The Secret Sauce - How Intellectual Humility Transforms Leadership

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We're at two after our start time, so we'll begin

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What I'd like to first do is to have everybody go into the rooms

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We like to, in our community, make sure that we partner and get to know everybody, what everybody is thinking

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Today's topic, what I'd like you to discuss in the breakout rooms, has to do with, it says, discuss one of these thinking habits that gets in the way of your success and how you have noticed the impact of these thoughts

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So either assuming the worst, taking things personally, assuming what others are thinking, believing you either have to be perfect or it's a total failure, and the last one, over-generalization, making broad conclusions from a single incident

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We all do all of these at some point

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So just pick one

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We're going to be in the breakout rooms for about five minutes

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And do we have the breakout rooms ready, Eric? Okay

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So five minutes

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Does everybody understand what we're doing? Okay

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Can you go one more time? Yeah, sure

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So we're going into the breakout rooms

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We're going to partner with each other and we're going to discuss one thinking habit that gets in the way of our success and how we have noticed the impact of these thoughts

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So the first one is catastrophizing, which is assuming the worst

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The second one is personalization, which is taking things personally

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The third one is mind reading, assuming you know what others are thinking

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The fourth one is all or nothing thinking, believing you either have to be perfect or it's a total failure and the last one is overgeneralization, which is making broad conclusions about a single incident

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Veronica, you had a question

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I hope that you discovered that you're not the only one that has bad thinking habits sometimes, that get in the way

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I mean, I hope, was your group like mine? We had a great mix of thinking habits we'd like to break, but I think, you know, we had great self-awareness about, you know, when we see this happening

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So, when I was saying yes, that was definitely their experience

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Well, today I want to introduce to you Sylvia De Hohberg

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She is many, many things, but what I'd like you to know about her is that she has this excellent quote that I saw and it goes something like, never stop learning because life never stops teaching

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And I think that's just a very, very powerful quote

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The other thing that I really like about Sylvia is that she really values relationship building

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There was a funny story I heard about her that she's that kind of person that once she learned something, she is sending out links to all of her friends so that they can also learn

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And I think that we are very, very fortunate to have her here today

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So she doesn't have to send out a million links to you

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She's here

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As we go through the presentation today, she shared with me that she really liked you to put your thoughts in the chat or come off mute and talk to her as things come up for you

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Don't wait until the end

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Okay

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This is a challenging topic

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It's a very important one

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By the same time, you know, this is just how she likes to interact, you know

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One of the things she absolutely loves is collaboration

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She likes supporting people and she loves sharing her energy

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Okay

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So that's also, as a community, share our energy, connect and support each other through this experience today

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Okay

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So picture this

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A beautiful city, famous landmark and a very, very lost tourist

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Well, that tourist happened to be me

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Going through the heart of a foreign city, which is Krakow in Poland, completely baffled

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My map was more like an abstract painting than a guide and I was literally going in circles

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What you see in the picture is the planty

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You see kind of this, the woods or all in green

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It's not a real circle, but it's kind of the midtown in the middle

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And I was outside this green piece and I had to go to the other side, but since it was kind of round, I was lost

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At that moment, I realized I needed help

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So I turned to a local, a nice lady who seemed to radiate an air of confidence

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So I asked her for directions to a specific place, trying to look calm, although I was really stressed, fearing to lose my planned day tour

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So to my surprise, instead of straightforward directions, this lady offered me a genuine, I am not sure, but let's figure out together

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So then I learned that she was actually an embodiment of intellectual humility

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So as we embark on our quest to find the meeting point where my tour had to start, we encountered

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many unexpected twists and turns

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So we asked other locals for guidance, took few wrong turns and laughed at our shared misadventures

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So what could have been a frustrated experience turned out in a very nice journey of exploration and me reaching on time the tour group

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So both thanks to her willingness to admit she didn't have all the answers

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Okay, today, we're here to learn more about intellectual humility, which is the secret sauce that transforms leadership

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So as you heard, my name is Sylvia, I'm a strengths and leadership coach

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That's my QR code to go to my LinkedIn profile if you want to, if you're curious about me

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So but this is about you

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So and I love to see such a diverse group and to share with us all what you want to bring today, all your questions

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So as Coris mentioned, feel free to bring up your questions during the session

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Okay, I know there is an important reason for you, why you are here listening to me, and not knowing anything about me, right? And you decided to spend this one hour on a Friday to hear about intellectual humility

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So I deeply appreciate and respect that

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And before you share why you are here, or let me say my commitment to you for being here today is that at the end of this workshop, you go with a more integral and deeper knowledge of what intellectual humility is, you feel more powerful, self aware, wiser, inclusive, you apply and incorporate all the concepts and tips to your daily routine and keep on digging and learning further

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This is just a start

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And I hope that you have fun too

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So this is what is going to happen

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We will go through some concepts

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We will do a dynamic in breakout rooms, and we will return to discuss it all together, but what will give you guidance and serve you as a helpful tool to walk through the process of intellectual humility

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You can ask the questions, and you should expect this session will take one hour, 10

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days at the next

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So you okay with that? With no further ado, let's start

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So here's the definition we use at Enterprise Agility University for intellectual humility

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So intellectual humility means recognizing and accepting that our thinking abilities are limited and that you are not afraid and celebrate to be wrong

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It involves being open to different perspectives and seeing mistakes as opportunities for growth, learning, and celebrate

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Why intellectual humility? So think of intellectual humility as the secret sauce that ups your leadership game

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Intellectual humility focuses on insight and judgment

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And it's not about being overly self-dupting or not acknowledging your strengths, your talents, your accomplishments

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Intellectually humble leaders instead recognize that no individual has the monopoly of being talented in everything

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So they accept their full ability and actively work to minimize their biases when evaluating information or making decisions

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Leaders who possess this trait listen to understand rather than just to formulate a response

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So they show genuine interest in the concerns and suggestions of others over and value their contributions

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So this is how they build trust

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They foster collaboration

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They involve more people in their decision making and create an environment where people feel comfortable, where people express their different opinions

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So for examples, a question like this one can help you in times of doubt

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One could be what evidence contradicts my views or what kind I learn from others' perspectives

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Remember, always open questions

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Rather than ignoring opposite opposing views, you engage with contrasting information and try to understand ideas that differ from yours

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So you may be asking yourself, okay, what's it in for me? And this is where the journey starts

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Because intellectual humility encourages leaders to approach discussions and debates with curiosity and respect for others' points of view, even when they differ

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By embracing the intellectual humility, the leaders can create a collaborative environment where diverse perspectives are valued considered

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So they, as we said, they actively listen to others and consider their ideas with an open mind, you see on the slide, and engage in constructive dialogue

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So avoiding a discussion, it's also not showing great intellectual humility, because it's how you manage that

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It's not by avoiding

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It will disappear, right? The problem will disappear

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Intellectual humility also strengthens people's talents and skills and promotes effective leadership

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And environments where unconventional thinking is valued

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How are we doing so far? Any question?

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Any comment, anything, or any example that you want to share with us? Are we good? Okay

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We have one person, Eric

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Eric has raised his hand

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Okay

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This is tricky

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I should not be talking here, but I love this

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I love intellectual humility

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So I'm in a cafeteria here, so maybe they know it's filtering, hopefully you can hear me

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One of the things that you have when you're exposed to accelerated markets is the amount of information coming from the market increases, right? And then intellectual humility, what we have seen is that allows the brain to evaluate more information coming from the market

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Together with lower intellectual humility to not evaluate as much information as needed and they generally tend to have not as good decisions as leaders with higher intellectual humility

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That's the thing

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Thank you, Silvia

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Thank you, Eric

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We had one other person that raised their hand and another question that came to me was,

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what do you mean by constructive dialogue? Oh, okay

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Thanks for asking that

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Because dialogue or discussion, discussion can also be constructive, right? Because whenever you, let's say you're having a problem in the office and two people have two different opinions and each of them want to stick to their point, right? So they want to have their point prevailed over the other

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And it's not about avoiding and probably there is kind of a hierarchy even on the equation

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and this is not exactly what we would like to see happening, right? So, and this is not also good, not even for the person

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So, bringing that to the table and bringing all the perspectives and identifying which is the purpose, so why we are here

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So, which is the ultimate goal that we are pursuing, which is the outcome that we want to see happening

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And so, based on that, okay, we just come back and see, okay, what do we have in common? So, where do these two different opinions or what is, is that so non-negotiable that it will impede you to reach the goal? Probably not, right? And probably we will see that we will, at the end, we will have more agreements with just different aspects or flavors that we can bring them all together

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And at the end, we will have a better and a more powerful solution or outcome

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Thank you

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Gita, would you come up mute and ask your question?

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Yeah, actually, what I wanted to say is I thank you for highlighting that intellectual humility does not mean avoidance

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And especially for us, I'm thinking about the agile environment as core masters or agile coaches

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When we work in organizations and we see a lot of pushback, then a lot of people, they kind of retreat and they avoid the confrontation in a constructive way because they don't know how to, it's kind of like as if you feel like you're deadlocked because no one is really interested anyway

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So, I'm just going to go by the flow with the flow and do whatever they asked us from for

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So, thank you for highlighting that

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That's what I wanted to say

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Thank you, Gita

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We have really great comments

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Michelle says, I absolutely agree that it's better to confront than to let something go, especially when you need to apologize to someone

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And Richard says it's about focusing on the goal and not the personality

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Exactly, right? And we can reframe or rephrase

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It's not about confronting

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It's just opening the mind and allow more inputs, new perspectives coming into place that can reinvigorate or make the decision or the solution more powerful

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So, just mentioned that intellectual humility strengthens people's skills and talents

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And you know, I am, I love talents

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So, how much are you aware of your team and colleagues' talents, even of your own ones, right? Because it starts with you, that self-awareness

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So, leaders who possess this trait listen to understand rather than to respond

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And with that, people feel hurt and uncomfortable expressing their own and different opinions

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They will not feel blamed or bullied, right? So, this is what is also known as psychological safety

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And remember that there is no change or transformation that will success

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If it impacts negatively the organizational health that people will be in

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So, whenever you make a decision, whenever you want to make a change or start something new, you will know about the, how, if this is going to impact the organizational health that people will be

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Otherwise, it will not, this change will not success

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So, ask yourself, what can I learn from other perspectives? So, practicing intellectual humility can feel mentally draining at first, right? But our brains are constantly struggling to save oxygen while making decisions

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Did you know that the brain uses up to 30% of the oxygen supply that we have in our bodies? Yeah, our brains work super hard when making decisions

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And going out of your comfort zone can make you feel uncomfortable and increase your cortisol levels, which is the hormone neurotransmitter that produces the stress

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It decreases the number of perspectives you can embrace

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So, going back to having that confrontation, it's to people like, it's their cortisol that is speaking, right? So, they are losing, they are losing perspective

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They are narrowing down their ideas, their opinions

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So, the good news is that to save oxygen, we can apply the heuristics, which are the mental, actually, it's nothing else than the, that the shortcuts, mental shortcuts that are used to simplify problems and avoid cognitive overload

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You remember just Eric talking about lots of information, right? We're bombarded with information

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So, this is what allows us to quickly reach reasonable conclusions or solutions to complex problems

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For example, imagine you're trying to decide what is scarier, getting on a plane or driving a car, right? So, your brain often goes for the available heuristic, which is like taking the shortcut of what's easy to remember

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If you recently have seen a scary plane crash on the news, it might make you feel like flying is super risky

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Even if the statistics are not precisely confirming that, right? So, it's like your emotions take the wheel and saying, hey, that plane crash I saw in the news is fresh in my mind

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So, for me, flying is more dangerous

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So, in other words, the mental shortcut can make you feel more emotional, right? And more emotional about certain choices because it's based on what's easy to remember, on what's available in your recent memory

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So, your brain goes for what's right there

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Even it's not the most accurate way to judge the situation, probably

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So, in this case, you might end up avoiding flying because just the news stories has your emotions all stirred up

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So, picture yourself, for example, in a grocery store aiming to buy a brand of dulce de leche

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I don't know if everyone is aware of dulce de leche

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Eric, can you translate that to me? I don't know how to

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Well, it's a kind of toffee

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It's a kind of toffee milk, you know, like milk

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It's unique

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Milk marmalade

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Well, yeah, it's not that unique

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It's a kind of toffee

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So, it's a toffee sauce, very sweet and very tasty

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That it should increase your calorie intake every week, but it's super tasty

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It is

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Okay

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Thank you

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So, you're aiming to buy a brand of dulce de leche that you have never tried before, right? So, and you faced those and options and you're in a hurry because you have to go to a venue or whatever

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And your brain might pull up out the recognition heuristic, which is like your brain's way to saying, oh, I will go with what I recognize

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So, you grab the jar with the familiar label or the one you have seen in the commercials, just because, okay, it feels safer, quicker, whatever

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So, your brain is saying, I've seen this on TV

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It must be good

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This saves you time and eases your decision making because you trust what's familiar, even if it's not always the absolutely best choice

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So, in this case, the heuristic helps you to make a fast choice and relieves the emotional stress of standing on the aisle, for example, overwhelmed by too many options

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So, it's like a quick and easy solution for your dulce de leche dilemma

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However, relying only on heuristics can contribute to the intellectual arrogant behavior

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So, it is essential to understand this and promote a higher level of mental agility

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Does it make sense? Okay

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Okay, let me give you more examples of intellectual humility

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A leader who's facing different challenges

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For example, admitting uncertainty

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Right? So, this is when market disruptions hit, a humble leader doesn't necessarily pretend to have all the answers

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So, as a leader, you openly acknowledge the uncertainty and complexity of the situation

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And reassuring your team that you are navigating through these uncharted waters and together

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So, probably you may come up with something like, I don't have all the solutions, but we will figure this out together

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Your input is invaluable

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Do you remember the story when I met the lady in Krakow? Something similar

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So, seeking, for example, an employee input in the face of low team engagement

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An intellectually humble leader, actively six feedback and suggestions from their team

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So, you can say, I have noticed a drop in engagement and I want to hear your thoughts on why this is happening

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Your insights will guide us towards improvement

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That could be one

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Or maybe addressing burnout, which is unfortunately very popular

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When burnout is prevalent and intellectual, humble leader recognizes the toll it's taking on the team, they express empathy and willingness to adjust expectations

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Right? So, they might say, I see how hard you have been working and it's taking a toll

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So, let's reevaluate your priorities and find ways to support each other's well-being

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Or encouraging innovation

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That could be another one

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In the face of a low performance, a humble leader may encourage innovation and experimentation

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Understanding that they may not have all the answers

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So, you may say, let's not be afraid to try new approaches

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I'm open to ideas and even if they fail, we'll learn and adapt together

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So, someone at each other says, it feels great when leaders ask you for your recommendations

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Yeah

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Yeah

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Absolutely

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Absolutely

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Makes such a difference

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And I'm 100% sure that the input and the contributions of the team will just exponentially rise

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You know that, for example, engagement and when a leader cares and shows that they care for the people, they lead and the team feels that they are more supportive, they are more engaged and that enhances also the productivity

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Because a team that is engaged, that is allowed to do what they do best, right? They are happy to contribute

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They are not afraid of coming to their leader and say, hey, you know, I made that mistake and that, you know what? I'm working on a solution and probably we can check that together

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That's fabulous

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So, that's the ideal work, right? So, it's important that people feel committed, engaged and the leader takes care of that

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So, all these scenarios you see intellectual humility plays a crucial role in building trust, which is the fundamental piece, right? Or stone fostering collaboration and ultimately leading the team through the challenging times with empathy and also with an open and growth mindset

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Okay

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So, let me ask you this Have you ever faced a situation like this one?

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You and your peers and or colleagues are at a meeting where the VP is about to share important news on a project you all have to work on

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The VP starts giving you the highlights of the project, gives you the deadlines and reminds this project is important so the deadlines are non-negotiable

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Well, not necessarily explains why, right? Moreover, this leader tells you how he expects, he or she expects, to be executed and delivered in a specific way, his or her way

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So does it sounds familiar to you? Does it ring a bell to you? Yeah, okay

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I have to apologize for not being able to connect the link to the video that I have, but Kareez will send you the link through the chat

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So you can open that, it's two minutes, 20 seconds

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But it's a nice story that you will be listening to in this short video

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I would like to hear your comments afterwards

00:30:50

And I'm sorry, Amani says this happens all the time with her boss

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You know, they always talk about the what, the what, but, and also they care about the how and leaders need to let the how to the people, right? Because it's where they are going to bring their talent, their skills, their input, their perspectives

00:31:22

Yeah

00:31:24

So someone, Javier said, does the model proposed by enterprise agility cease to work if the organization has failed to adopt these mental models? If I understood the question correctly,

00:31:37

at least not that I am aware of

00:31:40

So I mean, this works perfectly and makes perfect sense for me

00:31:48

You know, in my, for example, in my daily routine as a coach and I coach leaders from corporates, I see the same, this challenges every day, every day

00:32:03

And people like to hear there is a model, right? And even leaders, because if we think about the leaders, probably great individual contributors from the past that turn out to be a leader, they were promoted probably because they were great at what they were doing, but not necessarily were developed or did not, they were not provided with the tools and the development to be a leader, right? And this is what these leaders, teams are suffering

00:32:46

And I guess how I would respond to that is to say that, you know, so much of what happens in organizations has to do with the relationships that we build

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And you have to start somewhere

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There are always going to be people who are more difficult to work with, people who are a little bit more closed off than you would like, people who will be a little bit less receptive

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But I think whether you are leading or if you're a team member, it's really important to start exercising this vulnerability so that you can build relationships that will help leadership change

00:33:25

I think it's going to be difficult for people to watch the video and be here

00:33:28

So what I propose is to move on and then go into the next topic

00:33:33

All right, okay

00:33:35

All right, okay

00:33:38

Okay, so the next topic is playing

00:33:43

Okay, so we're going through a small dynamic about intellectual humility

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So this will be a 20 minute role playing and you will be sent to breakout rooms and we'll explore the concept of intellectual humility by simulating, I will give you a scenario in which you must identify and address the challenges that arise due to a lack of intellectual humility

00:34:16

And also in order to discuss strategies to improve that intellectual humility, okay? So let me find the, okay

00:34:32

Oh, hold on

00:34:36

Let me close the door

00:34:37

It's on

00:34:38

So in the meantime, folks, I want you to let you know, while Sylvia is looking for that, that it's very important to understand that whenever we are into this situation of lower intellectual humility, it's very difficult for a company to sense the markets and to sense the company

00:34:58

And sensing is one of the crucial things in a company exposed to constant changes

00:35:04

So a company where people can not sense themselves, sense others and sense the markets, they fail a simple attack

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I think sensing is one of the missing pieces in organization now, but if you are not able to sense data from others, data from myself and data from the market, and there is a clear framework to do that, then it's going to be very, very difficult to improve it

00:35:30

All right, to prove whatever you do, because you're going to fail to recognize other companies that are going to be successful in the next couple of weeks and are going to impact your product

00:35:39

You're not going to be able to sense your people that maybe are very anxious and don't know

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And you're not going to be able to sense yourself what's going on inside you

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And the more the market accelerates with artificial intelligence and with other things, the more situations and information are going to be irradiating from the market

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And the amount of information that people can digest is limited, but then if we see that as a collective capability of people sensing whatever happens inside, outside and in the market may make more sense for the company to be successful, right? But it cannot happen if you are low in intelligence ability

00:36:25

But I don't know if that's clear or not

00:36:27

You're probably here with us, if you don't know, it's a fucking noise, et cetera, and those really can understand

00:36:33

So I pass it to you, Sylvia

00:36:36

Okay, so this will be the, I think, Jorik, the scenario

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It's about a cultural misunderstanding

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So in this scenario, you will have to explore all the challenges arising from a cultural misunderstanding and how intellectual humility can mitigate the consequences

00:36:58

and where the role, where the four, there is a foreign team leader working in a cultural diverse organization

00:37:08

And they are making decisions based on their own cultural norms without considering the input from their cultural diverse team members, right? We never heard that, we never seen it

00:37:21

You know, it never happened to anyone, right? No, no, no

00:37:27

Yeah, yeah

00:37:29

And also, if within the group you find someone that plays the role of a team member who comes from a different cultural background and feels unheard and marginalized, right? So the key questions to discuss here are,

00:37:51

how are these cultural misunderstandings affect the team performance and cohesion, for example? Well, Silvia, that says something very important for you to understand is the more stressed you are, generally the lower intellectual humility you have

00:38:11

And then you move to intellectual arrogance

00:38:15

That's moving there

00:38:17

So this is why it's very important in companies

00:38:21

And if you see most of the frameworks in enterprise agility focused on trying to reduce the amount of stress that people have with different techniques,

00:38:30

because the higher the, as Silvia said, the higher the stress you have, the less perspectives your brain evaluates first, and then the less humble you are

00:38:43

And something which is very important is not to be humble with intellectual humility

00:38:48

You know, if you're humble, it's something you were born

00:38:51

Intellectual humility is something you

00:38:53

You know, as Silvia, they provided the definition

00:38:57

It's very important to understand

00:38:59

And also it's very important to understand where you are in terms of intellectual humility

00:39:04

All right, so we, I think we have the team leader make decision based on his own concerns now without asking for important team leaders

00:39:12

And what are the questions that we want to explore in there?

00:39:18

How are these cultural misunderstandings affect the performance of the team? Excellent

00:39:28

So do you want us to go to the breakout rooms? Yes

00:39:32

Yeah, okay, let's move on

00:39:34

How many minutes are we going to be there now? Well, let's make it

00:39:43

Well, it will be short because we have only one small scenario

00:39:47

We can do that in 10 minutes

00:39:49

Okay, great

00:39:51

Okay

00:39:52

Yeah, we have time to discuss and go to the fish

00:39:55

Yeah, and I will also repeat, I will also send you the scenario on the broadcast and then also you mentioned if you have an experience like this, I live so many experiences like this

00:40:06

I think everyone lived that experience where you see the wrong person to be in the wrong position or live with the wrong levels of inter-technology, right? And then see if after we show you a couple of

00:40:19

this one framework from Enterprise GD

00:40:21

Okay, so let's move on

00:40:23

Now you have to guess why it's called fish model

00:40:26

There is not much science in the name, right? Well, yeah, I was deliberating about, okay, do I see a fish? But, okay

00:40:41

Okay, so the fish model

00:40:46

So this model has been designed to guide you through the journey because this is a journey of intellectual humility in small steps

00:40:55

So whenever we want to win the battle, we have to do that in small chunks, right? So here in small steps, we can gradually develop and refine our skills

00:41:10

So starting with respect for the other individual, avoiding intellectual arrogance

00:41:18

We talked about intellectual arrogance before

00:41:21

So this first step is cultivating basic human respect, right? So it's the willingness to accept that others hold valid and valuable, not only valid but also valuable perspectives

00:41:39

That we appreciate that even when they differ from our own perspectives

00:41:45

So it does not mean that we have to abandon or shut down our principles or boundaries, but avoiding intellectual arrogance and closed-mindedness

00:41:58

Remember the example of the VIP, given the instructions

00:42:04

And what the father of Nelson Mandela used to do

00:42:10

Remember to sit in a circle and be the last one to speak

00:42:17

So with honesty and transparency, reflect how can you express respect for diverse points, life experiences through your words, through your actions and the decisions that you take every day

00:42:37

So question assumptions that diminish the humanized or dehumanized others, right?

00:42:44

So Eric was talking about sensing yourself

00:42:51

So how are you feeling about that? So what is stepping in your way? So make a conscious effort to listen without immediately judging or dismissing unfamiliar ideas

00:43:13

Then we have here facts

00:43:16

So once we have to embrace the facts, so once we improve the first step of respect, we have to move to the second one

00:43:28

And here you can consciously practice evaluating and analyzing the facts from another person or group

00:43:36

Remember also the open questions

00:43:38

Welcome these facts with open ears and arms, even if they kind of shake your beliefs, right? And there to admit your mistakes

00:43:49

Even if I have very strong beliefs, does not mean that for this situation, I have to change my beliefs, but I can respect your beliefs and take this as a valid, right? Probably our beliefs are in different orders, but for this specific situation, I can hear others

00:44:17

So practice empathetic listening

00:44:20

So listen to understand, not just to respond

00:44:23

Listen with positive intent, right? So if anyone is a coach here, that's what we have to do

00:44:32

And seek to truly, sorry? One quick question

00:44:36

So you were mentioned using open questions

00:44:40

A lot of times people have difficulty with the idea of powerful questions being just what questions?

00:44:46

Is it okay in your opinion to ask a how or another type of question as long as it's not yes or no, something that will generate a yes one?

00:44:55

Absolutely

00:44:56

And thanks for bringing that up for me

00:45:01

So the close questions are the ones that the responses that you can respond with yes or no

00:45:07

So open questions invites for a further reflection that gives you a lot of input

00:45:13

And it's suggested not to ask why

00:45:20

So why did you do this? Because why may imply that you're blaming that you're pointing fingers? So it's more about and how it's how what about or even use a range from one to five

00:45:40

Tell me what where your strength here is or what your opinion is less favorable or more favorable

00:45:52

So you can practice that and the more you practice you will see you become an expert asking questions

00:46:01

And what about how and how come and it's like more reflective inviting the other people to speak

00:46:11

And what are your thoughts about asking people I say about specific words that you think in our in our role play you talk to we have like different cultures that were in the room

00:46:23

And I think different cultures have different ideas about words that could be used

00:46:28

I say even if if we're all using English do you think that it's important to kind of ask people what some of the words that they use mean to them? Yeah we well I guess that leaders need to use a neutral language right only when they get to know their team or this diverse cultural team probably okay they will get to know things that are specifically related to that culture and can show empathy by using even that language but until that happens is go for the go for go for the neutral right and asking questions about what makes you take what is important for you

00:47:20

In this situation what is important for you what do you expect from us And then it opens

00:47:28

it opens a space where you can share okay so this is the way we have been doing probably not necessarily correct and we can learn a new way so we are open and but it's about the what makes you tick so why is that or the why question can come after some after some

00:47:53

hows and what questions right not that the first question or not the unique question

00:47:59

So someone in the chat has said it is important to put these practices in the context of the reality that people live in their organizations for example what kind of questions are powerful

00:48:11

in promoting intellectual humility in a technical environment working on the framework such as scrum with high demands and constant changes I feel happy to answer this I think intellectual

00:48:27

humility is a human being it's a superpower it doesn't matter if you are a developer if you're a leader if you are the guy cleaning the windows and to be honest I travel all the time and I learn more from simple conversations with people with maybe simple jobs done from other people that have very high skills because if you take a look at some some people very you know many people have created frameworks and other things and they're very famous and they are genius about creating things but they are not genius about discovering the needs of other people and connecting with others and in a world where everything is changing the solution for the problem we are having is about connecting with others not disconnecting and creating the reality of the framework the solution for the situation we see and this my humble opinion is about discovering new ways of building collective capabilities of building more knowledge it's not about improving frameworks it's not about improving whatever we do it's about connecting in different ways to try to discover a new way of building capabilities and ways of thinking right I would like to because we have just five minutes I know it's very interesting but at least I want you to take with you a little explanation Sylvia will do about the people you will not hate me at least or kill the thief because I promise that Sylvia will explain it and then I'll pass it to Sylvia Okay thank you Eric Okay

00:50:17

so we move to the perspectives right so considering the perspectives with an open and curious mind it's it's so important to be curious because this is in like where you're curious you start asking a lot of questions right and being curious is key for effective leadership the leader needs to know

00:50:40

what is happening needs to know how the team is feeling what they need so the leader is a facilitator right so and it starts by acknowledging that your view is really of the reality of that reality is probably limited and shaped by your singular experiences right so there is an entire world around us and consciously separate also your ego from your mind right and that requires self awareness and willingness to set aside your personal pride and and here we go with the emotion so how we can embrace emotions not only show respect for their experiences and increase but also increase empathy and size the opportunity to learn and grow right so you remember I was I like the question I like the question about so what makes you what makes you tick so

00:51:48

what is that exactly that brings out the best of you what do you need from me right so or what gets the best or the worst out of you that's also important right so by opening this field with this kind of questions you're bypassing that defensiveness

00:52:11

that defensiveness shield right and connect with the feelings with the emotions with curiosity and an adgenuine desire to understand right so and that that attitude fosters collaboration and clears the path for a more efficient problem solving and strengthen the the leadership influence right so then we move to the values and and this is about broadening the perspectives embracing the diversity through reframing what we call the the reframing so with this this we can cultivate the culture of inclusion and create an environment where innovators and ideas can flourish so for example as many of you I wear glasses but it does not mean that our glasses are the same right so this is similar because many times we think that what we see is seen by others the same way and that is not true right so let me let me have something very important because you know we have been using the reframing for a long time and people don't know maybe what reframing is reframing is connected to something called neuroplasticity can everyone hear me well because I have this the filter yeah so it's called neuroplasticity so the highest exercise your brain can do to strengthen neuroplasticity or mental flexibility is called reframing reframing is the possibility for you as a human being for a few minutes to feel the values and the values of the other person right so for example silvia imagine silvia I know silvia loves animals right but imagine silvia hate cats I love cats then what I do is I feel myself in the position of silvia and then I feel their values and then I feel their values her values I think their her values were my own values right this is not empathy empathy is when when you feel the feelings of the other person or try to understand the feelings of the other person yes you try to sense it that reframing is even deeper reframing is even if I don't agree with you I take your values and I model my personality by your values for a few minutes see how it feels how I see the world how I see the things around and then I come back to my values and it's very very difficult to do especially if the person has completely different values like you for example I'm a person who do not care about races about you know gender for me everyone is the same in this world and everyone has to have the same opportunities but then if I have to reframe it I think as a person who is a racist person then you know someone who does not like any kind of people it's very hard for me so what we recommend when we do the training is for you to make sure and I'm sorry silvia but I have passion about this and I know many did not do all the training in AIU and other things it's about that you need to start with easier reframing someone who has one or two values different than you then take those values and imagine that those are your values now forget about your values imagine those are your original values and you you shake all your life all your views with those values for a few minutes maybe three to five minutes right and then what you do is you come back to your values now the problem is when the person is opposite to you if you try to embrace values that are opposite to you and your levels of cortisol increase and then it's your brain saying Eric don't go in that direction you are not a racist why you need to embrace those values and then it's very difficult for you to do it with the time you more the more you practice you can do this but to start with very easy things make a person that has relatively

00:56:21

similar values to you and embrace those values as if they were your own values try that for a few minutes three to five minutes and then go back to your values the more you practice it the more comfortable you're gonna feel and then what we have seen in the brain is that that increases the the the mental agility increases what we call neuro plasticity right but you need to go very slow and if you see in the fish model that are like steps right start with facts I can see your facts only then I move perspective then I move to emotions with emotions is this exactly what you do when you build empathy and then you go to reframing Reprimanding the most powerful part

00:57:06

for a human being to be able to evolve and to be able to position themselves in any perspective from anywhere no matter if they are against your ideas right that is very difficult in the beginning to try to embrace the values from someone else and I think we need to finish in three minutes I'm sorry for the long explanation but I wanted to take something with this because you know since we are another of the trainers they have been with us for a long time and then we already understand but I know many of you don't know what we're trying to do Reframing the capability

00:57:41

for you to embrace the values from another person for a few minutes until those values are there where you're on Silvia, I'm sorry for that Okay no no that's fine thank you thank you

00:57:54

for the for the thorough explanation So okay with that the fish model for intellectual humility

00:58:02

offers a starting point for continuous development right so but this is not an absolute or rigid process Remember that the fish swims and you may adapt to the current and flow so you will be

00:58:19

refining it with practice and experiences so this is a journey not a destination It requires although

00:58:28

your ongoing effort and commitment Commitment to question your assumptions seek for others

00:58:35

perspectives re-evaluating your beliefs and knowledge and you know it's easier said than done but okay that's a start but with regular and intentional reflection and refinement you will forge your own path to intellectual humility So no leader relationship or meaningful career

00:58:59

in life thanks to gate from close-minded mindness or unwillingness to to grow

00:59:06

So with that your call to action now you're ready to become a transformational leader become a self-aware leader take an outside perspective reflect and point out biases and blind spots challenge assumptions learn from mistakes so now you have a better insight on intellectual humility remember the leaders you had in your career that displayed intellectual humility and also the ones that not you can continue role model in your own style and I trust you will be closer to the leader you want to become

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