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Malcolm Gladwell took a different path when he wrote What the Dog Saw. It's tempting to take a book title at face value. But over the past decade Gladwell has written four books that radically change how we understand our world and ourselves. What the Dog Saw brings together some of his best thinking; naturally, some of which is seen from a dog's perspective.
Patricia McConnell is an ethologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She observes behavior in animals and their people. McConnell decodes one of the most common of all human-dog interactions; the meeting between two leashed animals on a walk. "To us it's about one dog sizing up another. But it's really about two dogs sizing up each other after first sizing up their respective owners" she says. "Their owners are often anxious about how well their dogs will get along, and if you watch them instead of their dogs, you'll often notice the humans will hold their breath and round their eyes and mouths in an on-alert expression. Since these behaviors are expressions of offensive aggression in canine culture, humans are unwittingly signaling tension." By tightening the leash says McConnell you can actually cause the dogs to attack each other.
Cesar Millan runs the Dog Psychology Center in L.A. You've probably seen him on Nat Geo or caught an interview wherein he demonstrates his uncanny instinct for reaching a dog's emotional center, earning trust and eventually changing bad behavior to good. He adjusts his gate and body posture to disarm tension and fear so that good behavioral process can begin. If only we could capture Millan's instinctual art of canine trust-building and persuasion in everyday life. It may surprise you to know that some behaviorists are hard at work in that pursuit. Movement Analysts (seriously) study public figures like Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton who they say "had great phrasing and body presence." George W. Bush did not. "Mostly what we see in the normal population is undifferentiated phrasing" says Karen Bradley at the University of Maryland. But there are people of all speech and body postures...people you and I meet every day. The big takeaway here (assigning some credit to dogs and their people) comes with the realization that certain people present an unintended barrier while others are open and welcoming. When we blend them into our staff or feel a natural bond between client and associate, we can vault forward on the game board of organizational chemistry.
For some, interacting with new people is like driving down the interstate looking through a pin hole. For them comfort, trust, collaboration can be difficult. If you identify people in your department for whom you're responsible, see it through the dog's eyes. What could you tell them that might diminish their anxiety and enhance their confidence with all types of people behaving in ways that might prevent them from trusting you or your coworkers? Where and how might you communicate the message?
One of the great tragedies of today's sphere of interaction is the unspoken tension brought about by discomfort and self derision; invisible barriers between one human being and another. We can learn a lot viewing it from the perspective of what the dog saw.
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