Growing My Performance in Collaboration

Defensive Reasoning

Defensive Reasoning is the “fight or flight” mode that the brain enters when a person is feeling judged or criticized, or even when they are simply not succeeding at their current task.  This often causes people to respond by becoming angry or defensive, and when their defensiveness or anger is pointed out, they often deny it.  Another reaction a person might have when in defensive reasoning “mode” is that, although they might not get angry or defensive, they may start blaming the situation or say something like, “I am just not cut out to be a swimmer”.  This is a problem because when a person enters this mode of thinking they stop learning effectively.  Their brain releases chemicals that shut down their “higher order of thinking”, effectively causing that person to stagnate and stop learning.  They have not yet leaned how to separate perceived criticism, judgment, failure, etc, from data that they can use to help them grow.  To overcome this problem, a person should start by recognizing when their brain enters the “defensive reasoning” mode.  Once the person recognizes defensive reasoning, they should accept the emotions that come from it and let them pass.  Ultimately, if a person is able to apply Critical Thinking to a situation and then use the SII method to improve his results, he will be able to avoid defensive reasoning.

The SII Process
The SII process is a three-step process:
1. Identify 2-3 of my strengths.
    a.    Name action
    b.    Explain how I did action
    c.    Explain why it benefited me
2. Identify 1-2 Improvements
    a.    Name action I will take in the future
    b.    Explain how I will do the action
    c.    Explain why it will benefit me
3. Identify 1-2 Insights
In this process, strength is considered a skill that I used that benefited me in what I just accomplished, an improvement is a skill that I will use in the future to benefit me, and an insight the light bulb that went on (i.e. new knowledge that I finally got).

My SII on Collaboration

Step 1.  Strengths > My top 2 strengths in Collaboration

#1 Tried to cut down on my criticism.
Name – cut back on criticism
How – Reminded myself that every idea is worth considering
Why – I have a natural instinct to always want to go with my idea, even though it is probably (most likely) not the best idea on the table.  My fellow team members are all geniuses and have REALLY great ideas, so it is to my benefit to listen to them.

#2 Made sure we are clear about duties between meetings.
Name – clear communication about duties between meetings
How – at the end of the meeting, wrapped up by re-clarifying duties and having each member state what they need to have accomplished before the next meeting.
Why – this improves team efficiency, shortens meeting times, and ensures that each member is doing their share of the work.

Step 2.  Improvements > Top improvement

#1 Cut back on how much I talk during meetings.
Name – Cut back on my talking during meetings.
How – Focus on tasks at hand, and follow an agenda so as not to get distracted.
Why – Improves team efficiency, doesn’t waste others’ time, keeps me from looking like a fool.

Step 3. Insight > Insight

#1 When I am in a team setting (or anywhere for that matter), I find that I often get into defensive reasoning and try to defend my ideas, even though I know that the other person is right and that my idea is wrong.  Thus, I am finally starting to understand the full effect that defensive reasoning has on me, and how to recognize when I am entering that “mode”.