The Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon which effectiveness in stimulating creativity is only surpassed by its simplicity.

Teacher-Student Relation(example of Pygmalion effect)

In the story told by the Roman poet Ovid, Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with a statue he has created. George Bernard Shaw borrowed the theme for his play Pygmalion  in which a Professor Henry Higgins makes over the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, becoming besotted with her even as he teaches her how to speak proper English.

The ‘Pygmalion effect’ works through the self-fulfilling prophecy – that one’s positive or negative expectations about someone’s behavior, capability or performance lead to a higher propensity for the behavior, capability or performance to manifest.

To put in simple words the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.

So what do I do to harness the Pygmalion effect?

Things you can do are for example:
• Encourage your employees to set innovative goals
• Praise creative efforts, even if they weren’t successful
• Stress the importance of the sharing of ideas among colleagues
• Be creative yourself – serve as a role model
• ‘Stand up’ for your employees innovative efforts
• Take pride in your employees achievements
• Publicly recognize innovative work.

Use of Pygmalion Effect in Goal Setting process:

The prof told us about the few things which must be kept in mind while setting goals:

I will denote each set with an alphabet and we will derive a relation between them.

A – Potential

B – Goal Set

C – Goal Achieved

D – Historical Record.

The Goal Set should follow a spiral path just like a snail which keeps on growing in a spiral way starting from a point. This kind of growth will always be continuous and stable.

            The Goal Achieved should follow the Pygmalion effect in which the performance is increased by keeping a positive attitude and in which higher expectations lead to higher results.

This was evident from the class exercise in which they beat the previous record of 27 blocks to form a tower of around 30 blocks while working as an organized team with high expectations.

Stay tuned for the next post..