Think Again

participate and volunteered to be the first to take the hot seat. Her team
compiled criticisms from staff surveys, printed them on note cards, and had
her react in real time in front of a camera. She read one employee’s
complaint that she was like Mary F***ing Poppins—the first time anyone
could remember hearing Melinda curse—and explained how she was
working on making her imperfections more visible.
To test the impact of her presentation, we randomly assigned one group
of employees to watch Melinda engage with the tough comments, a second
to watch a video of her talking about the culture she wanted to create in
more general terms, and a third to serve as a pure control group. The first
group came away with a stronger learning orientation—they were inspired
to recognize their shortcomings and work to overcome them. Some of the
power distance evaporated—they were more likely to reach out to Melinda
and other senior leaders with both criticism and compliments. One
employee commented:

---

In that video Melinda did something that I’ve not yet seen
happen at the foundation: she broke through the veneer. It
happened for me when she said, “I go into so many meetings
where there are things I don’t know.” I had to write that down
because I was shocked and grateful at her honesty. Later, when she
laughed, like really belly-laughed, and then answered the hard
comments, the veneer came off again and I saw that she was no
less of Melinda Gates, but actually, a whole lot more of Melinda
Gates.
It takes confident humility to admit that we’re a work in progress. It
shows that we care more about improving ourselves than proving
ourselves.
*
If that mindset spreads far enough within an organization, it can
give people the freedom and courage to speak up.
But mindsets aren’t enough to transform a culture. Although
psychological safety erases the fear of challenging authority, it doesn’t
necessarily motivate us to question authority in the first place. To build a
learning culture, we also need to create a specific kind of accountability—
one that leads people to think again about the best practices in their
workplaces.

---