Unlocking the Unconscious: Unlearning & Transformative Leadership (Part 2)

This week’s newsletter brings episode 14 of the Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast, featuring Nippin Anand.

In part 2, we dive into the profound idea of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange with Nippin, who explores the significance of cultural intelligence in various environments.

The discussion highlights the importance of shared understanding within an organization, suggesting that leaders can foster this through consistent symbols, rituals, habits, and language.

The conversation further examines how this understanding impacts areas like accident investigation and cybersecurity strategy, advocating for open, non-judgmental questioning that acknowledges unconscious decision-making over traditional blame-oriented approaches.

This episode is a treasure trove for leaders looking to improve organizational culture and the overall ethical stance of their operations.

Members of the Cyb3rSyn Community can watch/discuss the podcast episode on the www.cyb3rsynlabs.com portal or the mobile app (iOS and Android).

Checkout the podcast episode here:

I thoroughly enjoyed diving deep into the fascinating world of culture, leadership, and human behavior with the truly insightful Nippin Anand. The conversation challenges many of the conventional ideas we hold, especially in the fast-paced, process-driven world of technology and cybersecurity.

Nippin started us off with a captivating idea: the goal of his work, and indeed his new (to be published) book, is to make "the strange familiar and the familiar strange". It’s a concept that resonated deeply, and as we explored it, it became clear how critical this perspective is for senior leaders making strategic recommendations.

In the cybersecurity world, we often resort to a "hammer" approach when incidents occur – implementing strict policies, standards, and procedures, believing that a top-down, command-and-control strategy will enforce compliance. But as Nippin pointed out, this rarely achieves effective outcomes.

He used Apple as a prime example of an organization that gets it right. When you walk into an Apple store, you're not met with a sales pitch; you're greeted with a personal connection. They build relationships, and if a product isn't available, they never say "no"; they say it's "available online". This isn't about extensive training manuals; it’s about a deeply ingrained culture. Apple has achieved a "certain level of cultural maturity" through consistent symbols, rituals, and myths. They understand that if their culture is right, processes become much easier to implement.

The critical distinction, Nippin explained, is that Apple prioritizes "shared understanding," which "lives in the body and not in the brain". This "culture intelligence" makes actions intuitively understood. For instance, if most employees consistently greet customers in a particular way, a new employee would feel like an "idiot" not to follow suit because "every culture seeks a sense of belonging". This isn't about training; it's about creating powerful symbols and myths that foster a collective, embodied understanding.

One of the most profound takeaways from our discussion was the idea that human beings are not primarily rational, conscious decision-makers. Nippin asserted that "98% of the times people are not consciously making” the decisions. This challenges the very foundation of how we often manage, train, and even punish people. If someone makes a mistake, they might not even know "why they did what they did".

He clarified that the brain isn't a "control tower" but a "warehouse" that coordinates between different "embodied minds" – meaning the "whole body is a mind". Our habits, heuristics, rituals, metaphors, slogans, symbols, behaviors, and narratives are all expressions of an "unconscious" that is "shared within the organization". Good organizations work diligently to create "consistent symbols, consistent habits, consistent metaphors, consistent logos".

Take the Apple logo, for instance. It's not just a bitten apple; it’s a powerful, unconscious story of a "quest for perfection" stemming from the "Garden of Eden" and the "forbidden fruit". This myth speaks to people unconsciously.

Nippin then introduced a brilliant metaphor: the "culture cloud". He explained that once you're inside a culture, you can’t see it, much like being inside a cloud. But it's profoundly visible from the outside and offers a "remarkably coherent and consistent worldview" to those within it.

This "culture cloud" comprises several components that leaders can strategically influence: "habits, heuristics, behaviors, narratives, artifacts on the wall, symbols, slogans, metaphors, generalizations, stereotypes, spin, language, [and] discourse". Nippin highlighted that "low-hanging fruits" for intervention include "artifacts," like what is displayed on office walls. He shared a poignant example of an organization in Asia with high employee suicide rates, where the office entrance prominently displayed a box with the slogan: "What are you proud of today?". Such an artifact, he noted, triggered potentially negative thoughts, revealing a cultural disconnect in engaging with people.

The "longest" and "hardest" component to change, he observed, is the "language in the organization". Achieving a "shared language" and "shared understanding" is paramount to prevent the emergence of "subcultures". This process involves daring to ask people what words like "Black Swan" mean to them, fostering a collective understanding.

Even in our remote world, where physical artifacts are less prominent, the principle remains: it’s about having the "curiosity to... open up the obvious". It's asking questions like "What is the story behind" an object in someone's background, prompting them to make the familiar strange to themselves. This curiosity, this willingness to understand, is where shared understanding begins.

When subcultures emerge or an organization feels out of alignment, how do leaders course-correct? Nippin suggested starting with a "diagnosis of the culture".

He described a framework of "four competing values" or subcultures present in every organization: "bureaucratic, adhocratic, autocratic, and democratic".

* Bureaucratic: Rule-following, process-oriented.

* Adhocratic: Ad hoc, innovative, necessary for Silicon Valley's innovation.

* Autocratic: Respect for leaders, hierarchy.

* Democratic: Taking people along, consultation in decision-making.

While every organization possesses elements of all four, problems arise when one or more become "too heavy in one direction". For example, a head office might be heavily bureaucratic and autocratic, while a branch office might be highly adhocratic and democratic. The goal is to bring all four values into "balance" through "strategic interventions" leveraging the "culture cloud" components.

"Balance," he clarified, doesn't mean equal parts, but rather that all four elements are present and appropriately positioned for the organization's strategic ambitions. An organization focused on selling burgers might lean more on bureaucracy to ensure consistent processes, whereas an innovative company cannot afford to be overly bureaucratic, as it would stifle creativity.

The discussion on culture led us to the critical topic of learning from accidents, especially relevant in the tech world’s "blameless postmortem" culture. Nippin challenged the very notion of a "blameless or a blame-free culture," calling it a "complete delusion" that "defies the basic human nature". We will, he argued, always find someone or something to blame.

Instead of striving for an impossible "blameless" state, the focus should shift to "how do you ask questions when something goes wrong?". Traditional questions like "Why did you do that?" or "Why did you not follow the process?" assume conscious, rational decision-making. But given that 98% of decisions are unconscious, these questions are futile.

Nippin offered a humble and different approach to questioning: "Can you tell me more about this?", "Can you walk me through this?", or "Where would you like to start?". These open-ended questions empower the person to speak from their unconscious mind, allowing for "somatic mapping" to make the unconscious conscious. This, he defined, is the essence of learning.

This paradigm shift has profound implications for cybersecurity, particularly for phishing attacks. Instead of blaming and re-training individuals who fall for malicious emails, the focus should be on understanding the unconscious factors at play. A systemic dissolution like deploying FIDO keys (no passwords to steal in the first place) is a much better option to pursue rather than trying to name and shame your own colleagues.

Nippin profoundly stated that "experts don't think when they make decisions"; their expertise is embodied. The goal is to make them "intuitively intelligent," not to force them into a conscious, procedural mindset.

He also addressed the common leader’s question: "Why didn't you speak up?". Using the example of a ship's bridge where a 59-year-old captain worked with a 29-year-old junior officer, he explained that the junior officer might not speak up due to a perceived lack of expertise compared to the captain, creating a "no common language" scenario due to differing levels of expertise and thus, a lack of shared understanding.

As our captivating conversation drew to a close, Nippin offered invaluable advice for technology and cybersecurity professionals. His core message was to "make space for listening and learning in life and don't be afraid of letting go". He urged us to see every incident, every situation as a new opportunity to understand another person. The mindset of already knowing what the issue is, he cautioned, "ruining many relationships," both professional and personal.

He shared a deeply personal anecdote: Despite being married for two decades, he's learning something new about his wife each day. This continuous learning, unlearning, and relearning is the essence of growth.

Nippin Anand’s insights are thought provoking, offering a human-centric approach to leadership, culture, and problem-solving that challenges the very foundations of our analytical, process-driven world. It's a powerful reminder that understanding the unconscious, embracing curiosity, and mastering the art of listening can unlock profound strategic advantages.

That’s it for this week. Checkout Nippin’s book, Are We Learning from Accidents?