Be That “Someone”
By: David King, Controller
“Someone should …”
How many times a day (or week or month) is this phrase uttered within your office, followed by a potential process improvement or, more often, a complaint?
More importantly, how often does “someone” step forward to take on the process improvement?
In 1968, John M. Darley and Bibb Latané first demonstrated a social psychology concept known as the “Bystander Effect.” This concept was built around the observation that individuals are less likely to offer help when other people are present. In addition, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely any one individual will offer help. They also identified three main factors that contribute to the bystander effect:
- Ambiguity and consequences – Assistance is more likely to be given in situations of insignificant consequence.
- Understanding of environment – Familiarity with one’s environment is directly related to likelihood to assist.
- Diffusion of responsibility – Failure to take action due to assumptions that someone else will, of others being more qualified, or fear of being superseded by a superior or offering unwanted assistance.
While this study is 50 years old, it doesn’t take very much effort to think of real-life examples that can fit into each or all of these categories such as a staff-level employee readily offering to help clean up after a holiday luncheon (low consequences) but being more hesitant to volunteer to re-engineer the entire teller line within a branch (lower understanding of environment).
What are some reasons that one may be hesitant to step out and be that “someone”?
- A general lack of employee engagement in the workplace.
- A previous failure when taking on a “someone should” task.
- A perceived lack of time or money available to enact change.
- An introverted personality renders an employee uncomfortable putting themselves at risk.
What are some benefits of overcoming the bystander effect?
- The opportunity to improve processes, services levels, etc. once a specific problem is recognized.
- An improved working environment for all team members.
- The ability to network with colleagues across all areas of your company.
- Increased visibility within your company.
- Increased self-esteem and self-worth.
What steps can be taken by organizations and individuals to turn “Someone should …” into “Someone did …”?
Companies need to foster a culture and mindset that motivate their most valuable resource, their people, to feel comfortable bringing potential areas of improvement to their attention. More importantly, the leaders must actually be open to listening to ideas and, if supporting them, providing the resources necessary to enable these improvement initiatives; this cannot be just lip service. This support includes not punishing a person for an idea that is ultimately not enabled or a project that is not completed successfully, but rather treating it as a training opportunity.
There is a poem by Charles Osgood titled, “The Responsibility Poem,” that ends with the following:
Somebody should have done the job
And Everybody should have,
But in the end Nobody did
What Anybody could have.
As you hear “Someone should…” think about what you can do to turn that into “We will …” or “We did …”.
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