View the TED video by Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing. Dr.
Iyengar assumes Americans believe the following when it comes to making
choices:
1. Make your own choices,
2. More options leads to better choices, and
3. Never say no to choice.
Reflect on these assumptions in your Leadership blog. Do you agree
with Dr. Iyengar? What is the implication of her comments on leadership? Make
sure to stay tuned through the end to see Dr. Iyengar's Action Research on pink
nail polish.
Sheena Iyengar was born in Toronto, Canada in 1969. Her parents
emigrated there from Delhi, India. She grew up in a biocultural environment, observing
both the roots of Sikhism with her family but also experiencing American
culture outside her home. Today, Sheena Iyengar is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor
of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School and Director
of the Global Leadership Matrix initiative. She is a leader and best known for
academic research on choice.
What personal hardships and experiences has Sheena Iyengar encountered
in her life? When she was three years old she was diagnosed with a rare form of
retinal degeneration. By 6th grade, she had lost the ability to read, and by
11th grade, she had lost her sight entirely and could only perceive light. Her
life had also taken another turn in high school; when she was 13, her father died
of a heart attack. She is blind. Her husband is also blind.
"My parents had chosen to come to this country, but they had also chosen to hold on to as much of India as possible. They lived among other Sikhs, followed closely the tenets of their religion, and taught me the value of obedience. What to eat, wear, study, and later on, where to work and whom to marry—I was to allow these to be determined by the rules of Sikhism and by my family’s wishes. But in public school I learned that it was not only natural but desirable that I should make my own decisions. It was not a matter of cultural background or personality or abilities; it was simply what was true and right. For a blind Sikh girl otherwise subject to so many restrictions, this was a very powerful idea. I could have thought of my life as already written, which would have been more in line with my parents’ views. Or I could have thought of it as a series of accidents beyond my control, which was one way to account for my blindness and my father’s death. However, it seemed much more promising to think of it in terms of choice, in terms of what was still possible and what I could make happen." (Iyengar, 2011, pp. xi-xii).
She is an expert in choice after years of research studying and testing out the patterns of human decision-making and showing its contradictions. We all love choice but are confounded and sometimes paralyzed by too much of it. In her book "The Art of Choosing" she presents the biology and psychology of choice by examining how different cultures construct choice and pondering how we might choose better. "We're born with the desire, but we really don't know how to choose." "We don't know what our taste is, and we don't know what we're seeing." "I'm a great believer in the idea of not choosing based on our taste." For example, she could wear makeup, and one person would say it looks bland, another would say it looks fake and another might say it is natural. Everyone is convinced their opinion is right and correct and that's what she struggles against. But doesn't everyone? Her rule for how to choose is by consensus. (Green, 2010, March 17)
Animals, especially humans, love choice and also thrive on it. Research and studies concludes that it's the choosing that delights, more than the object of choice. There is a paradox: too much choice grips and paralyzes us. In the mid 1990's, she was a doctoral student at Stanford and performed a "jam study" in which research assistants set out pots of jam on tables in a supermarket. Samples of different flavors in groups of 6 and 24 were offered to shoppers. The study showed that many of the shoppers who were at the table with the smaller sampling ended up buying jam including their groceries, as compared to a small few among those who visited the table with the greater selection. The study showed "more is less! and made Dr. Iyengar a research model of corporate America and a star in social science circles. (Green, 2010, March 17)
In her book "The Art of Choosing", she identifies the magic number "seven" at which "more" actually turns into less. This was inspired by a 1956 study that showed that our senses can easily perceive and identify anywhere from five to nine objects of perception, such as sounds, colors or light. Any more and we start to make errors. (Iyengar, 2011)
"The Art of Choosing" can be summarized by stating:
1. Our lives are shaped by a variety of expected and unexpected events. A college degree leads to a good life. Driving while drunk results in an accident, fines, suspension loss of driver license and insurance premiums. A lottery ticket bought on impulse erases all debt. Destiny, chance and choice contribute to where we end up. Choice alone gives us some measure of control and actively participate in our own making. Choice provides the opportunity to make the most of whatever destiny and chance come our way. (Iyengar, 2011)
2. We all have an innate need for control and choice is a powerful means of exercising control. Differences in cultural background and personal experience can lead to differences in perceptions of choice. People appreciate choice and benefit from it only when it enhances their sense of control. When we don't understand others' perceptions and expectations of choice, we risk imposing meaningless choices on them or depriving them of choices that they believe essential. Try discussing choice with someone from a very different cultural background. (Iyengar, 2011)
3. People associate choice with freedom. We think of choosing as the practice of freedom, which includes the freedom to be yourself and "do your thing." Our choices are not just about what we need or want but about who we are and what we stand for. This includes character, integrity and ethics. (Iyengar, 2011)
4. We all make mistakes. We all fall to temptation, misread and misinterpret information and give too much weight too immediate emotion. Over the many years of our lives it's inevitable that we'll make some poor choices. Reflection, self-monitoring and feedback are required to build informed intuition. (Iyengar, 2011)
5. Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Instead of trying to evade every possible influence and driving ourselves crazy in the process, we need to become more aware of our hidden biases and preferences which make us prone to making choices that we ourselves might not approve of if we were conscious of the underlying motivations. (Iyengar, 2011)
6. When someone says, "I have too many choices" it's tempting to reply "We should all have such problems!" At first look, the problem of many doesn't seem like a problem at all and maybe a benefit, but having a large amount of choice can have negative effects including frustration. We have mental, emotional and physical limits to the number of options we can handle, and when we can't tell one option apart from another, choice becomes meaningless. we end up putting off decisions, even important ones, we make poorer choices and our self-esteem and self-actualization becomes low. The focus should be on building a better choosing experience for ourselves. Cut your options down to a manageable number. Cultivate confidence in choices by taking advantage of expert advice and personal recommendations. Categorize the choices. Condition yourself by starting out with fewer, easier choices and building up to greater more complex choices. (Iyengar, 2011)
7. Choice gives us permission to imagine and build a better self. Choice is about possibility. It is the big idea we turn to and tool we use when we come up against limitation. If we are to get the most from choice, we need to acknowledge that we don't always know how to choose, and that choice has its own limitations. I remember reading "The Little Engine That Could". It's not a children's book but a philosophy for a lifetime and success "I-think-I-can-I-think-I-can" proving that even the smallest engine can reach the highest mountaintops if only it has the will and determination to do so. (Iyengar, 2011)
From a systems approach to action research, choosing is a process, i.e., a blending and transformation (action) of inputs for desired outputs. Inputs are the planning phase and includes gathering information, data and feedback. This requires unfreezing and awareness of a need. The action or transformation phase is choosing (action verb) and requires changing with new models and processes for choosing. Outputs are the results from choosing and requires refreezing, i.e., application of choosing. This is known as an IPO model: input, process and output. It is also a Systems Model of Action-Research Process by Kurt Lewin.
References
Green,
Penelope. (2010, March 17). An Expert on Choice Chooses. New York Times. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/garden/18choice.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Iyengar,
Sheena. (2011). The Art of Choosing. New York City: Hachette Book Group - Grand
Central Publishing.
Iyengar, Sheena: The art of choosing (TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading). Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html
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