Cameras Don’t Lie

In a number of leadership development programs that we’ve custom-designed for clients, among the processes we’ve employed is ethnography, a research study that involves the systematic recording of human interactions. This we employ only with the client’s consent and a written reassurance of confidentiality and psychological safety.

Participants are recorded on video as they go about their work. An ideal scenario for recording is a meeting. Cameras are set up strategically and discreetly in the meeting room. Trained observers sit and watch participants unobtrusively, jotting down notes of their observations. As the meeting progresses participants become less and less conscious of the cameras, and begin to relax, behave more naturally.

In one client case, the meeting we were observing had junior associates making presentations to the senior leaders. In another, the setting was less structured, and there were more tables; participants freely chose where to sit. The cameras started rolling before the meeting began, catching people as they arrived.

In another client case, it wasn’t a meeting scenario, it was a food preparation setting held in a large industrial kitchen. Using our phone cameras, we recorded the participants in their aprons as they worked in their own separate teams to prepare complete meals from scratch. These they would later plate and serve to invited diners.

Studying the videos, we made notes of our observations: what struck us as significant, odd, or subtle but noteworthy. We edited the segments that were to be shown to the participants. For the debrief, we invited an HCD friend and associate, an expert in Gestalt psychology and microanalysis. He ran the edited clips for the participants., giving no commentary, explanation or feedback. There were whispers as participants viewed themselves. The professor then asked: What have you seen? What have you noticed? A few shared their observations.

He then followed up with more incisive questions. Who sat at the head of the table? Who talked the most? Participants began to comprehend the import of the dynamics they were seeing onscreen. Our job was to prompt conversations about what they thought of their actions, what they might do differently.

We place high value on ethnography as a means to draw attention to one’s behavior in the workspace to encourage self-evaluation and reflection. The cameras don’t lie. The film is a mirror for leaders to see themselves in a social situation, see how they interact (or not) with others, how they show up, what impact, if any, they create. We believe this process serves as a feedback mechanism which could increase leaders’ self- and other-awareness.

Would a study like this be useful to your organization? We’re happy to help.