People make decisions on what they think is true, not on what actually is. We cannot make decisions with knowledge we don’t have and it’s not possible for anyone to know everything going on at all times. This might sound like an obvious observation, but in practice it can be easy to overlook and I’ve found it to be a useful framework to understand how decisions are made. Computers are unconcerned with what we think they should do, but when it comes to organizational decision making, reality is irrelevant; perception is reality.
But why is this concept important? Because it can be the reason why what we expect to happen does not. When someone works hard for years, but never receives that promotion they’ve been after, they may be failing to build others’ perception of their work. Perception can decide who gets promoted, which projects get funding, or how bonuses are allocated, so there is a direct financial incentive and when times get difficult, as they are now, it can also be a determining factor for who gets laid off.
When I first joined Tebra, at the time known as Kareo, my team was considered low performing. My focus has not only been on improving our software quality practices, but also to demonstrate the progress we’ve made to leadership and the organization at large. Since then, my manager, most of the team, and I have been promoted, and once we moved to work with a second team, replicated our results there as well. I certainly cannot take credit for all, or probably most of it, but the trust we’ve gained from the organization as a result of our growing reputation has paid great dividends.
But rather than talk about the benefits of when perception is good, I think it’s more important to show the potential when it’s not, so here are a couple stories that taught me why perception matters.
UNL TRIO Program
One job I held during school was for TRIO, a federally funded program to assist underprivileged students. We were the department’s IT support. I was assigned to set up a help desk ticket system to better track our work. It was a larger project for our own use, so the other staff did not have much visibility into the work I was doing. One day, I happened to overhear a conversation between two of the senior staff members – “He’s clearly working on something. I see him working on his computer all the time, but I’m not actually sure what it is.”
These kinds of questions sow the seeds of doubt that can grow into greater problems if left unchecked. If the value of my work is questioned, it could lead to debates on whether the position is worth having at all and defending the value of one’s job is not a good position to be in, particularly because you might not get the chance at all.
So, I began to talk to the senior staff members about the project and how it could help us, which remediated their concerns and led to increased interest.
But that one was pretty simple, so how about something with more drama.
Sallie Mae
Having been at Sallie Mae for three months, I was moved from the office in Boston to join a new team in Indianapolis. The developers were great, but the product owner was….not so much. I’ll call him Jeff, because he reminded me a lot of Jeff Bezos, who coincidentally ended up being my next employer.
When I first met Jeff, it was clear that he was important. You could just tell by the way he walked and talked that he had the ear of important people and he was Not to Be Messed With, but I don’t kowtow to bullies and so it was inevitable that I ended up in my manager’s office having what would probably be one of the most important conversations of my career, which went something like this:
Boss: “Hey, I heard there’s been some things going on. I’d like to hear from you. Can you tell me what’s been going on?”
Me: *thinking for a second*
Me: “So far everything’s been good. The team is getting me up to speed on the project and I’m settling in.”
Boss: “Alright, sounds good. Don’t worry about anything then.”
Jeff complained about me. And he did so not just once, but numerous times over the course of us working together, and not just to my manager, but to his manager too. My choice to ignore his complaints made it clear who the problem was and also made me realize that none of what I believed about him was true. His attempts failed because no one believed him. It’s not universal, but being nice and making friends usually results in far greater success than the contrary. Had I not made friends myself, it’s possible things could have gone very differently.
Perception matters because information is limited and time is scarce, so important, career-altering decisions are sometimes made with the tiniest tidbit of information. So make sure it’s a good one.
Adam Lif 