Willpower-limited-resource.pdf. Weekly Wrap: The Dirty Little Secret of Performance Improvement Plans. There are three words that no employee (and most managers) ever want to hear, words that will frighten the bejesus out of anyone who encounters them. Performance improvement plan, or PIP for short. If you work in talent management or HR, you surely have had to deal with them on a few occasions — maybe more than you care to admit — but I’ll bet that you always tried avoid them whenever possible, sort of in the same way you would try to avoid a root canal.
Yes, performance improvement plans have that impact on people. PIPs aren’t about improving performance For the uninitiated, performance improvement plans are a program that you put an employee on so you can closely monitor their work because, well, somebody, somewhere has determined that they aren’t cutting it and need remedial help. But in my experience, 99 percent of the time a performance improvement plan isn’t about helping a worker improve — it’s about gathering additional evidence and setting up the framework to boot them out the door. Understanding the Dangers of “Ego-Depletion” (Image: Someecards) This is a guest post by Dan Ariely, James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. I’ve always suspected that we start each day with a limited number of decision-making points that, once depleted, leave us cognitively impaired. This is part of the reason that automating minutiae, adopting rituals, and applying creativity only where it’s most valuable (e.g. not deciding what to eat for breakfast) is so important to me.
I just don’t have the bandwidth to get big things done by doing otherwise. Perhaps, just as Phelps was born with bigger lungs than 99.9% of the population, and just as some people only need four hours of sleep per night, some people are born with more decision-making “hit points” than others? Food for thought. This leads to Dan’s discussion of “ego-depletion” and how to insure against making bad decisions… Enter Dan How do we avoid breaking under stress? 1) Acknowledge the tension, don’t ignore it. “I’m starving! Avoiding the Willpower Depleting Effects of Self-Control. Last month I discussed the somewhat paradoxical finding that using self-control actually makes us more impulsive. To briefly summarize, exerting self-control depletes mental energy used for subsequent self-control exertions (a process called ego-depletion).
This energy is replenished, but while it’s being replenished we have less self-control strength and are consequently more impulsive. There are however ways to attenuate the ego-depleting effect of using self-control, which include affirming our core-values, inducing a good mood, and consuming glucose. I’m going to discuss all three of these methods, so that if you find yourself in a situation demanding self-control (like resisting the urge to buy desirable products) you can better protect yourself from ego-depletion.
Affirming core values can diminish the effects of ego-depletion. By core values I mean stable, deeply held principles or standards of behavior. Being in a good mood can also attenuate ego-depletion effects. Ego Depletion. The Misconception: Willpower is just a metaphor. The Truth: Willpower is a finite resource. Forever Alone by Lysgaard(Source: Lysgaard) In 2005, a team of psychologists made a group of college students feel like scum. The researchers invited the undergraduates into their lab and asked the students to just hang out for a while and get to know each other. The setting was designed to simulate a casual meet-and-greet atmosphere, you know, like a reception or an office Christmas party – the sort of thing that never really feels all that casual?
The students divided into same-sex clusters of about six people each and chatted for 20 minutes using conversation starters provided by the researchers. They asked things like “Where are you from?” The researchers – Roy F. The scientists individually told the members of one group of randomly selected people, “everyone chose you as someone they’d like to work with.” This was the actual experiment – measuring cookie consumption based on social acceptance.
Ego depletion. Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draw upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up.[1] When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired, which would be considered a state of ego depletion. In particular, experiencing a state of ego depletion impairs the ability to control oneself later on. A depleting task requiring self-control can have a hindering effect on a subsequent self-control task, even if the tasks are seemingly unrelated. Self-control plays a valuable role in the functioning of the self on both individualistic and interpersonal levels. Ego depletion is therefore a critical topic in experimental psychology, specifically social psychology, because it is a mechanism that contributes to the understanding of the processes of human self-control. Key experimental evidence[edit] Physiological correlates[edit] The role of glucose as a specific form of energy needed for self-control has been explored.
Mood[edit]