Avoiding the Golem

The golem is a mythological creature that was initially created as a protector, but began to slowly become a corrupt being. A golem is unshaped and often portrayed as stupid and slow.

From this visual comes the golem effect. Let's say you get a new employee at the office. They are just out of graduate school. Inexperienced yet seemingly bright. They're new, so you give them very little work. Of course since they're new they mess up a little bit and so you decide to give them a little less so that they can get used to the work before they take on too much.

Following so far?

Unfortunately they then mess this one up too. "I thought I told you to use indentations" you tell them. They simply nod. Frustrated, you give them a single assignment and tell them to have it done by noon.

Over time their quality begins to fall and so does the amount of work you give them. This is the golem effect. The golem effect is really a simple matter of lower expectations equals lower quality.

So how do you avoid this? You don't want to pile the new person with tons of work they can't handle. That would be asking for disaster, wouldn't it?

In comes the Pygmalion effect. This is where greater expectations equates to greater quality. This of course doesn't mean piling work on your new worker, but it does mean not lowering your expectation on their first couple failures. Tell them you expect them to do great.

Let's go back to our previous example. New, inexperienced graduate student who has come under your management. You hand them their first assignment and tell them they'll do great. Just like before they mess it up a little bit. You go over the stuff with them and tell them they'll do better next time.

You hand them their new assignment, which is not any less work, and you say "this is similar to the assignment before, I know you can do this." The employee hands it back to you with their missing indentations. Instead of lowering your expectations, give them a reminder with their next assignment or suggest they go over the guide again.

As soon as they do okay? Give them more work. Once they can handle something, give them more. Don't ever lower your expectation. Teach them. Give them reminders, and keep them excelling. Eventually your new grad student will have become just as great as your more experienced employees and your business will flourish.

More important than the work you give them is the attitude. An attitude betrays your real expectations. For example, if a teacher walks into a class of students who finds them boring before they've even started, they will be less effective. If they keep getting these kinds of situations, they'll stop trying as hard and eventually put in very little effort - becoming "that boring teacher."

Always remember to use the Pygmalion effect to your advantage. It will help you and the person that needs it. Most importantly, you'll avoid the golem who, besides turning in low quality work, they will also tend to be the worker nobody wants to be around. Because they've given up.

Help your employees: Make your work environment depend on the Pygmalion effect.