JONATHAN COOK: Self-fulfilling prophecy is a tool to set people free
Managers create organisational reality for people, which can be either affirming or destructive
In 1968 Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher in the little town of Riceville in relatively monocultural Iowa, US, ran a daring experiment. She told her all-white class on the first day that those with blue eyes were smarter and better behaved than those with brown eyes.
All morning she selectively pointed out the mistakes brown-eyed children made and praised blue-eyed children. In just one morning she created a stark division in the class. Brown-eyed children had to wear collars to identify them and were denied privileges such as playing on certain equipment at break or going back for second helpings of lunch. ..
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