The illusion of control

A few weeks ago, my wife and I tried using the online grocery service at our local Kroger store.  Overall, we were reasonably satisfied with the service.  We completed our grocery list online, ran a few other errands, pulled into the special parking zone at the store, and waited a few minutes for one of the store's employees to bring our groceries to our car.  We did order some fresh produce, and while the bananas (one of my mainstays) were fine, I felt that I would have picked a different (and better) bunch of bananas than what the store employees picked for us.  I'm clearly more of an expert than some random Kroger employee when it comes to my personal tastes in bananas.  As I thought about our experience some more, I remembered a story that I heard in the not so distant past.

How many times have you stepped into a crowded elevator and waited for the elevator doors to close?  How many times have you hit the button on the control panel that is supposed to close the doors?  If you are like me, I bet you probably hit the "door close" button more than once, right?  Perhaps you would be surprised to learn that these buttons do absolutely nothing!  Pushing the button once, let alone multiple times, doesn't do a thing.  The doors are automatically timed to close when they close, and we don't have any control over when they do close (importantly, the "door open" buttons do actually work).

Did you also know that, at least in New York City, pushing the button at the pedestrian crosswalk is an exercise in futility?  Since the late 1970's, most of these signals at pedestrian crosswalks have been automatically timed by a computer.  Pushing the button does absolutely nothing.  Apparently, these buttons at one time did actually work, but the decision was made to leave them in place even after the change to the computerized timing signals was made.

It's our human nature to feel like we have some semblance of control, whether that control involves picking fresh produce, closing elevator doors, or letting the traffic signals know that we are ready to cross the street safely.  The psychologist Ellen Langer called this the illusion of control based upon a study that she published in 1975.  It's actually a fascinating study.  Langer "sold" lottery tickets to 53 office workers for $1 each (in other words, the overall prize for winning the lottery was $53).  Half of the workers were handed a random ticket, while the other half selected the ticket themselves (just like when you have the option of selecting your numbers or having the computer select them for you when you purchase a lottery ticket).  Here's where things get interesting.  A few days before the scheduled lottery, Langer offered to buy back the lottery tickets for any amount of money.  The results are incredible.  The workers who had selected their lottery ticket sold  their ticket back to Langer for an average of $8, while those who were handed their tickets sold their ticket back for an average of only $2!  Simply stated, the office workers were more reluctant to part with their tickets when they had a hand in choosing the ticket, or when they were in control.

The implication is fairly clear, I hope.  Just check out any of the recent studies on employee engagement or physician burnout. One of the commonly cited factors in most studies on physician burnout is a loss of autonomy or control over direct patient care.  Similarly, giving employees at least some control over their work is one of the most frequently suggested interventions for improving employee engagement.  As it turns out, not only do we feel like we have control over things (even when we don't), we absolutely like to be in control.  Taking away even an illusion of control is probably one of the surefire ways of making employees really angry.

It is incumbent on us, as leaders, to provide as much autonomy and control for our employees as possible.  The more we do so, the more our employees will feel empowered, valued, and engaged with their work, all of which will translate to a happier and a more productive workforce.  And when it comes to making changes that could be perceived as taking away some control?  Langer's "illusion of control" study would suggest that we do so at our peril.  Coming full circle and going back to our recent experience, what was our overall impression with the online grocery ordering service?  We'd rather have control over the quality of produce we purchase and won't be ordering our bananas (or any other fruits and vegetables for that matter) online again anytime soon.