#ThinkfullyHabit: Have second thoughts
Our expertise can give us a false sense of assurance if we fail to realise the situation around us is changing, or we overlook new information or viewpoints that should change or challenge our existing views.
Try looking at your issue from different perspectives - look, look, then look again.
Ask yourself: “What would it take to change my mind?”
If you can’t answer that, or the answer is nothing, then you may be at risk of working on blind assumption and blinkered to new information or perspectives that reveal a changing context.
WHY?
This is all about overcoming ‘tunnel vision’ – a human cognitive bias that results in a narrowed focus, which means you only see what you expect to see and fail to recognise a changing context. It means your previously held assumptions may become less valid, or worse, no longer valid at all.
We’re all susceptible to tunnel vision, and it can be particularly damaging – for instance, it’s been well researched with detectives investigating criminal suspects*.
“We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.”
When faced with a challenge, try to stop and take a step back to consider similarities and differences to your own perspectives. It’s important to explore how fixed or fluid your mindset is. To avoid tunnel vision, we need to ask ourselves what evidence would convince us that our interpretation is wrong? What would it take to change our minds?