This article is based on the Allwork.Space Future of Work Podcast episode Dr. Jay Harrison on Behavioral Blind Spots. Watch or listen to the full episode.
Companies spend money assessing employees, studying workplace culture, and bringing teams together for offsites. Yet much of what they learn ends up in reports that rarely influence how people are managed or how teams work.
On a recent episode of the Allwork.Space Future of Work Podcast, we spoke with Dr. Jay Harrison, Co-Founder and Director of Behavioral Intelligence at Align Behavioral Intelligence, about why organizations need to put that information to work. Harrison brings a background in professional hockey, a Ph.D. in performance psychology, and experience working with organizations including the NHL Players’ Association, NASCAR, Major League Baseball teams, and military special operators.
His central argument is that companies often have plenty of information about their employees. What they lack is a practical way to use it to make better decisions about hiring, leadership, and teamwork.
Behavioral Data Needs To Move Beyond The Assessment
Harrison describes behavioral intelligence as the process of turning information about individuals and teams into insights that guide action. That means understanding how people naturally approach communication, work tasks, motivation, relationships, and decision-making, then using that knowledge in specific situations.
A personality assessment or workplace exercise can provide a useful snapshot. The problem comes when the information stays there. A company may understand an employee’s preferences during hiring or an executive coaching program, but managers rarely have a way to apply those findings to everyday challenges.
Technology is creating new opportunities to make that information more useful. Harrison says his approach looks at individuals as well as the dynamics of entire teams, helping leaders identify strengths, potential friction points, and areas where people may need different kinds of support.
The goal is to give managers a clearer understanding of how their employees work and what conditions help them perform well.
Different Working Styles Can Become Team Strengths
Harrison demonstrated the idea during the conversation itself. He described his communication style as more expansive and verbal, while other workplace leaders sometimes tend to be more direct and concise. Without an understanding of those differences, the two styles could easily create frustration. One person might feel the other is talking around the point, while the other might feel rushed before getting the full idea across. Recognizing the difference changes the interaction, and each person can adjust without treating the other’s natural tendencies as a problem.
That kind of awareness matters when teams bring together people who approach challenges differently. Leaders can use behavioral insights to anticipate where conflict might arise and help employees understand how their colleagues communicate and contribute.
Harrison connects this to a distinction he has seen throughout his sports career: the most talented group is not necessarily the team that performs best. A leader’s job is to understand the people already on the team and help them make the most of their individual strengths.
That also means recognizing that leadership can look different from one employee to another. One person may lead by challenging ideas in a meeting, while another may contribute through listening, building relationships, and supporting colleagues. Both can strengthen a team when their contributions are understood and valued.
The Cost Of Not Understanding Your People
Harrison groups the potential business costs of limited behavioral visibility into three areas: talent, time, and teamwork.
Hiring is one place to start. He cited a figure suggesting that eight out of 10 unsuccessful hires fail because of fit rather than skills. Behavioral information can help organizations consider whether a candidate’s working preferences and tendencies align with the role and company environment.
Time is another consideration. If managers understand their employees more quickly, they may spend less time trying to work out how to communicate, resolve friction, or place people in roles where they can succeed. Harrison suggested that saving managers even 20 to 30 minutes a week could have meaningful value across an organization.
Then there is the productivity lost when employees feel misunderstood or are repeatedly placed in situations that do not suit their strengths. Better team awareness can help leaders address those problems before they affect collaboration and performance.
Harrison encourages companies to examine the return they are already getting from hiring assessments, culture initiatives, offsites, and executive coaching. Rather than automatically adding another program or platform, leaders can start by asking whether existing investments are producing useful results.
AI Should Help Leaders See More, Not Decide For Them
As companies introduce AI into everyday work, Harrison sees behavioral intelligence as another way technology can support human judgment. The purpose should be to give employees and managers more information and help them recognize things they might otherwise miss.
More data does not automatically create better decisions. Information becomes useful when people can interpret it, understand its relevance, and apply it appropriately.
For Harrison, the starting point is a specific problem a company wants to solve. Leaders might examine hiring outcomes, manager workloads, team friction, or employee productivity, then determine whether better behavioral visibility could improve that particular area.
The larger opportunity is to make the information companies already collect useful long after the assessment or workshop ends. When managers understand how people work, communicate, and lead themselves, they have a better chance of building teams that bring out those strengths.
