How many times have you been at a concert, a wedding, a funeral, a worship service, or any other public event that required a microphone and a speaker, and when there was a glitch in the system, some feedback from front, or the sound cut out, and instantly, without thinking about it, you turned around and looked at the sound person? But, if the event goes off without a hitch, how likely are you to comment to the sound guy or the tech team, "Great job today! No glitches! Excellent work!" It's the sound person problem, where if the sound tech does his job well, no one notices. If he makes a mistake, everyone notices. It also demonstrates our tendency to focus on the negative without crediting the positive.
In reading a new book called Switch about how to change things when change is hard (more on that topic at a later post), one of the interesting things from the book is how predisposed we as humans can be on focusing on the negative. The authors cite the following examples:
- Of the 558 emotion words in the English language, 62% of them are negative.
- People who were shown photos of bad and good events spent longer viewing the bad ones.
- When people learn bad stuff about someone else, it’s stickier than good stuff. People pay closer attention to the bad stuff, reflect on it more, remember it longer, and weigh it more heavily in assessing the person overall.
There's research to back the first three claims, and this last one is anecdotal:
- So when your kids are making As and Bs, you don’t think much about their grades. But when they make a D or an F, you spring into action. It’s weird when you think about it, isn’t it? (46-48).
It's interesting that we have a more of an alignment or focus on the negative. And I think this focus runs true in many different situations- businesses, schools, parenting, and even churches. We notice a problem, we spring into action. We don't notice a problem, we relax and assume all is well. This isn't to say that we shouldn't confront the brutal facts or embrace a negative reality; but if that is all we do, all that we focus on, we run the risk of becoming a 'Debbie Downer', and ironically, we make can make the process of change more difficult.
Oh, and one last thing- next time a public event goes off without a hitch, thank your sound person.
one additional comment from a former sound guy (in multiple environments): sometimes when there is that 'glitch' in the system it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the sound guy has done his/her job or not. Sure he/she may be the one to be able to fix it, but even this is not always the case. Similarly at times we look at problems in other instances and blame the wrong person or expect the wrong person to correct (how many times have we all done this when there is a problem with a item at a store or restaurant.?) - Peter
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