Autonomy, and why control changes everything

A study worth reading

Autonomy, and why control changes everything

(citing: “The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: a field experiment in an institutional setting” — PubMed)

In a classic set of experiments in the 1970s, psychologist Ellen Langer examined what happens when elderly residents in nursing homes are given greater personal control over their daily environment.

Residents in the experimental group were encouraged to make small but meaningful choices. For example, deciding how their rooms were arranged, choosing activities, and being responsible for caring for a plant. The comparison group received the same care and attention but without increased autonomy. Decisions were made for them “for their own good”.

The differences between the two groups were striking. Residents with greater autonomy were rated as:

More alert and active

More socially engaged

In better overall health

Lower mortality

The key insight was not about comfort or care quality, but agency. When people experienced themselves as having influence over their environment, their behaviour, wellbeing, and health changed accordingly.

When autonomy is removed energy, action, collaboration, creativity, problem solving, social interaction and even health are negatively impacted.

An idea worth thinking about

Their better idea is better than your BEST idea.

The cost of sharing an idea with someone you lead is often their own perceived loss of freedom. What often goes with a loss of freedom is an abdication of responsibility.

Many leaders complain of employees who fail to take responsibility unaware that it is they who inadvertently caused it.

On the flip side, the person who has an idea (even if that idea isn’t as good as the one you had) works diligently to bring the idea to life, learns in the process, and becomes someone capable of creating better ideas and delivering on them.

Questions worth asking:

What is the cost of giving them your ideas?

What is the benefit of allow them to run with theirs?

What do I need to provide them with in order to enable them to create their own path to success?

Where am I currently restricting their autonomy?

Each of these ideas asks something different of you, to look deeper, assume less, and see more.

If you had to choose just one to explore more deeply this week, which would it be?