Breaking "Better": Leaders, Embrace Your Inner Heisenberg
Making a Meth of Things
The television drama Breaking Bad introduced us to Mr. Walter White, a rather passive high school chemistry teacher who “broke bad” to ultimately become “Heisenberg,” a major methamphetamine kingpin. The show was interesting on many levels, but why did Mr. White decide that his meth-manufacturing alter-ego would be “Heisenberg”?
Perhaps Mr. White chose the pseudonym “Heisenberg” because he felt a kinship to a fellow scientist. Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who was as a pioneer in the field quantum physics. Maybe he chose the moniker because Heisenberg was not only a scientist, but he also died of cancer in 1975. Mr. White’s initial foray into the manufacture and distribution of meth was a result of his own cancer diagnosis. Both are plausible explanations.
Without getting overly analytical (it is just a TV show, after all), my personal view is that Mr. White chose the name Heisenberg because of his namesake’s most important contribution to science: the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Certainly Uncertain
In overly simplistic terms, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle basically says that the position and the momentum of an object cannot both be measured simultaneously, at least not precisely. The more you know about one, the less certain you can be about the other. An important corollary to that principle, sometimes referred to as “the observer effect,” is that the very act of observation or measurement will have an impact on the phenomenon being observed. The act of observing something in an effort to understand its nature changes the thing being observed.
For example, you can’t measure the air pressure in your car tires without inadvertently letting out some air in the process. The act of observation or measuring changes the thing being measured.
And?
What does this have to do with leadership? I think Mr. White’s “experiment” in trying to understand how to make enough money to support his family after his death by selling meth actually turned him into a drug lord. The very act of observation changed the experiment and the experimenter. Mr. White couldn’t be “Mr. White, Chemistry Teacher,” while simply dabbling in the underbelly of drug culture to make some quick cash. Mr. White became Heisenberg and a living embodiment of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Things did not ultimately turn out well for Mr. White, but is there a way for this contra-example to be useful? Is there a way for leaders to use the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to “Break Better”?
Embracing Your Inner Heisenberg
Let’s say you lead a group of people who have been working remotely for the last year. A stretch, I know, but go with it. Not only do you feel a bit disconnected, despite Teams, Zoom, WebEx or Skype, but you also see goals start to slip and motivation start to wane. What can be done? What would Heisenberg do?
In the late 1970s, researchers set up an experiment to examine the effects of diet on heart health. Over several months, they fed a group of rabbits a high-fat diet and monitored the physical consequences like blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. As expected, many of the rabbits showed a buildup of fatty deposits in their arteries. Researchers also discovered something unusual. Although all of the rabbits had a buildup, one group surprisingly had as much as 60% less than the others. The researchers discovered that every rabbit with fewer fatty deposits had been under the care of one researcher. That researcher fed the rabbits the same food at the same time, but when she fed the rabbits, she talked to them, paid attention to them and petted them. With this knowledge, the researchers repeated the experiment, tightly controlling for every other variable. When they analyzed the results, the same thing happened—the rabbits under the care of the researcher who paid attention to the rabbits had significantly better outcomes. See Robert M. Nerem, Murina J. Levesque, and J. Frederick Cornhill, “Social Environment as a Factor in Diet-Induced Atherosclerosis,” Science, vol. 208, no. 4451 (June 27, 1980), 1475–76.
The experimenter inadvertently, but importantly, changed the results. Let’s call this application of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, “breaking better.”
Now, I understand people are not rabbits and heart health is not leadership. But you can find similar results in workplace research. For example, the Heisenberg principle in the workplace is sometimes referred to as “The Hawthorne Effect,” named after some experiments in the 1920s at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works Electric Company. The Hawthorne experiments, which have been repeated in other contexts, basically showed that no matter what environmental variable you change, productivity increases. For example, employee productivity increased when the lighting was improved and when lighting was reduced, when break periods were increased and when they were eliminated and when the workday was shortened as well as when it was lengthened. The researchers found that almost any change to the experimental conditions led to increases in productivity. The real reason for the response was the increased attention from supervisors. When the experiments ended, productivity stopped improving.
Here’s the principle that connects rabbits and Hawthorne Electric Company to Heisenberg: you can affect outcomes, people and even yourself, just by getting engaged—in virtually any way at all. Things are better when the leader simply pays attention. When you get engaged people respond. If you engage in a meaningful, positive and personal way, you may even prevent heart disease!
Now, What?
So, here are three ways to embrace your inner Heisenberg:
Do something personal to engage those you lead. The people you lead are not rabbits, but they desire your personal attention. Find something personally meaningful and positive to each person you lead and provide that feedback and support to them. If you have been working remotely and holding group or team meetings, have a one-on-one conversation with each person to talk about their goals, how they are doing with remote work and what kind of adjustments they may need moving forward. The response may be different for every person—and that’s the point. Positive outcomes are consistent with personalized attention.
If you can’t do something personal, then just do something. Any kind of attention helps. Even if you don’t have the capacity to fully and independently engage with every single one of your direct reports, just do something. Get yourself involved in the experiment. Change the nature of the leadership experience by simply observing and getting involved in some small way. An email to the team about what you have observed them doing well or how they have handled the lockdown. Even if it’s very general, do something. Don’t underestimate the power of your presence.
Only use your inner Heisenberg for good. You can see how things can go very badly if you use the power of your inner Heisenberg to break bad. When you get engaged, do it in a way to increase attention on employee’s positive efforts. After all, it almost doesn’t matter what you talk about, so why not be positive? Since the nature of the attention you provide isn’t necessarily the point (remember even reducing the lighting helped!), focus on the good work, focus on their strengths. Break better.
Conclusion
Embracing your inner Hesienberg changes things. Just by asking people how they are doing, you change how they are doing. By asking what their goals are, you change the way they see their goals. But instead of making meth, you are creating an engaged workforce and improving relationships and productivity simply by being engaged. When you become part of the experiment as a leader, you create the opportunity for things to break better for you and your entire team.
Next time, maybe we’ll talk about Schrödinger’s Cat.
Paul Sinclair is a Co-Founder with Upstream Principles LLC, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to helping individuals, leaders and teams go upstream to discover solutions for their leadership and employee development challenges. The author of the Upstream Leadership book series, Paul offers strengths-based presentations on engagement and strategy, managing teams, developing key employees and avoiding HR pitfalls.