Tony sent me this clip recently. Click here to watch it. I’ve watched it many times. It’s not possible to watch it without laughing. Go on, try! Just laugh and enjoy. It’s a clip from a French TV show where people with unique laughs were invited to participate in a debate. The laughter is contagious.
Just like laughter, other emotions and behaviours are “contagious”. We get influenced by our surroundings and this includes being connected to others’ emotions. Emotional Contagion is the phenomenon of one person’s emotion directly triggering similar emotions in other people. We all know that the behaviour of one employee can influence the group – here’s an interesting article overviewing why.
Let’s consider stress. Researchers, like Friedman & Riggio from the University of California have found if you are with someone who is highly expressive or anxious there’s a high likelihood you’ll experience those emotions as well.
Also, other research has found observing someone who is stressed, especially a co-worker or family member, can have an immediate effect upon our own nervous systems. Researchers have even found we can smell stress! People sweat special stress hormones, which are picked up by our olfactory senses and our brain can even detect whether the “alarm pheromones” were released due to low stress or high stress. Negativity and stress can literally waft through open plan offices!
In one case a senior manager’s significant offense spread from him to his direct reports, based on a complaint made against him. These direct reports, mimicking their leader’s behaviour, engaged in conflict behaviours towards the complainant. This happens because of social influence, where individuals adopt modelled behaviours, they see as normative or acceptable within their group. The initial dispute, though limited to two people, escalated as others were drawn in, causing a wider atmosphere of tension and reduced collaboration. In this case, it resulted in significant dysfunction between two key teams.
Venting in the form of a contained debrief, has an important place in helping to manage emotions. Uncontrolled venting does not. Sunil, sympathetic to Samara’s perspective, starts spreading negative comments about Ky’s work style to other colleagues. As gossip spreads, other team members start forming opinions about Ky, even if they weren’t involved in the original disagreement. Some will choose sides, leading to further division. The conflict has multiplied and now requires an intervention for Samara-Ky and the broader team dynamic. Often the latter is left unattended under the false assumption that it will die out with time. Unfortunately, it often just sits dormant and a only requires a small spark to start another uncontained bushfire.
Have you got some conflict contagion in your team or workplace? We’d love to strategise with you. There is always a plan, and we will help you find it!
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