What links startup failures, the productivity problem and why is everyone so miserable?

Our inability to listen.

I suppose I should explain, but to be clear this is my opinion.

Around 43% of startups fail because they build the wrong thing, then run out of money. They ignore their own customers if they have different views on the product’s features. They even ignore their own team. We are all prone to being so wedded to our ideas that we stop listening.

The vast majority of us struggle to listen when we hear something that is different from our own thinking.

You will be able to remember when you have happily talked to people who agree with your ideas, but where they differ you push your own view rather than asking them about where their idea came from.

The underlying process for us not listening is a combination of biology and learnt behaviour.

Not listening is everywhere. Difference is driving us apart, as it is used by certain politicians to try and divide and conquer.

Building products requires diversity of thought, and that requires many different ideas. If those ideas are to be given a fair hearing to see if even 1% is valuable takes effort. It takes a level of listening, in order to truly understand very few engage in.

Companies, whether it’s a startup or a large corporation, build the wrong thing all the time. The genius idea is never spoken out loud due to the fear of the loud ego in the corner of the meeting room.

So billions are wasted on pointless products. Read about Juicero and weep!

When we aren’t listened to, it invariably leads to stress and anxiety. When you are stressed you can’t be creative as most of your brain is dealing with being stressed.

Being listened to is transformative; creativity, joy, productivity, all stem from feeling valued. Your ideas being listened to is incredible.

In this world and especially with the age of AI people are being listened to less and less. We are building the wrong products, wasting time and vast quantities of money, and it makes us miserable.

It’s not surprising we have a productivity problem in the UK and a mental health crisis. They, in my view, are intrinsically linked.

How do we fix it? We learn to listen.

Our jobs are essential to our mental health. We spend a large part of our lives in a job, and being listened to or not is the difference between joy and, let’s be frank, despair.

Diversity of people gives us diversity of thought and therefore ideas. That is how we solve complex problems brilliantly. It’s always been the case and always will be. Diversity has become a dirty word, but without it we will never solve anything and society’s malaise will continue.

If we could solve a business problem, we could ultimately help to solve the wider issues in society.

Through the power of listening, we can get to truly understand each other. What motivates us, how we think, how we see the world - they are essential to understand how to get the best out of everyone.

It’s well understood that a communal meal breaks down barriers; your differences simply disappear as you focus on the food and the joy that it brings us. Have a read of this - At my table – an ode to inclusion. I read this recently, twelve months after I was musing on sharing a meal, and it explains the beauty of it brilliantly.

If meals break down barriers in a social setting, what is an equivalent in the workplace? Problem solving was the conclusion I came to.

Humans aren’t very good at solving complex problems as individuals but can be brilliant at it in teams. The only minor problem is we don’t understand each other as we aren’t very good at listening.

So I set out to understand the neuroscience behind why we struggle to listen, why we aren’t good at solving complex problems on our own and how to fix it, in a simple and easy to do way.

Equal Value Thinking was born.

So if I am correct and not listening is causing startup failures, product failures in general, the root cause of the productivity problem and making us miserable, the answer is obvious. We need to understand why we don’t listen and what to do about it.

It’s worth a try as nothing else seems to be working.