The Echo Chamber: Does this sound familiar?
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Last week the college football season started. None too soon, if you're a fan. But the start of the football season marks the end of the echo chamber period.
An echo is a sound that comes back to you. You shout "hello" down the canyon and "hello" comes back.
An echo chamber is a chamber designed to produce echoes. Echo chambers are used in sound recordings.
There's nothing wrong with an echo, unless you mistake it for real communication. That's what happens during the run-up to the football season.
The fans of a team read everything they can find about their favorite team. Most of "everything" is written by the writers who cover the team. It's based on statements by coaches and Athletic Directors and sports information departments. And just about every message is passed through the filter of hope.
What you get is an echo chamber. Everyone sends out similar messages which bounce around the echo chamber. You hear them often, which makes it easy to mistake frequency for accuracy.
The messages are usually positive. Since you hear mostly positive messages, you begin to think that your favorite team is better than it really is.
This is a lot of fun, but when the season starts and the first game is played, reality intrudes. All those optimistic reports from the echo chamber are tested against the results of the first, and then every other game.
Boss's Bottom Line
If you only hear reports from the echo chamber, you run the risk of being slapped hard by reality. Do not wait for this to happen. Get the real scoop by making sure you have your own way of gathering information about what's going on. Wandering around and listening is a good one.
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Categories: Supervision,Management,Leadership
Tags: Supervision Management Leadership
I agree, one must also remember not to get caught up in the gossip of other employees. These are the employees that read too far into things and make assumptions that are not justified. This reminded me of the "telephone game" we all played as children where statements got messed up after going from person to person. Find out the facts first than confirm with your fellow team members. Stay informed.
Brad
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Good point. Gossip often does provide its own echo chamber, plus a reality distortion effect.
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This is so true! It's so crazy how people tend to believe anything they hear and that's how rumors start. It is so important to go back to the original source and verify the information you hear. It only takes a few minutes to ask questions to make sure you have the facts straight, and by doing so you make sure you keep a reputation and aren't known as someone who starts rumors.
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Thanks for adding the idea of considering the source. It's vital if you're a boss and need to evaluate what you're hearing.
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In many cases, I think there is a tendency to seek out those people we know are going to tell us what we want to hear--only good news and avoid those who have negative information to report. We all want to think things will work out for the best, and sometimes (if not most times) I think that guides us to those likely to provide positive reinforcement. Its the easy way out and, as you note, it does not provide the real picture of what is going on, but it makes us feel better about ourselves and those around us, and so we seek out the good news. Unfortunately, more often than not, this works out to out detriment and just results in more bad news waiting for us when come around to reality.
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What a great point, thank you. You're right. We human beings love to have our ideas and perspectives reinforced and it's easy and natural to go with agreement instead of digging a little to see if the agreement is based on facts.
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I really enjoyed this analogy. I, myself, am a huge football fan. I was greatly looking forward to the Nevada vs. Notre Dame game this weekend. Just like you said, every blog and article had Nevada as a top possible upset to beat Notre Dame. I really thought we had a great shot to make for a great game for the history books. Unfortunately, the team fell much much shorter than their expectations and lost badly.
Having you put this tip into an analogy that I recently experienced, I found it both humorous and humbling. Thanks for the eye-opener.
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I'm sorry it hit home that way, but thanks for sharing. In your case, it wasn't just your own supporters beating the drum. There were several national pundits who said the same thing.
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The national following of Notre Dame is quite impressive, but people either love them or hate them. The biases of different members of the media greatly influence their perception of Notre Dame. Every pre-season you experience the "Echo Chamber" with Notre Dame.
When will these echo's more closely resemble reality? It looks like they may have put it together this year.
Oh yeah, GO PACK!
p.s. - First hand information from a direct source is always more reliable and accurate than information disseminated through other sources; unreliable/inaccurate information can definitely be dangerous when you get outside the world of College Football!
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Thanks for the comments. I think that even when you've got communication from a direct source you still need to see if there's other information that confirms or counters.
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Wally,
I’m currently experiencing the echo effect. However the echo isn’t the media, my boss or co-workers it is my own mind. Over the past four months I have been working on an evolving marketing program. Although the issues keep changing, I keep providing similar answers and solutions. Perhaps, the echo effect is keeping the program that I am managing as well as myself from really advancing. Your article gave me a reminder that unless I step away from the echo of my own thoughts, I will be unable to think clearly with new fresh ideas. I need to look for assistance from others with a fresh perspective to drive my thoughts. I’ll try wandering around asking some questions and listening to the answers.
Thank you (thank you) thank you (thank you)…
Kristen Simsek
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Wandering around and listening should help. Here are two more things I'd suggest to work on if you were a coaching client of mine.
Get an experienced outsider or two to review what you're doing. First walk through the story of the issue and let them make their own analysis of what to do. Then tell them what you're doing and ask for reaction.
Try the "Visitor from Mars Approach." Bring in a couple of folks who haven't been involved in the current situation and have all of you review the problem/solution as if you were seeing it for the first time.
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Wally, your points on getting information from non-traditional sources is well-taken. We need to not just focus on what others are telling us, but we need to also observe for ourselves what is going on. In addition, getting data from multiple sources and using different methods for collecting that information can be helpful as well. You can't just use survey data or polls to make all decisions. You also need hard-core financial information, qualitative suggestions, etc. The more independent the information you collect, the more likely you are to make a sound decision.
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Thanks for adding that, Mark. The higher you go on the org chart, the more the information you get is likely to be filtered. So you need independent sources of information. And, as you point out, it helps to have several to check against each other and provide different data and perspective.
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Great Metaphor Wally. All too often managers listen for the positive. The "don't come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution" mentality, while it is intended to provoke personal responsibility, all too often gets interpreted as "the boss doesn't want to hear the bad news".
We need to be listening for any and all information that will help to ground us in reality.
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Thanks for that great addition, Susan. I'd never seen that "bring me solutions" line in the context you suggest but it sure sounds right. When the boss responds negatively, whether it's because the news is bad or because the team member didn't bring a solution, team members learn not to bring the boss anything. It's safer that way.
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In the Lean world we call this "Go to the Gemba" ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemba
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Thanks for adding that to the mix, John.
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Your college football metaphor was right on. I would first like to say, my school was supposed to deliver the upset of week 1, but we were shut out. Anyways the echo chamber has been giving my coworkers and subordinates some scary news about more cutbacks. My companies partner and neighbor let go 35 people before labor day and we are supposed to be next. Business has been less than successful lately and the GM may be trying to save the best employees and cut the worst. Never less the chamber and gossip is getting to everyone. Thanks for reading this.
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That's a description of tough times, my friend. I hope things work out well.
I wish more bosses realized that the team's got lots of resources that can help solve the problem. A bit of communication and transparency helps. Otherwise, even if you're not going to cut back or let people go, they're still focused internally and not on the work and the customers.
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Mr. Bock,
The concept of the echo chamber is very interesting. However, might it be possible that the echo chamber can work both ways? I work as a research assistant at the University of Nevada. Some of the professors I work for take a very "hands off" approach to project management. There have been times that I have gone weeks without hearing any feedback from my professors on the work I'm doing for them. When this happens I can only assume they are happy with what I am sending them. However, sometimes when I finally do hear back from them they say that the things I have been doing aren't quite right and they'd like me to take a different approach. This type of information would be much more helpful if I got it early on in a project instead of near the end!
Is this another example of the echo chamber or is it something different? What should a lower level employee do to try and rectify this type of situation?
PS. Great college football analogy. I spent the last month reading about how good our offense was going to be; only to see Nevada shut out by Notre Dame 35-0 on Saturday.
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Thanks for stopping by and sharing. Let me comment on two points.
First, if you're professors aren't supervising like they're supposed to, including giving regular feedback, then it's not an echo chamber problem, it's a supervision problem. Professors can get away with slacking off on supervision because the academy is the last vestige of feudalism.
That said, you're not off the hook if you just assume that silence means approval. If you're serious about doing good work, you need to seek feedback, not just wait for it.
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I didn't see anyone else point this out but the 'echo chamber effect' also limits originality because you get caught in the stream of others thoughts.
To do something original you need to break out and synthesize others thoughts with your own and get perspective.
I think that to battle the 'chamber' you need to have a sense of objectivity...conscious listening without letting your emotions take over. Also be a contrarian, never stop questioning and make up your own mind on how you'd like things to be.
Just my 2 cents!
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Thanks for sharing that. I think you also don't get enough input for real creativity to happen. Instead you get the same messages about what the problems are and how to solve them repeated over and over and over and over.
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