Proactive and Reactive Behaviour – What I learned from my company training session

Sharing is caring!

This is just a small post to recap some of the concepts I discovered and some I refreshed from my company training session on “Proactive Thinking”.

The focus was on understanding the difference between proactive and reactive behaviour

Mainly the difference is on how we respond to a specific situation. 

During the session, we defined reactive behaviour as an impulsive and direct reply to a specific situation.

Reactivity is related to the Fight-or-Flight response, it represents how our ancient ancestors acted when faced with danger in their environment. 

It is when we get angry for a delay on a project, or the anxiety/fear we get when our expectations differ from the actual outcome. 

Proactivity is related to a more careful way of understanding the context (listening) and thinking.

A reactive person focuses on the problem and complains about it, a proactive person focuses on the solution (and if it is not working on another one).

It reminds me of this 10-year-old InnovAction Lab presentation, min 18, but sadly is only in Italian

Locus of Control

A good behavioural psychologist can argue that we are mixing impulsive reactions with people who believe that factors in their life are controlled by forces and circumstances outside of themselves. 

I would agree with them but we also need a very easy way to communicate the concept to improve people’s lives and gather actionable insights.

In fact in psychology there is the concept of Locus of Control. 

It was developed in 1954 by Julian Rotten and it defines the level of degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives.

Internal locus of control -> Events are primarily a results of my actions and decisions

External locus of control -> “It’s not my fault” “Why didn’t anybody tell me?” “Only people with connections get the job” “The professor hates me. That’s why my grades are not good” 

Locus of control – Wikipedia

How the locus of control differs around the world

It is also interesting to know (data are quite old) how the locus of control differs around the world (sadly this data are from 2014)

Here the source of this data Global Views of Economic Opportunity and Inequality | Pew Research Center

Life Hack One

What was interesting from the session were a series of exercises useful to frame things we can control and things we can’t. 

For doing that we drew the circle of influence and circle of concerns

This came from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by  Stephen R. Covey.

The “Circle of Concern” includes the wide range of concerns you have in life – finances, health (also your parents’ health), Ukraine war, the political situation. 

Personally the goal was dual. 

First is to understand which of these concerns are outside your control and where instead you can focus. 

The second was to try to understand how to change perspective on things you can’t change, which means either letting go or framing the problem to find alternatives or compromises. 

Through this process we draw the Circle of Influence.

It represents the things that concern us that we can do something about.

For example – you may be worried about your parents health (i.e. circle of concern) and you start helping them scheduling the annual check-up, or you are worried about your finances and you start looking for a better job or cutting some expenses.

Life Hack Two

Another exercise was to describe an event that didn’t go as planned.

It was a kind of maieutic approach as it follow:

1 EVENT/SITUATION

Think of an (E) event/situation where you did not achieve your desired outcome.

What was the (E) event, explain briefly below.

2 REACTION/RESPONSE

What was your initial (R) Reaction/Response to the event, explain briefly below.

3 OUTCOME

Briefly explain the (O) outcome?

4 RESPONSE

Thinking about the same (E) event, if you could apply a more considered (R) Response,

what would you have done differently?

5 OUTCOME

What do you think the (O) outcome could have been?

Further readings 

In the session were also suggested three books:

  1. 7 Habit of Highly Effective People
  2. The Chimp Paradox
  3. Essentialism by Greg McKeown

So at the end I spent a very interesting hour which was a breath of fresh air for my mind. 

I will use some of the concepts for my future plans and I really wanted to share this experience because I thought it could be useful for my friends and my network.

As highlighted during the session:

“I am not product of my circumstances I am product of my decisions”

(honestly not so nice to see ourselves as a product but gives an idea) 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related articles

Beware of YES Master NO

Talking about negotiation, like other people, I am not so good at handling “NO” as a reply.  I mean, after

Questions?
Let's get in touch!

Tell me about your project

I will arrange a meeting to discuss the details

we will start working together

Scroll to Top