This phenomenon is called learned helplessness. They learned they had no power over what was happening to them, so the only way was to give up and take it. Even if the path to avoid suffering was right in front of them.

What about us? Do we do the same thing? A study mentioned in the book of over 200 men and women found that when athletes trained in an autonomy-supportive environment, there was a correlation with well-being and that they tended to have higher levels of mental toughness and better performance. I highlight an autonomy-supportive environment, which means when we are given control (by our coaches or bosses) over our next steps.

It turns out, when control and choice are taken away from us, we act just like the helpless dogs in the experiment.

Why is Control so Important?

In Albert Bandura’s seminal theory of self-efficacy, control plays a large role over our own motivation and behavior.

When we are given a choice, our brain responds as if having a choice is the reward itself (the striatum, an area linked to reward processing, activates when we have the ability to choose). That was really surprising to me but researches have backed it up.

In the workplace, those who report feeling more autonomy and less micromanaging have higher levels of job satisfaction and performance.

When we lack the ability to choose, our prefrontal cortex learns to shut off, to let the stress take over and we become passive responders to the challenges we face. Autonomy is the switch that allows us to persist.

We see this in schools where we are taught to follow the scripts, no deviations from the plan. The author highlights that in athletic coaching, it’s much the same, the coach dictates precisely what’s to be done, many athletes have no choice.

But does it make sense to dictate rules to our students, athletes and employees? When athletes/employees compete, they are alone in the race/work. They make the decisions.

Yet, in training, the coach/manager takes on the decision-making mantle. The director of the Canadian Athletics Coaching Center, Jim Denison and his colleague Joseph Mills, suggest flipping the concept on its head. No, not by making the athletes/employees in charge of designing their workouts/ work plan, but by giving a large portion of control back to them. How? The coach/manager shifts from dictating to putting the athletes/employees in a situation where they are challenged, but giving them freedom to try, adjust, perhaps even fail, but above all, learn.
When we put them in a position to choose, it allows them to regulate the anxiety that often comes with difficult moments that happen when we are training/ working, say, in a customer facing environment. With control, our brain literally turns on, figuring out how to work our way through the situation at hand.

Leading Others

When leading others, as a teacher, as a coach, as a parent, as a manager, there are some exercises that help develop a sense of control in those we lead or work with:

  1. Learn to let go: When we dictate and control, we’re sending the message “I don’t trust you to do the job”. Check occasionally to make sure they are headed in the right direction. Over time, the reins should get longer and longer. Our goal is to put people in a position to do their job.

  2. Set the constraints and let them go: Giving away control isn’t about letting people run wild with no direction. Set up the boundaries and let them go. When a worker is new, this is particularly important. Over time, we guide them along the way, correcting when they fall off course, but never jumping in and declaring they need us to tell them exactly what to do.

  3. Allow them to fail, reflect and improve: Give away control in small bites that grow. Then have a system in place that allows for reflection and growth. In the sports world, after a game, coaches break down the game tape. Good coaches don’t scold athletes for making mistakes but use it as an opportunity to learn, then get back to work so they don’t make the same mistake again.

When I heard Courtney Dewalter talk about her training, I was surprised when she mentioned that she wakes up and decides what she’ll do, and she’s the best ultrarunner in the world. But after I read this book, it all made sense to me. No wonder agile methodologies adopt this strategy where team members choose the stories they’ll work on.

Leading Yourself

But it’s not only a matter of someone giving us this autonomy, in many cases we need to develop a sense of control in ourselves. He recommends four exercises:

  1. Start samll: Break down a huge problem or goal into small items that I can control. When I set the goal to run my first marathon, breaking it up into a series of weekly runs made it more manageable.

  2. Flip the Script: Change the mentality from “all or nothing” to, drum roll, having a choice. I’m guilty of not backing away from a planned session when I was feeling sick and it created a snowball of negative reactions that resulted in a longer recovery. If only I had taken the choice to recover earlier.

  3. Acknowledge your fear: And say it outloud. In long runs with my friends, I felt relief when I shared my fears about running my first marathon. Research has proven that talking about it, takes away its power.

  4. Create a ritual: According to the theory of compensatory control, if you create a ritual in a task with a high degree of uncertainty, it can help you keep negative thoughts under control. I’ve never tried it but I’ve heard many professional athletes talk about it.

I agree with the author that a new approach is needed, one that is based on autonomy. One that gives us a more expanded view, that is not only succeed or quit. One that allows us to navigate through discomfort so we can learn and improve our performance.