Mood-Congruent Memory Bias

We tend to recall memories that align with our current mood. It's easier to remember positive experiences, and when we're in a bad mood, we're more likely to recall negative ones. This bias affects how we interpret our past, perceive our present, and make decisions about our future.

Understanding mood-congruent memory bias can have significant implications for team dynamics, especially in a work environment that's as collaborative as software.

When I think about this bias, I think beyond my mood or the mood of a single coworker. Something that plays a large role in overall team health is our team’s mood, as a whole. This can affect how we make decisions to a large degree.

Something I think about a lot is how outside pressures can impact how a team works. Teams can work really well together on their own, but sometimes things like economic pressures, the stock market, even senior leadership, or other adjacent teams can play a role in our team’s mood.

Back when I was working for a giant corporation there was just so much outside pressure.

Love it or hate it, the stock price was always super important to leadership. There was this mantra that we’d hear all the time “$2 earnings per share.” This was a target the executive board was trying to get the company to hit.

I still have no idea how that was supposed to help a software team build better software, but the result was everyone was stressed out.

This stress impacted not just the mental health of our team, but the overall ability to plan effectively.

Thinking about this bias as I look back, when it came to how we planned for future releases this played a huge role in how willing we were to take risks. When we were under so much stress, all we could think about was stressful situations in the past and how leadership would get upset about one thing or another.

The end result was a team that was just unwilling to take any risks. And I think our overall creativity suffered. The end product was definitely worse for it. Ironically in the case of enterprise software, crappy software led to poor user experience which lead to longer time on task and inefficiencies that guess what? This led to missing that $2 earnings per share target.

Go figure. 🤷

🎯 Here are some key takeaways

1️⃣ Monitor team mood: Be mindful of the team's overall mood when scheduling meetings that require reflective thinking or strategic planning.

2️⃣ Train everyone on emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence workshops can equip the team with skills to recognize and manage our emotions more effectively.

3️⃣ Encourage perspective-taking: Train team members to consider situations from other’s perspectives, especially during times of high stress or pressure. This can foster empathy and understanding.

4️⃣ Monitor workload and stress levels: High stress can exacerbate negative moods, making this bias more pronounced and negatively affecting the team.

5️⃣ Encourage team building activities: Regular activities that foster positive experiences can create a kind of reservoir of positive memories for team members to draw from during challenging times.

Learn more about the Mood-Congruent Memory Bias!

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