QUESTIONS FOR Martin Lindstrom

One of the world’s most influential management thinkers shares insights from his latest book.

How do you define ‘common sense’ as it applies to organizations?

In the workplace, common sense is the ability to see an issue from multiple points of view and form an opinion based on that. Most companies only see the world from one point of view — from an ‘inside-out’ perspective. The reality is, you also have to see the world from the outside-in. Common sense is very closely correlated with empathy — the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person and feel what they are feeling.

The reason why common sense is at such a low right now, both organizationally and socially, is that too many people are not interested in seeing things from another point of view. We live in a very selfish culture — and that is amplified within organizations.

You believe technology is intensifying the lack of empathy. How so?

First of all, we live in a screen-based culture that generates rational ways of thinking. We seduce ourselves into believing we’ve done our work if we’ve had eight Zoom calls and produced two Powerpoint decks. But all of that work is rational. The opposite state of being is where you can connect the dots in new and unusual ways, which is the root of creativity. The more time we spend in a rational environment, the less empathy we feel. Seeing things from another point of view is very difficult when you have no breaks and no free time to think.

Social media is amplifying the low levels of empathy. Consider the fact that we can only use 180 characters to express ourselves on Twitter, and that on Linkedin and Instagram, people enhance their photos to a degree where they are barely recognizable. At the same time, people are increasingly using Botox to erase micro expressions from their faces. The fact is, facial expressions provide a certain level of human connection between people. There was an experiment done where babies threw a major tantrum when their mothers failed to make any facial expression for 30 seconds. They completely freaked out because they couldn’t connect with their mom. As humans, we need that.

The overall headline here is that empathy has dropped by close to 50 per cent — yes, five-zero — in the last decade alone, based on multiple studies. And this is at its worst in big corporations, due to their silos and their focus on easyto-articulate key performance indicators (KPIS) rather than on aligning their work with consumers’ needs.

You believe that everything from efficiency to high morale can be bolstered by greater common sense. How so?

One example is a major bank I worked for in China that was giving out loans to start-ups and mid-size companies across the country. The reps who were selling the loans would take applications back to the risk and credit department, and they would be rejected. There was a huge disconnect between the departments. I said to them, “Why don’t we take the risk and credit folks out into the field?”

What happened was really interesting. Suddenly, there was an ‘empathy exchange’ going on, because the same people who were rejecting applicants could now see eye-to-eye with their customers. They could see their facilities, their management style and their passion first hand.

When we checked in a year later, the number of loans issued had doubled, and the risk had been cut in half. All because the people making decisions were able to look customers in the eye and get a sense for what the company requesting the loan was really about. There’s no way to communicate that on a spreadsheet. This is a great example of how you can shuffle around your existing resources in order to infuse empathy into your operations.

What role are smartphones playing in the depletion of empathy and common sense?

I actually believe the biggest enemy we have in society right now is the smartphone. Increasingly, these things are hardwired to our hands and our brains. Personally, I got rid of mine three years ago and I only use landlines. I had to. I was travelling a lot, and when I had some free time in a taxi to the airport, I would pick up my phone and hammer away at it like a jackhammer. It was one message after another to my team, to clients —to whomever would listen. Upon arrival after the 30-minute ride, I would have generated around 50 outgoing e-mails.

By the time I got to the airport, I felt like, ‘Wow my Outbox is empty. This is fantastic!’ But when I landed, most of those 50 messages had responses — plus there were new ones in my Inbox. Throughout this entire grind, I had never done two things that are essential for us as human beings.

The first is to transition. On many days, we don’t do this at all. Especially during the pandemic, we are increasingly blending our work and private lives together. People now have a line of bureaucracy going straight into their bedrooms. Transitioning is critical, because if you don’t do it, you aren’t resetting and de-fragmenting your brain. This is what computers do every so often, to avoid overload and store memory efficiently. And if we don’t do it, we become very transactional and linear in our thinking.

The second thing I was missing out on is even worse. I’ve learned that boredom is a foundation for creativity. Pauses in life are very important. When we pause, the silence allows us to reflect and connect dots in new ways — which is what visionary leadership is all about. Those ‘free’ 30 minutes we once had in airport taxis have disappeared. Often, there aren’t even breaks between Zoom meetings, and the result is very costly: We aren’t allowing our minds to pause and be creative. The smartest thing in the world for corporations to do is to make time for reflection.

What does a high degree of common sense and empathy look like? Is there a company or a particular leader that impress you?

Sadly, no — but I will say there is a direct correlation between the size of a company, its age, and its degree of common sense and empathy. Typically, bigger companies operating in commodity spaces that have been around for a long time have close to zero. That’s because if you work in such a company, you have increasingly been disconnected from the core reasons why it was originally founded.

If we flip the coin, the opposite of this is a start-up. Here’s a true story: A few years ago, two young university students were sitting in their dorm room, and one was smoking weed. He was very high, and his friend took a photo of him and posted it online. The next day, all hell broke loose and his friend said to him, ‘I really wish we could delete that photo’. This became the foundation for Snapchat, the popular app (and $80 billion company) that we know today. In short, it was founded on empathy.

As a company like Google grows, its founders usually move aside, and that’s when empathy begins to deteriorate.

We live in a very selfish culture — and that is amplified within organizations.

New people come on board like a revolving door, bringing in different views about where to take the company. Then they employ lawyers, and insert rules and turn it all into a bureaucracy. Suddenly the company is busy protecting itself and seeing the world from the inside-out. It doesn’t really care about what the world wants from it; it cares more about how to meet its KPIS.

There is an exception to this rule, and it’s a strange one: Amazon. It now has one million employees. That’s a serious number. When I speak to my contacts there, it’s clear that they have a shared philosophy. For one thing, they still behave as if ‘every day is the first day’. There is no ‘day two’, which means they behave like a start-up every day.

The second thing I’ve noticed is that an ordinary e-mail from an unsatisfied consumer has more power at Amazon than any incoming data — which is ironic, because Amazon is all about data. Yet there are ordinary consumer e-mails floating all the way up to senior management all the time. If an e-mail from Mrs. Smith complaining about her new oven mitt has such an impact, it’s because the company has an ingrained sense of empathy.

However, I don’t need to tell you that Amazon also has an unpleasant track record with its warehouses that has nothing to do with empathy. That’s why I can’t provide a straight answer to your question!

You encourage every organization to establish its own internal ‘Ministry of Common Sense’. Is that tongue-incheek?

Absolutely not! A senior executive at one of the world’s largest banks took my advice and started up a Ministry that began as an internal website, where people could submit evidence of a lack of common sense around the bank. The leadership team was besieged with input — and they were amazed that people also included possible solutions: They would say, ‘Here’s what I suggest we do’. The only thing the Ministry had to do was put a rubber stamp on it and say, ‘Yes, please proceed’. Since it started, this Ministry of Common Sense has addressed more than 1,500 issues. To my knowledge it hasn’t cost a single dollar, and it has led to increased morale and revenue.

Toyota, the largest car company in the world, develops these fantastic hybrid cars, but they wanted to save more electricity — and save money at the same time. So they had a Ministry of Common Sense-type competition, and one employee came up with a brilliant idea: ‘Why don’t we just shut down all the lights in our manufacturing plants?’ At first people said ‘What do you mean, people can’t work in the dark!’ The employee said, ‘No, no, no. You don’t get it. There are no humans working in some plants — just robots. And they don’t need light.’ They literally shut off the lights in these plants, and saved millions of dollars and untold energy. Half of that amount went straight to their bottom line and the other half was used to address something else submitted through the Ministry.

What initial steps can leaders take to increase common sense in their organization?

The most important thing they can do is re-connect with their company’s roots by connecting directly with their customers. In normal times, you can do that by spending time in your customer’s home or office, but if you can’t do that, you can get pretty close by using Zoom. Have your customer or client ‘open the door’ to their reality and show you how they interact with your product or service. Then, take note of any pain points they seem to be having. Once you figure out where any friction lies, acting on that information is the first step towards increasing empathy and common sense.

The biggest enemy we have in society right now is the smartphone.

Martin Lindstrom is the Founder and Chairman of Lindstrom Company, a leading brand and culture transformation group operating in more than 30 countries. His latest book is The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021). Ranked #20 by the Thinkers50 listing of the world’s most influential management thinkers. TIME Magazine has named him one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.