Don't get trapped by diffusion of responsibility

The Common Mistake When Asking for Help00:00

One of the most common newbie mistakes people make at work is sending an email or message to their team asking "can someone help me with this, please?" and ending up not getting the help needed in time or not at all.

The Kitty Genovese Case00:36

In 1964, a young woman named Kitty Genovese was brutally attacked and stabbed to death outside of her apartment in New York City. A lot of people heard her scream or even watched the crime happen from their windows, but no one helped or even called the police in time. When the killer Winston Moseley was captured, detectives asked him how he dared to attack a woman in front of so many witnesses. His answer was "I knew they wouldn't do anything. People never do."

Bystander Effect and Diffusion of Responsibility01:06

A lot of psychological research was done to understand how this could happen, which led to the concepts called bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility. This explains that a larger number of bystanders actually decreases the likelihood of someone getting help, because each individual would have a weaker sense of responsibility and think someone else must have already helped or would do so.

This exact same phenomenon happens very frequently in the workplace. When asking "can someone help me with this problem please", the request has little power compared to someone screaming for their life during a murder. If that couldn't get people to help, a vague group request is unlikely to succeed either.