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From Pizza Parties to Behavioral Data · The Science of Leading

• 0:00
  Welcome to the show everyone!
• 0:01
  I'm Claire Monroe, and I'm here with Edwin Carrington.
• 0:04
  And Edwin, I want to start with a concept that frankly drives me a little crazy.
• 0:09
  The legendary workplace pizza party.
• 0:11
  We have all seen it.
• 0:12
  Morale is low, people are burning out, and leadership's grand solution is to drop
• 0:16
  twenty boxes of lukewarm pepperoni in the breakroom and call it a day.
• 0:20
  Why do we keep treating complex human motivation like it can be solved with a quick
• 0:24
  carb-load?
• 0:25
  Well, Claire, because pizza is cheap, and actually understanding what makes your
• 0:29
  people tick is hard work.
• 0:31
  It requires moving past what I call "gut-feel management."
• 0:36
  For decades, leaders have relied on these surface-level "culture" initiatives
• 0:40
  because they don't know how to measure the actual operational performance system
• 0:44
  that is human motivation.
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  They treat motivation like some abstract, mystical force, rather than something we
• 0:50
  can actually map, measure, and influence with precision.
• 0:54
  An operational performance system.
• 0:56
  That is a really interesting way to frame it.
• 0:58
  So, you're saying there's actually a predictable sequence here?
• 1:01
  Like a chain reaction?
• 1:02
  Exactly.
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  Think of it as a metric chain.
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  It starts with intrinsic motivation.
• 1:08
  That's the raw engine.
• 1:10
  If that engine is running well, it leads to active engagement.
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  Engagement then feeds into job satisfaction, which directly drives daily
• 1:18
  performance, and ultimately, that's what determines your retention rates.
• 1:22
  If you have a retention problem, you can't just try to patch it at the end of the
• 1:26
  chain.
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  You have to go all the way back to the beginning--to the behavioral baseline of what
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  motivates each unique individual.
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  But how do you actually find that baseline?
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  Because most companies use those annual, anonymous engagement surveys.
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  You know, the ones where you rate things on a scale of one to five.
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  But by the time HR compiles the results six months later, the data is already
• 1:46
  totally obsolete, and frankly, people just write what they think management wants to
• 1:50
  hear anyway.
• 1:51
  Exactly.
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  Annual surveys are post-mortems.
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  They tell you that the patient died, but they don't tell you how to keep them
• 1:58
  healthy in real-time.
• 1:59
  That's why we have to look at behavioral analytics.
• 2:02
  Tools like OAD, which stands for Organizational Analysis and Design,
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  actually map the core behavioral drivers of your people before the friction even
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  starts.
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  OAD doesn't ask "are you happy today?"
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  It measures the hardwired, stable traits that dictate how a person naturally
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  processes work, handles authority, and communicates.
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  It gives managers a blueprint, not a snapshot.
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  A blueprint of their actual wiring.
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  That's fascinating because it means you aren't guessing anymore.
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  You aren't assuming that because Bob in accounting is quiet,
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  he wants to be left alone, or because Sarah is outgoing, she wants to lead every
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  meeting.
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  OAD actually reveals the underlying data.
• 2:44
  Precisely.
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  It removes the bias of the manager's own lens.
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  We tend to manage others the way we want to be managed, which is a massive trap.
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  Behavioral data from OAD shows you that what feels like a reward to one person might
• 2:58
  actually feel like a punishment to another.
• 3:01
  That transition from guessing to using hard data is huge.
• 3:04
  But once a manager has this OAD behavioral data, what do they actually do with it?
• 3:09
  How do they translate those insights into daily habits?
• 3:13
  I'm thinking about Frederick Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory here.
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  He argued that things like salary, working conditions, and even status aren't
• 3:20
  actually motivators--they're "hygiene factors."
• 3:24
  If they're missing, people are miserable, but adding more of them doesn't actually
• 3:28
  make people love their work.
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  Herzberg was spot on, and yet so few organizations actually apply his findings.
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  Money, bonuses, benefits--those are extrinsic.
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  They prevent dissatisfaction, but they don't create inspiration.
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  In fact, if you over-rely on controlling extrinsic rewards,
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  you can actually destroy intrinsic motivation.
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  It's called the overjustification effect.
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  If you start dangling an arbitrary cash bonus for a task someone already found
• 3:58
  naturally satisfying, they stop doing it for the love of the craft and start doing
• 4:03
  it just for the check.
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  And their performance actually drops.
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  The overjustification effect.
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  That is so counterintuitive, but it explains why those big,
• 4:12
  flashy sales incentives can sometimes make teams feel incredibly cutthroat and
• 4:17
  transactional.
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  So, if we can't just throw cash at the problem, what do data-driven managerial
• 4:23
  interventions actually look like in practice?
• 4:26
  It comes down to structured autonomy and tight feedback loops.
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  For example, instead of waiting for the dreaded annual review,
• 4:33
  high-performing managers establish a strict fourteen-day feedback loop.
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  Every two weeks, there is a structured, data-backed touchpoint.
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  But here is the key: you use the OAD profile to tailor that conversation.
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  If the data shows an employee has a high need for autonomy,
• 4:52
  you don't micromanage their process.
• 4:55
  You define the clear boundaries of their decision-making power and let them run.
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  If they have a high need for structure, you provide concrete,
• 5:03
  step-by-step milestones.
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  It is coaching guided by behavioral science, not managerial whim.
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  I love that because it means feedback becomes a helpful steering mechanism,
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  not a surprise attack.
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  It makes so much sense.
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  If you can map the actual human behavioral drivers using real data,
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  you can build a workplace where people actually want to show up and perform.
• 5:25
  It is entirely possible, Claire.
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  But you have to be willing to trade the gut-feel for real analytics.
• 5:31
  Absolutely.
• 5:32
  And if you are listening to this and thinking, "I want to see what this behavioral
• 5:36
  data looks like for my own team," you don't have to just wonder.
• 5:39
  You can actually try this out for yourself.
• 5:41
  Go to O-A-D DOT AI to sign up for free.
• 5:45
  Try it with a focus group in your company.
• 5:47
  See how mapping those actual human behavioral drivers can completely change how you
• 5:52
  lead, engage, and retain your talent.
• 5:54
  That is O-A-D DOT AI.
• 5:56
  Edwin, thank you as always for sharing your wisdom today.
• 6:00
  Always a pleasure, Claire.
• 6:01
  And thank you all for listening to The Science of Leading.
• 6:04
  We'll see you next time.