Is there Science behind human behavior?

“Once an engineer, always an engineer.” Isn’t that something we all have heard and lived by, irrespective of what role we are playing in the corporate world and the kind of success we have achieved in our lives. Be it the trainee engineer or CEO of a company, for many of them the engineering equations still define the way we look at things. It is no wonder hence, that when leadership sessions on people management are given, an engineer inside us starts to find equations through which the same can be explained. If people management could be reduced to an equation like x= y+z, where we could to add Δy and Δz to improve the performance of the teams, life would have been so much so simpler. This reminds me of the famous quote by Sir Issac Newton, “ Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” I wish managing people was as simple as understanding three Newton’s laws. The engineer inside me is trying to find if these laws can be applied not only to calculate the motion of bodies but also to find out the reasons that drive people and team.

Newton’s laws describe the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it. Can we consider  human mind as  an object or body and then look at the  different forces that act on it and drive its eventual response (like  behavior and motion ). Let’s look at each of these three laws and understand how they can be applied to human behavior too.

First law – the Laziness factor: The first law stated that the object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a force. Same is true for human behavior. Most of us are creatures of doing this with least efforts   and prefer the path of least resistance or take the road most travelled. Whether we call it, the comfort zone or having low risk appetite, unless there is an external and/or internal force that disturbs our natural way of working, we tend to follow the status quo. This is exactly the reason why we either need reminders or resolutions to make any change in our behavior and/or actions. The status quo or laziness factor is a powerful force in human behavior, directly analogous to the inertia described by Newton’s first law of motion. Force is necessary, and can we, as leaders be that force @ work??

To overcome this inertia in human behaviour a stimulus is needed, can we as leaders be that force or help change that state for individuals to enable them to reach the next level? As managers, we would need to provide both kinds of forces, push and pull. Push will act as a fuel, when we challenge individuals out of their comfort zone. Pull would be needed when we need to remove hurdles and make path friction less for team’s growth.

Second law – the Appreciation factor: 

The second law of motion pertains to the behavior of objects on which force is applied, and results in motion, whichis directly proportional to the amount of force applied. In a similar approach, the effort (or  force ) applied by an individual result into professional growth of the individual. Instead of an external force, it is a force an individual has to apply to move forward.

Behavior is not something that is built in a day. It’s the combination of their upbringing, attitude, ability and learning zest. It is a mixture of their natural ability in a particular environment, which helps decide their success. (defining success would probably need another blog)

 If we convert Newton’s second law, then Force or Efforts applied by individual are proportional to their own ability and the appreciation/growth that they get in their career. As managers, we can focus on providing the “Appreciation” component to help individuals grow further. Even the third principle in the FISH philosophy, as written in the book FISH talks about “Make their Day”. We as managers can definitely chose our attitude towards the work done by juniors, make their day through gratitude and would automatically see the efforts doubling. One can argue, can we then build best of the teams by just providing the right rewards, let me caution that we should not forget the Mass (ability) component. A body with low mass may not have the same force and may disintegrate, similarly a team member with low ability may not benefit from acceleration provided by a leader. The engineer in you would have already done the Maths to see the complexity of this simple equation.

 Third law – the Balance Factor

In schools, this law was used to understand many physical concepts. Simply put, the law says that when one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body. In other words, for every action or decision that we make, there is an equal and unintended (sometimes intended) consequence. Unintended consequences are related to tradeoffs. Every decision that we make has trade-offs, more so when it comes to balancing our work and life. Most of us boast of maintaining a healthy balance, however there are tradeoffs that we are making on the way, lossely termed as work life balance. These inadvertent tradeoffs appear later in life and there is nothing that can be done about it in hindsight.

CoViD in some ways has already started to show us these tradeoffs that we have been making without our realization. There would be no contentions if I say, children are happier with parents around. They are learning many things as we have more time at hand to spend with them. Be it history, mythology or scared hymns, children know them better now. Many would say this has been possible through recast of Ramayana – Mahabharata series which we are watching together, or attending online church prayers together now as a family. Relationships have improved, as there is better understanding. Whether it is the internet conking off in meetings or background noises, we all have learnt to be patient. The not so visible trade offs we have been making in our mad rush has now come to forefront. 

What can we  as managers learn from the third law? As every action has equal and opposite reaction, and every decision involves tradeoffs. It is a reminder to us that a balance is needed in pushing the team to achieve results. We all know that each individual is different, so is their need for balance. We need to allow greater flexibility to each team member ensuring the tradeoffs they are making is balanced. It’s also a reminder that we should not be pushing our team members too much, making them resist. Are we as leaders doing them more damage by micro managing and being less flexible?

Various research has shown that employee satisfaction can be improved by letting employees become more accountable, by providing them more career opportunities and allowing them to balance work and life. We don’t need to remember all this, just the three Newton laws. People tend to stick to the status quo unless an external force is applied; appreciation &acceleration can increase the force/effort applied by an individual; every decision has equal & opposite reaction & includes tradeoffs, the same can be minimized by providing balance.  The correlation or R2 value for this theory is not 100%, as there are definitely some outliers who are self-driven, and keep going without any external force. However, even for them ther is a stage where all these three laws are needed to nudge them to the next level.

The ideal engineer is a composite, neither a scientist nor a mathematician, and striving to be the best manager and/or leader. Engineers can use the knowledge and techniques of engineering disciplines in solving both engineering & human problems. Engineering is all about solving complex problems in the most simplest way, and managing people should be definitely one of them ! Watch this space for more correlations with other laws, till then keep the engineer in you live!