Are People Truly Predictable?
We were recently featured in a piece on the HR Matters site. We spoke about our work with 4G and how it can aid understanding and problem solving efforts. Here’s a quick introduction.
We discussed the idea that people-based issues can be managed in a systematic and structured manner, something that Bruce is firmly in support of. 4G represents a proprietary approach developed by his company to understand and predict intangible aspects of people’s personality, interaction and values. However, our conversation was not so much about 4G itself but about taking a holistic approach and the how’s and why’s of it.
The full piece can be found here and our thanks go out to Rowena Morais and Isabella Chan for bearing with us!
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Congratulations on the exposure and on a nice article.
How do you deal with the concerns of the employees. I am specifically thinking of two potential objections: (1) that 4G tastes too much of “Big Brother is watching you” and (2) the “I do not want to be pigeon-holed” argument (and 4G does pigeon-hole you to some degree but people feel that they are or should not be predictable, as the tile of the article highlights).
I am guessing that, as with most things, it comes down to how you use the information, but perhaps you can add a post on the change process required to use 4G?
Comment by Allan Engelhardt — 9/3/2009 @ 11:31 am
Thanks for the response Allan!
Regarding your questions, I think that they both represent different sides of the same coin. Re: the Big Brother issue, I think that it is important to emphasise that rather than a social engineering experiment, it is better to liken 4G to the grease that oils the wheels of collaboration and effective communication. By providing transparency and giving individuals the information to best manage their own relationships, productivity increases and the stress from naturally “difficult” relationships is minimised. Besides, it’s unrealistic to suggest that organisations can or would want to explicitly control all interaction between employees/clients etc
Your second point, regarding people feeling pigeon-holed, I think that in some cases this is a valid point. I would like to think however that the way 4G is designed and presented, it is possible to encompass the infinite variation in personality within the framework of 4G. Again, by encouraging transaparency and seeing 4G as opening up opportunities through enhanced self-awareness and understanding of the way an individual interacts with others, this will be the case.
Comment by Michael Folkman — 10/3/2009 @ 5:32 pm
Interesting ‘are people predictable’ site.’ My quick impression is that individually, not in a way reliable for us to use, in groups, yup using statistical/scientific methods.
Some people are better at reading others, however, and I imagine management selects for (or tries to select for) such characteristics.
Comment by Daniel Abbott — 8/4/2009 @ 8:25 am