If you’ve been on the Internet this week, chances are you’ve had one (or a dozen) friends chime in about whether they hear the word “Laurel” or the word “Yanny” in an audio clip. But before you shake your head at yet another Internet meme, I’d like to point you to an important lesson that you might be missing about this “divisive question.”
When I saw this pop up, I was somewhat disheartened to see that most of the conversations were people angrily splitting into groups of “Team Laurel” and “Team Yanny.” Some subset of folks were curious as to why there was any difference at all, or denied that the other people really heard what they claimed.
The reason for this difference in what you hear is tied to your physiology and neurology. The sound contains the information for both words, but depending on your ear’s vocal range you are going to be more inclined to hear one word or the other. Someone whose hearing range reaches both extremes might be able to hear either word, depending on a number of factors. This is not merely some amusing quirkiness about this sound-file, but a very important reminder about people.
What’s the business lesson? We’re getting to it.
In February of 2015 a similar Internet phenomena erupted surrounding an image of a dress which some saw as blue and black and others saw as gold and white. In that case, as with our sound file, the gut reaction was to take sides and deny the other people could possibly be seeing anything different.
Yet again, the underlying cause was the eyes and brains of the people observing the image. (Interestingly, I took a poll in my house and two of us saw gold and white, the other three saw blue and black.) According to a study in Current Biology, 57% of participants saw the dress as blue-black, 30% saw it as white-gold, 11% saw it as blue-brown and the rest saw something else.
These viral cases are unusual in that they give us a quick insight into how varied people’s perception of information can be. It is confoundingly easy to assume that everyone sees things just like you do. Even given the obvious evidence that your own family and friends are divided about what appears to be empirical data — you see the splits in Twitter and Facebook.
What can we learn from this?
When you’re presenting information to your clients, co-workers, and friends, it is absolutely vital that you take the time to make sure that they perceive on their end the same message you’re trying to convey.
In psychology and philosophy they call this “subjective quality” of experience qualia. Usually people describe it by saying things like “how can you know that what you see as red is the same as what others see?” Up until the Blue/Gold dress controversy, I wondered if anyone would ever be able to effectively convey the importance of that question and its likely answer. You have to put real work into two-way communication to ensure that everyone is getting the same message.
Clarity of message doesn’t ensure universal understanding. Effective communication requires two-way checks to ensure that both parties are getting the information across that they want to send and receive. Reminders like this Laurel/Yanny example can be excellent object lessons if taken seriously.
And what about people who can’t get your message because of other limits? This debate about the sound file is pointless to the hearing-impaired, just as the dress debate would have been lost on the color-blind or significantly vision impaired. Are you thinking about potential signal and receipt problems (both metaphorical and literal) in your communications?
One more thing to consider, when you look at your friends in social media arguing about their results how many took the time to consider with empathy the other side’s point of view? That people can see the same evidence yet draw different conclusions shouldn’t surprise us — it’s the basis of pretty much every court-case in our justice system.
Yet we always forget.
If you’d like to know more about the science behind this particular phenomena, check out this quick video that does a nice job of giving a science based explanation. Hopefully that’s what you’ll see and hear — that’s what I saw and heard anyway. <cough>
One of our fundamentals at Apex is the Agile way in which we work with our customers. By being in constant contact through daily stand-ups, and working with all the facets of a company, Apex really hears and understands each pain point so we can address it quickly and precisely. But don’t just listen to us say it. Check out our case studies and this short video from a client on how Apex was able to address their needs.
At Apex Process Consultants we’re always looking for insights into improving business and better understanding our client’s needs. If you’d like to learn more about our practice, contact us at info@apexbpm.com or (947) 282–6026.
