The Harbour Pilot

We took a look at an entrepreneur a few posts ago. Bernie’s outlook on life, his view of the world was quite unlike most people’s. In his view of human beings, those who take responsibility and assert control, particularly over themselves, are adults. He simply did not place trust in those who failed to do so. The aftereffect of this is that his dealings with other people could be strained. His value system, based as it was on independence, drive, and respect for reality, could leave him without common ground with others.

There is a phrase that has become common when discussing stress and anxiety. Cognitive dissonance refers to a state where the brain is required to hold contradictory states of understanding at the same time. Picture this… Take two 1000 piece jig-saw puzzles, one a forest scene, and the other a garden scene. Dump both puzzles on the same table, and mix them. As you attempt to organize the pieces into their original scenes you are required to sort by shape and colour. Unfortunately, both puzzles have a great deal of green in them, and various shades of brown. It is difficult to keep both pictures in mind at the same time. It is considerably more frustrating than doing a single puzzle at a time. This frustration is similar to cognitive dissonance – colliding rational mental processes and states.

Where You Encounter This

Need an example? Your house renovation company is asked by an architect to take over responsibility for fulfilling a project for a client. The original renovator had proven to be unsatisfactory in meeting deadlines and specification of the work. The architect is a good source of clients, so you reluctantly agree. In meeting with the architect and client, the plans are reviewed, including the quality of materials, working conditions, and sequencing of work. Both architect and client seem eminently rational sensible.

On the second day of work, the client fails to remove the household items from the work area, and you are required to work around them. You were to get access to the house by 8:00 am every day, but the owner has a community group meeting in the main room until 11:00 a.m., and so you cannot start work. The flooring materials were chosen by the client. On opening the boxes, the client begins to object to the quality of the finish, and insists that you must set aside any material that have any finish flaw, despite the fact that seconds were chosen for the lower price. The client proceeds to insist that the finished floor must not squeak, despite the fact that the 70 year old joist and sub-floor has a deflection from horizontal of nearly .5 inches from level. Accordingly, in an attempt to comply, you begin to reinforce and strengthen the sub-floor. After 10 days of repetitions of the second day, the client complains at the length of time that the work is taking.
You are now in a state of conflict. You have long since given up any expectation of covering your costs in undertaking the work, and are now simply focused on completing the job, and escaping. What has happened.

You had two competing sets of expectations. The first was your understanding of the contract based on the original meeting with architect and client, within the context of your experience and standards. The second was your first hand experience in actually dealing with the individual clients changing requirements and expectations as the work progressed. The irresponsibility and breaches of the client collided with your view of the expectations placed on you. The result is cognitive dissonance.

Strange World of Bureacrats and Non-Entrepreneurs

Certainly there are more subtle and even dangerous forms of cognitive dissonance based purely on internal colliding understandings of the world – but the above scenario is very common for entrepreneurs. This is notably so where the business involves providing services to the general public.

Common areas of this dissonance include interactions with bureaucrat mind-sets in government (sales tax reporting, regulatory requirements, employment law) and institutions (legal settings, Workers Compensation, communication and banking facilities). There is a fundamental difference in the way individuals in such roles view the world, and the that of entrepreneurs. Interactions between the two world views tend to produce stress through cognitive dissonances within business people out of all proportion to any financial stake involved.
Further, there is usually little in the way of managing and control that can be brought to bear. As with our renovation client, the behaviour appears to be irrational, capricious, and deceitful.

There is no solution to this problem, other than attempting to minimize interactions with such sources of conflict. It is truly a no-win situation that must be avoided.

Bear in Mind
Conflicts arising from different views of the world, of people, of values are not likely to be resolved. The stress must be minimized by avoidance and rapid exits from such conflcits.

Question ?
List the last five high stress situations you have encountered… How many of them had cognitive dissonance at their root – conflicts of world view, ethics and values.