Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You Get What You Expect.

Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.  - Goethe 

Storyline:

Several years ago an experiment was done in a school where, at the beginning of a school year, incoming students were classified in two groups; those who will do very well, and those who will be lower performers. This was not based on any data related to past records or their abilities, but just done arbitrarily.

This information was then shared with teachers and students. Lo and Behold, the end of the year performance correlated well with the initial classification. The teachers treated students based on the information provided to them and students performed consistently with the initial expectations and ratings, no matter their real capabilities.

Author Roger von Oech describes this phenomenon as the self-fulfilling prophecy, where a person believes something to be true which may or may not be so, acts on that belief, and by his actions causes the belief to become true. The self-fulfilling prophecy is a case where the world of thought overlaps with the world of action. And it happens in all avenues of life.

Similarly for organizations, if employees believe that their organization will be the best it can be, they will do everything possible to make it as such. If employees believe that high growth rate and great stock price are achievable, they will stretch their imagination to reach those targets. And through this process, they will propose fundamental changes, bring many innovations and find creative ways to add real value in their products. Once stockholders believe in the authenticity of their actions, the self-fulfilling prophecy kicks in.

Similarly, leaders who believe in their people and expect the best from their teams will get the best.

Reflection (From the book, A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech):

What about us, the individuals? When you look in the mirror in the morning, see the face of the person who is going to accomplish wonderful things in personal and professional life. Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get what you expect.

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Comments

[Manufacturing Guy]

Excellent Reflection!
Another adage is that, first a team must learn to win and then expect to win!
An excellent book which embodies this attitude is "Mastery" by George Leonard which teaches you the methodology to constantly evolve beyond performance.

[The Fixer]

Spot on! I work with young offenders and you can achieve so much more and turn things around in their lives by focussing on where they want to be and what they can achieve rather than taking an explicit problem solving approach. Broaden their horizons, get them to think positively about their futures and often they find the solution to their own problems. Believing in yourself and what you can achieve works in business and in other settings simply because everyone is at heart a dreamer. It is just that some people have forgotten how to dream and/or how to make dreams a reality. Any arena where growth needs to be achieved, on a personal or business level needs to nurture the dreamer in each individual involved.

[Rao Agastya]

I am reading this article only now. I became a subscriber today.

The reflection reminds me of the experiment that was conducted in the Western Electric plant by some Harvard(?) researchers. The researchers wanted to see the effect of illumination at work place on the employee productivity. They found that regardless of illumination level (higher or lower until it was too dark to work), the productivity went up!
The employees felt they were being treated as human beings by management and were expected to perform.They responded by giving greater output than normal.

And that was the beginning of the human relations movement in America and rest of the world for that matter.