We have all witnessed scenes of frantic shoppers fighting over packs of loo paper in supermarkets.
Slightly bemusing?
Yes, but also quite revealing about human behaviour - there are lessons for organisations / businesses to be learned from this epidemic of toilet paper panic buying.
Despite supermarket CEOs calling for calm, and reassuring shoppers that we are at no risk in Australia of running out of toilet paper, Australians continue to clear shelves. Scenes of shoppers fighting over packs of loo paper may seem ridiculous to the rational among us – but we’re not dealing with something rational here.
The late great sociologist Harold Garfinkle studied how people “convince themselves and one another that there is a stable order in society.”
Cohen’s (1972) work Folk Devils and Moral Panics examined the building up of social anxieties to periods of moral panics. Social anxiety flourishes in the absence of social certainty/order.
A moral panic occurs when “condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.”
The great loo paper pan(ic)demic (sorry, had to do it) reveals several key things about humans, namely that we are not rational beings;
- Humans are driven by powerful mostly irrational beliefs (refer the wearing of face masks);
- What we don’t know we make up so that it then makes sense to us;
- The grim coronavirus (COVID-19) stories have left us seemingly helpless in the face of the threat;
- One thing we believe we can do to gain some control (regain social order) is stock up on what we believe we need to survive the real or imagined threat;
- Empty loo-paper shelves in our supermarkets equal moral panic and a threat to social order.
So what can we learn from this about crafting a great company culture?
Engagement surveys are rational devices and rarely create lasting change – refer ‘Banking’ Royal Commission findings. One can be highly engaged while doing evil!
Connect with the (irrational by definition) beliefs of your team because beliefs drive behaviour. If you really want a healthy workplace culture, understand the values and beliefs of your staff. This will tell you what really motivates them, and what lies behind their behaviour.
The great loo paper pandemic has taught us that beliefs reign – even in the face of overwhelming, rational evidence.
