My reflection blog is to review the Art of making choices video presentation by Dr. Shenna Lyengar. The presentation illustrates how people like to make their own choices, choices may create better results, and not declining opportunities when you are presented with choices. Dr. Lyengar in my blog is defined with her professional name and as the presenter. This reflection blog will compare my personal experiences as a leader and define how I think her concepts align with leadership.

Making your own choice (s)

The first example presented in the video is centered on the idea that culture difference can affect choices. Dr. Lyengar is in a Japanese restaurant requesting sugar for her green tea. The server politely tells her she does not want sugar with her green tea. After a discussion back and forth with the server and manager, Dr. Lyengar changes her order to coffee. The coffee was delivered with two packets of sugar. Americans are used to having and afforded choices, whereas other countries can limit choices based on culture difference or barriers.

Individuals in a leadership role have to make decisions and at times those decisions may or may not have choices, or options. I am a leader and depending on the task being accomplished determines the amount of choices available. It is not uncommon for me to push back when there is only one choice available, when I think there could be a better option or solution.

My personal experience in relationship to the video occurred when I was an airman in the Air force visiting a foreign country. I was at a restaurant and requested bacon for my cheeseburger.  Bacon is from the pig animal, which is considered a sacred element in the culture of this country.  The restaurant defined I could not have bacon and made me leave. I had no idea that ordering bacon would have been such a negative request. The event of requesting bacon, in my opinion, was the most horrible thing I had personally experienced, as I felt embarrassed for my lack of knowledge. My experience did not allow me to have another choice like demonstrated in the Video.  Briefings on arrival could have prevented this event and my leaders could have done a better job at educating their personnel. I learned two lessons as a leader with this event. The first lesson learned is being responsible and accountable to learn about countries barriers prior to arriving.  Lastly, as a leader I am responsible for communication delivered to those I am leading.  I found the video example of making a choice was designed to have the right amount of humor to keep a listener engaged to finish the presentation.

Options lead to better choices

         The second example in the presentation is based on an experiment with an assumption that if people were given choices they would perform better. The example included two sets of children out of California, divided by their ethnic background. Three sets of test occurred with the first allowed a group of kids to pick out their puzzle and mark, while the second had their material selected by a teacher. The final groups material was selected by their mother and seemed to be shocking to the students that their mother was asked to choose for them.  The under lining message I received from this is that assuming a certain choice will provide a better outcome could be a fallacy on the assumption. This is a very good thought about leadership. As an example, leaders are faced with similar type of choices when they are managing work flow of a team. The leader can choose to give certain assignments based on skills, ability, or responsibility. Responsibility is relating to a person who is responsible on the team that meets commitments, goals, and deadlines.

         As a leader, I was presented with a very similar situation about choices that did not have favorable results. I had accepted a lead position in my current team. Another employee on the team had interviewed for the same position. My first week in the lead position I was motivated and wanted to get to know my team better, understand their roles, and find out what I could do to help them as their lead.

My assumption is that all members on the team would be receptive of this type of meeting and would cooperate, as a team. As the meeting is progressing along, the employee that interviewed for the same position immediately stopped the meeting. She was angry, preceded to let me know that she was supposed to have this position, and she left the meeting. I was speechless as being a lead was a brand new role I had never done. Two of the three remaining employees responded to continue on, which increased my internal confidence quickly. The last employee was on the fence as she was closer to the angry employee. The underlining situation is derived from me being brought in from another site to lead a team that struggled with meeting commitments and deadlines, which is something that I was good at. The end of that scenario is I had the angry employee removed from my group and report to someone else. I cannot rebuild a team with a member who is angry and not happy to be on the team, unless she was leading.

Saying no to choices

The third example in the presentation is about the presenter elected to just have seven types of sodas for the event. The decision to have the seven types of soda was an assumption there was a variety. The presenter was surprised when a man asked for something other than the soda. She tells him there are seven types of soda. He responds identifying there is only one choice, soda. The key point of this message is a leader may think they have provided all the choices available and miss an opportunity by removing it at the beginning of the selection process.

An example of where this could be beneficial to a leader is when a leader allows and accepts buy-in from the team being led. A leader can control the work scope and assignments for every member of their team, if they chose to. A leader who allows feedback from the team it could potentially improve areas such as product quality, ability to meet deadlines and improve team cohesion.

Ballet Slippers or Adorable

         After listening to the entire presentation, this example was not only funny but creatively done as a presenter. As a girl, using nail polish is common to me and knowing the name of that polish leads to some very interesting conversations with my other nail polish wearing peers. There are two elements about this part of the presentation which made the presentation more valuable to me as a leader. The first element is the identification that the presenter was blind. Immediately, I started reflecting on her first example, wondering how she knew there were two packets of sugar when she received her coffee. In my opinion, the presenter is very strong in her presentation and my mind wanted to assume her communication skills were enhanced by using other sensory choices of touching or listening. It was interesting that she inquired from those around her for the name of the polish and which choice that person would wear. Knowing at the end the polish was so close in color, I would only make an assumption that those being asked either knew she was blind or possibly wondered why she could not have read it herself.  What I learned from this part of the presentation is I need to be careful with my choices as a leader and be careful when making assumptions.

Work Cited:

Lyengar, D. S. (2012). The Art of Choosing. (T. Global, Producer) Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing?language=en