{"id":40989,"date":"2018-04-03T04:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T09:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=40989"},"modified":"2018-04-03T04:45:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T09:45:50","slug":"look-for-the-good-apples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/look-for-the-good-apples\/","title":{"rendered":"Look for the Good Apples"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the conversation turned to his status as the first American to hold the much-coveted WBC World Heavyweight Championship belt in eight years, no one would\u2019ve batted an eye if Deontay Wilder attributed the achievement to his considerable skill and punching power.<\/p>\n

Instead, the former Olympic bronze medalist boxer explained, \u201cWhen one guy is doing good, it makes all the others want to achieve greatness. It's contagious to do great. But once that one bad apple falls, everybody else will fall, and that's how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Apples in a barrel<\/h3>\n

Though your own \u201cring\u201d may look suspiciously like an office and be devoid of uppercuts and left hooks, this \u201cgreatness contagion\u201d does not observe such boundaries. No matter the theoretical architecture of your barrel, the quality of the apples you share it with matters.<\/p>\n

An actual bad apple in an actual barrel, according to Mental Floss<\/em>, emits the \u201cgaseous hormone\u2026ethylene\u201d\u2014a ripening agent, which, concentrated, can trigger the same effect in other fruit. \u201cGiven the right conditions and enough time,\u201d the author explains, \u201cone apple can push all the fruit around it to ripen and eventually rot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same concept applies to people, with one huge exception. One \u201csingle, toxic team member\u201d has been shown to serve as \u201ccatalyst for group-level dysfunction.\u201d That was one finding of a 2006 paper in the journal Research in Organizational Behavior aptly titled, \u201cHow, When, And Why Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel: Negative Group Members And Dysfunctional Groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the huge exception that scientists found: With people, it only takes one good apple to save the barrel. That\u2019s good news, and it gets better. With the proper interpersonal skillset and knowledge base, you could, in fact, be that apple.<\/p>\n

Learn to recognize your \u201cNick\u201d<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dan Coyle opens his fascinating deep dive into The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups<\/em><\/a> with the story of how University of South Wales professor Will Felps managed to force the \u201cbad apple\u201d effect out into the open for closer study.<\/p>\n

It begins with mischievous-yet-brilliant experiment concocted by Felps in which he brought together forty four-person groups \u201ctasked with constructing a marketing plan for a start-up\u201d\u2014then injected \u201cNick,\u201d an actor embodying three \u201cbad apple\u201d stereotypes: The Jerk, the Slacker, and the Downer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick is really good at being bad,\u201d Coyle writes. \u201cIn almost every group, his behavior reduces the quality of the group\u2019s performance by 30 to 40 percent. The drop-off is consistent whether he plays the Jerk, the Slacker, or the Downer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous research suggests this is not a fluke. As Felps himself noted in his 2006 Bad Apples paper, \u201csimply observing another person\u2019s expressions of effect can generate those feelings in others\u201d and \u201csubjects working together on a task partially adopted the confederates mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, \u201cwhereas a positive emotion (i.e. compassion) wears off relatively quickly, researchers find that when they give someone a negative feeling (i.e. anger) to concentrate in, the physiological effects last over 5 hours.\u201d In geek terms, the dark side of this force is strong.<\/p>\n\t\t