#favouritemodel No. 12 – Pay attention to the context

Between you and me: Would you go through a red light? After an indignant “Of course not!” you might say: “It depends….”

e.g. whether the road is busy or whether you might be standing alone at a lonely intersection at 11 p.m. – or whether there are children nearby whom you want to be a role model for. Or perhaps there are other parameters that influence your decision. As we can see from this example, it makes no sense to look at behavior independently of the context. We all behave differently under different conditions.

Nevertheless, we tend to fall into this trap in our everyday lives, especially when dealing with and assessing the behavior of others. We see behavior in isolation, so we don’t consider the context when interpreting a behavior. For example, when managers tell me about “that one difficult employee”. On closer inspection, we often find environmental factors that contribute to the behavior making sense for this employee or at least fulfilling a certain purpose. In many cases, it makes more sense to work on these environmental factors than to try to change the person alone. At the same time, I don’t want to deny that all those involved naturally contribute to the context and have a responsibility for the situation that has been reached and its resolution. To see oneself only as a “victim of circumstances” would be an inadmissible simplification in many cases. Rather, “paying attention to the context” means broadening your view, allowing multiple perspectives and also recognizing your own – perhaps subconscious – contribution to a situation and thus discovering more levers and options for action in order to get out of a deadlocked situation.

How does my #favoritemodel help you?

If you don’t understand a person’s behavior, take a step back (mentally)! Which parameters from the overall context could contribute to the behavior making sense from a subjective perspective? Even if you cannot find an explanation for a person’s behavior or are convinced that the motivation for the behavior displayed lies mainly in the individual himself or herself or in the private sphere, what in your shared context contributes to the behavior being displayed? When does it occur more strongly, when less strongly? In this way, you may be able to find adjustments that you can make and see if anything changes. If you want to implement a measure – be it a new training program, the introduction of a new system or a new team structure – ask yourself in what wider context is this taking place? For example, what other projects are running in parallel? How will interfaces react to this, what input could they provide? How can colleagues or superiors be involved in and support learning objectives? Considering the context opens up the perspective for so many potentially supporting factors – I wouldn’t want to miss this step!

Author

Karen Krogel
Consultant