Rethinking In Your Team
Photo by Jonathan Cosens Photography on Unsplash
Adam Grant's latest book is titled Think Again. It's based on the premise that the ability to rethink and learn is increasingly valuable as the world changes quickly. If we accept that things are changing fast in the context of our teams, then it's likely that the skill of rethinking is going to serve us well. After all, if facts change, shouldn't our view on them? More on that next week.
For now, I'd like to explore some of the reasons that we don't rethink. Some of the barriers that make us unlikely to change our mind are worth understanding - for ourselves initially, as well as for working with others.
Think Again raises the role of cognitive biases in our thinking. As humans, we are subject to a plethora of biases which influence our decision making. Biases in our thinking mean that we are likely to come to conclusions that are influenced by how we see the world, rather than how the world actually is.
That means that there is value in us appreciating the role of bias in our thinking. In particular, two biases that are likely to show up in your team are:
Desirability bias - we see what we want to be true. In teams, we may want our project to be on track so we interpret information in a way that supports that view (even if it's not in track).
Confirmation bias - we see what we expect to see. If we form an opinion that someone is hard to work with, we interpret their short email as a sign that they lack interpersonal skills (even if they are responding in a similar way to other colleagues).
The combination of these can be pretty limiting on our individual and collective ability to reconsider our position on any given issue.
The goal of learning to operate without bias seems to be flawed given the number of biases and the fact that it seems like we all have them. Adam Grant suggests that the most dangerous of all biases is the "I'm not biased" bias. More useful is finding a way to acknowledge and operate in our teams with our biases in mind.
Here are a couple of questions for you to consider this week:
1. Are we just seeing what we want to see?
2. What information might challenge our current position?
3. How might developing our rethinking skills serve us?
I have an intellectual crush on Adam Grant. I love the content that he shares and need to acknowledge the fact that the halo effect may be at play here.