Prakash Mesta

Dunning Kruger Effect is applicable in almost all fields. Also everyone goes through this in one or the other situation. Let’s take an example of a new process being transitioned to off-shore. At first when the process overview is given (especially in a layman language), the team members feels confident and think that they know almost everything about the process. As they start going through detailed trainings, the doubts (also self doubts) start coming up. Whenever they are not able to connect dots, they start loosing confidence. This is the main reason why people take up initiatives with high confidence and then give up when self-doubts get overpowered. Supervisor needs to realize that there are mainly two pitfalls in this journey. They are: When there is high false-confidence in the beginning. This might result in over investment of resources and over-commitment on deliverables. With half knowledge, the team might end up saying Yes to many things that might be difficult or impossible to deliver. In such situation, the supervisor should encourage team members to quickly know the things that they don’t know yet. ‘Knowing what we don’t know’ itself converts the false-confidence into mindful-confidence. The second pitfall is when the confidence is reducing. This is where team members start loosing interest and think of giving up. This might result in attrition in the team too. In this situation, the supervisor should make team members realize that they are in learning curve. The supervisor should help team members see the future state clearly. Showing relevant success stories can help team members see possibilities. ‘Knowing-possibilities’ can reduce doubts and create motivation to continue the journey. Being aware of this rise and fall concept itself can make a supervisor (and also the team) complete the journey in shorter period of time. Linking it to process improvement: Many employees initiate process improvement initiatives (like lean six sigma) as soon as they attend a quick idea generation session or when they get some motivation from management. However over a period of time they start realizing that they are hitting many road-blocks, especially around data analysis or usage of tools/concepts. Many eventually lose interest and give up. Those who continue to learn and continue to take their initiatives forward would succeed. And as they keep moving towards success, the confidence level goes up. Org culture and mentoring support play a major role in helping employees succeed though this.