Day 2 - Executive Leadership Program, Harvard, Boston MA

Day 1 was a good start.  Day 2 is promising to be an insightful day!

After a few hours of sleep, we were back up at 7:00am for breakfast.   Because today is more of a lecture day, we didn't have what will become a regular study group meeting at 8:00am.  Instead, we had free time until class started at 9:30.  That's good because the schedule is BRUTAL here!

At 9:30, we started a discussion with Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor who is focusing her studies on the fact that every one of us has implicit biases, and they shape every decision we make whether we believe it or not.  We had some prework - a test of our inherint biases that you can take too at http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and you should!  You'll be surprised by the results.  Go to the site, choose Research, and then follow the instructions.

I have 3 pages of notes.  I never realized how much my biases shape my decision making.  From the initial assessment of someone's competency measured by looking at someone's face in the first 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, and 1 second.  We make 3 decisions that quickly about someone:  how trustworthy they are, how competent they are, and whether we will dominant them or be dominated.  We measure biases in terms of if a person is skinny or fat, that they are dumb or smart respectively.  That particular distinction was measured that we will assume a fat person is 9 IQ points smarter than they actually are.  We reviewed that our brain uses a completely different part of itself when one is asked to think about themselves (good things, bad things, etc.) versus thinking about what we think about someone else.  I knew my head hurt sometimes, now I know why!

We also had a lengthy discussion about interviewing candidates for jobs.  We discussed the fact that the use of a resume alone, instead of a resume and an interview, is the more objective way to review candidates.  Here is an interesting outcome:  almost all hiring decisions can be made in the first 2 1/2 minutes of an interview.  The rest of the time in the interview is spent creating supporting information for ourselves to justify our initial assessment!  Think about that the next time you are interviewing someone for some task or job you have - sure would cut down the wasted time if we just said "Tell me a little about yourself", let the candidate (or contractor, or maid, or potential spouse) talk for 2 1/2 minutes, said "you're the one" or "you're not the one" and moved on!  We did discuss that people lie on their resumes, so reference checking is a must.  But the interview is a poor method - some schools, including Harvard, have eliminated interviews. 

We also reviewed the case study that females in symphony orchestras in the US made up less than 25% of the orchestra membership just a few years ago, and that orchestras adopted "interviews" for new members by having the candidate play for the selection committee behind a screen without a word spoken by the candidate (or a name given) that led to the current situation where nearly 50% of orchestra membership is female.  For all of her interviews when she applies for first chair fiddle, Sophia will be known as SLeek.

All that said, the Impact on My Leadership Point of View:
I will change how I look at things that need to be evaluated by:
 - identifying the key criteria that need to be measured (price, cost, features, value, etc.)
 - next, list all of my immediate biases (i.e. too expensive, I don't buy Ford or avoid Chinese-manufactured if I can or buy from people with nose rings) and put that aside
 - then, collect the data to support the criteria we choose
 - then, create a full set of the predictors that will frame the Criteria for Success (what would success look like, and how would I know)
 - and then lead a discussion with others to distinguish the choices based on the criteria for success as opposed to the biases we held

Actions to Implement at Work:
 - create a template for all candidates to fill out instead of using their resume because how they organize their resume or the paper they use lead to an immediate bias
 - create a 15 minute questionnaire about communication skills for candidates (a key criteria for most of the people I hire) that someone else will give the candidate, and then score and return to me, so that I'm not influenced by their tone, accent (hear that Ingrid????), or ability to use the English language; we talked a little at lunch (see below) about how hard I've worked to rid myself of my southern accent (but not my charm)
 - create a list of qualities that are important to the team that is adding a new hire before we interview the candidates; we'll rank the qualities from most to least important, and then apply that criteria to the candidates resumes and questionnaire responses to get a ranked-order of candidates

We had a short day today, as we ended at 3:45pm.  However, we were so engrossed with Dr. Banaji that we ran over by 20 minutes.  Earlier, I was just sitting down to lunch with Molly Porter (the Director for the Kaiser Permanente International program group, a team that developes programs about Kaiser for international health care leaders, including presentations to Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands (go ORANGE!), the United Kingdom and Spain) when we spotted Dr. Banaji sitting down, with an empty chair on each side of her.  I looked at Molly and remarked that it would be criminal if we didn't take advantage of an opportunity to have lunch with her.  We got up and moved, and had a great half hour of complete access to discuss our views of bias, how much we enjoyed what we learned, and to offer to help her with the afternoon session, which she took us up on and called on both of us during the class.  Teacher's pet, brown-noser, or strategic use of time and access?  Are you biased, or just jealous?

Even though we will have access to a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks, drinks, and other food all day, every day, every where we turn, Alex and I decided to go to Boston for the afternoon / evening.  We got a cab and got dropped off in the North End.  Go there!!!!

We walked around, looking in all of the shops and stores and restaurants.  We decided we'd eat dinner in the area, and walked into 3 meat shops (real butchers), 2 wine shops (I'm sure they are fronts for something else), and Modern Pastry (more on that later).  In one of the butcher shops, we asked where we should eat.  The butcher paused, looked us over, and said "look (everyone here says "look"), every chef in this part of town comes in here to buy meat from me; if I tell you where to go, and you tell him, and he tells one of them, I might have some trouble, so I'm not telling you where to eat, or where not to eat; just go eat somewhere, eh?".  That could have been the most honest customer service I've ever received!

So, we ended up at Giacomos.  How would you pronounce that?  Gee a co moes?  Nope.  Jack o moes is the right way, as we found out.   8 tables, 6 family member serving as waiter / waitress / bus boy, 4 cooks, and one old dude that we weren't sure what his role was.  Menu was on the chalk board.  We had the special - a half lobster, 8 mussels, 6 clams, and about 4 1/2 pounds of pasta with 1 pound or so of grated cheese.  $20.  Bam!  Washed it down with a Boston-based IPA.

Then, we decided to get a canolli.  Had one?  Not like these!!!  We went to Modern Pastry, and decided to buy 2 dozen mini ones to bring back as a bribe (gift) for our peers in the program.  You see, at 7:30pm we had an optional accounting tutorial, and what better to bring to an optional discussion about debits, credits, ratios, balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow than a 650 calorie pastry???  We were thanked profusely for our generosity, and all was good.

Before we came back, we took a quick 2 mile walk through downtown.  Boston Common, 11 Dunkin Donuts in a 5 block area (which I understand are called Drunkin Donuts, per Julie), and only 1 Starbucks that I saw, and then Beacon Hill.  We were walking along and suddenly, there it was:  the Cheers bar.  Quick picture, and decision to come back later this week or next.  Cab back to the campus, class, and then studying.  I have been awake for 45 of the 60 hours we've been here, and it has been totally worth it!