I always enjoy looking back at some of the healthy (rarely heated) debates I’ve had with friends and colleagues over the years. Working at Bell (aka MT&T for those from the East Coast and pre-Y2K), a friend and I stumbled upon the topic of nature vs nurture. I’ll be the first to admit I no longer remember the issue that started the debate. I remember it went on for months, with each of us trying to persuade the other to our line of thinking whenever we had a new argument. Full disclosure, I was more on the nurture side; he supported the nature angle.
The question essentially asks, how much of our personality, intellect, preferences, and beliefs are based on experience and our surroundings growing up, or are we inherently born with them? The short, quick answer obviously could be that it’s a combination of both, but then I wouldn’t have much left to write.
Years later, I discovered this nature vs nurture debate continues to be an ongoing discussion in the field of psychology, and it still rages to this day. Nativists, such as Plato and Descartes, regard most things as occurring naturally. Empiricists believe that most things are learned, and the mind starts as a relatively clean slate when born.
I side with the majority in acknowledging that biological traits are nature-driven. Our physical characteristics are determined by our parents and the hereditary nature of their genetic makeup. But what about our intellect and personality? And more specifically, in a work environment, the things we are attracted to doing, how we think and problem-solve, and how we formulate our opinions. I wrote a bit about beliefs and behaviours a year ago and re-iterate my opinion. Beliefs are primarily formed from the environment around us. But are they?
I still stand by the fact that most areas of development, be it intellectual, emotional, or other personality traits are acquired. Does that mean that we don’t start with “something”? No, I do believe there are some tendencies that are in place based on our genetics. Can they be overcome or adjusted? Absolutely! The world we live in and our surroundings are the greatest opportunity to develop and learn.
How often do we see and read about the evolution that a professional or a leader has gone through throughout their career? Through their learnings, guidance, and self-reflection, they adapt, learn from their mistakes, and evolve. That is the wonderful characteristic of the human mind. An ability to learn. This continues to be a differentiator between natural and artificial intelligence. Machines don’t exist (yet) that have the processing power and learning ability of the human mind (more on that in another entry).
In a workplace, we are exposed to so many different processes, people, cultures, and historical perspectives that it is very realistic to believe that most of our influences can be formed by these surroundings, and yes, potentially evolve. If our development was based solely on our genetics, would we be able to change? I think not. Intelligence and personality would be more set, more established. The ability of our brain to learn through its environment allows all of us to grow, to become better.
For the individual late in their career or retirement, I ask, how much did you evolve throughout your career? If not at all, I’ve been proven wrong (and you could likely knock me over with a feather). More likely, the growth and development were significant. How many of us can look back when we were 18, or 22, or 30, and see how much we’ve changed and grown. That didn’t happen because of how we were born, but by how much we learned from our surroundings. I for one have seen myself evolve from more of a process-focused individual to one more focused on people.
Be thankful for our genetics, as it gave us life and the ability to learn. Be as grateful for our experiences, in work, in play, in relationships, in life. We are who we are because of those. And tomorrow, we’ll be different yet again. And that’s a good thing.
Darren