What do perception and reality have to do with managing? You sit down in your car, turn the key, shift into gear, and suddenly the car takes off, all on its own. Your foot is on the brake, so you press down harder, but the car only speeds up! You floor the brake but it doesn't help. What is going on here? No. the cars have not developed minds of their own and conspired to terminate us all. In fact there is a simple explanation for this bizarre experience: you put your foot on the wrong pedal, which means that every time you thought you were pressing the brake harder, you were really flooring the accelerator! Think it could never happen to you? It happens to 16,000 Americans every year,' apparently including this one (Links to an external site.). This driving fail illustrates a fascinating truth: while our perceptions of things are not necessarily accurate, we behave as if they are. In practice, our perception becomes our reality. In the case of unintended car acceleration, an outside observer would likely figure out the driver's mistake quickly, but the driver almost never does. Why? Because in their mind, they are pressing the brake, so the only reasonable behavior is to press harder. Their perception becomes their reality, and their behavior follows, despite clear evidence to the contrary. This happens at work too. Amare is a manager who doesn't trust Kelsay (a fellow manager) because she has a long history of trying to go behind his back and undercut him. Kelsay recently created a policy that seemed to directly reduce Amare's authority at work. How do you suppose he interpreted that action? In contrast, another manager (Beth) has always supported Amare. If Beth had issued the same directive, what would Amare have assumed about the motivations behind that? In the first case, Amare saw this as "Just another example of Lindsay trying to grow her own kingdom at his expense," while in the second he would have assumed that Beth had a good reason for what she did. Same reality, different perceptions, and of course behavior doesn't follow reality, it follows perception. So in Lindsay's case, Amare would tend to talk about her behind her back and look for ways to avoid working with her, while in Beth's case he would have probably stopped by Beth's office to talk to her about the overall plan. Never forget that a person's perception is, to that person, reality, and they will behave accordingly. An employee who has concluded that you are a biased boss will view everything you do through that lens. Your firm's "bold" new initiative will be greeted only with suspicion if past corporate actions have left employees feeling short-changed, and they will respond accordingly. And if you find an employee or coworker behaving in a way that you don't like, don't forget that your perceptions are just as likely as theirs to be wrong.Pedal Error Causing Preventable Accidents." Claims Journal. 17 July 2015, www.claimsjournal.comewsational/2015/07/17/264606.htm Purpose: You will practice applying the concept that "perception is reality" in workplace situations. Post: Review the assigned readings and the content page "What do perception and reality have to do with managing?" and respond to the prompts that follow. Prompts: . Describe a workplace situation you have experienced or have first-hand knowledge of in which this principle was illustrated. Provide enough information that the reader understands the context and the conflict. Don't duplicate the examples given in the content page you read. . Explain how the situation was eventually resolved. Offer one piece of advice to one of the individuals involved that could have helped move past this situation. Make it clear which person you are giving the advice to. Be sure to go beyond platitudes like "be nice to people" or "remember that perception is reality