Over the years I’ve shown a clever little animation in our workshops to illustrate our propensity to tell ourselves stories when things are ambiguous and unclear. It’s how we make sense of the world. But in running this video, perhaps hundreds of times, I think I’ve discovered another interesting use for it. It seems to give an indication of group fear. In other words, I reckon it reveals whether a group is well connected and feeling secure where members can take risks or the other end of the spectrum where there is fear, uncertainly and distrust.

Let me give you a little background on how I use the video and show you how the indicator works.

The video is about 90 seconds long. Just watch it and at the end describe what you saw happening. There are no wrong answers so whatever pops to mind.

So, what do you think the video was showing?

Just take a moment and jot down what you think was happening.

OK, most people ascribe human emotions and actions to the shapes. They say things like, “the big triangle was bullying the little triangle and the circle but the little triangle saved the circle.” Or they will ascribe roles to the shapes saying things like “the father didn’t like the boyfriend but despite being pushed away the boyfriend still went out with the girl and the father was angry.”

We like to tell ourselves a story to explain what’s happening rather than merely say they are geometric shapes moving on a two-dimensional plane. And because we tell ourselves a story we feel emotions as the story unfolds. And depending on our surroundings, we will verbalise these emotions.

So here is what I’ve noticed from showing this video to groups of people in organisations across the globe.

In most groups, regardless of culture, there is an audible titter or even a cheer when the little triangle escapes with the circle and a laugh when the big triangle smashes things up in the end.

It seems to me that the volume of the response is directly proportional to how safe and comfortable people feel with their colleagues. When the group is well connected the sounds increase.

However, when there is fear and distrust the group is stoney silent.

And when I ask the group about what they saw happening, the noisy group will offer suggestions freely and have a bit of a laugh about it. The silent group is reluctant to offer any suggestions for fear of getting it wrong or looking silly.

Now this has massive implications for creativity and innovation. Ed Catmull, the CEO and co-founder of Pixar made this point clear in his recent book, Creativity Inc., that this biggest killer of creativity is fear.

So if you want to get a bit of a litmus test on just how much fear there is in your organisation or group, just ask them to watch this video, ask what they see is happening and then listen to their response. You might be surprised by what you hear.

Of course these are just my observations. It would be great if a researcher did some tests to see if there was a link between how willing people are to verbally emote and the trustworthiness of the group. Sounds like a PhD for someone.

The animation was part of an experiment conducted by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel in 1944. Their paper is now a classic in human psychology.

Heider, F. & Simmel, M. (1944): “An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior“. American Journal of Psychology 57: 243-59