#ThinkfullyHabit: Predict decisions
What if you’ve already decided what happens next? What if you’ve pre-determined the best outcome ahead of time, before you’ve looked for further data or information?
Just like in a pre-nuptial agreement which decides ahead of time what happens following a marriage break up, it can be a powerful strategy to say “If I see X … then I will do Y …?” before you get there.
“If you’re free to move the goalposts after you find out where the data landed, then that’s exactly what you’ll do, unconsciously. The solution is to set the goalposts in advance and resist the temptation to move them later.”
WHY?
Pre-thinking through an action helps us to counter the issue of only looking for information, data and ideas that confirms what we already know – often referred to as ‘confirmation bias’ - to find out more check out #ThinkfullyHabit: Break out from your echo chamber.
We know that we can all be prone to 'tunnel vision' and only see what we want to see. When we look at evidence we may even convince ourselves we are absolutely responding objectively, however human biases can cloud our judgements. For instance, asking ourselves what a good result would look like or what we would do if we found out things are in decline before we know this to be the case, provides a good way of preventing us from post-rationalising our views to fit with our biases once we do see new evidence.
It means we should ask new questions early and importantly answer them. For instance, “What would it take to change my mind?” is a great question to ask (not only to make sure the answer isn’t ‘nothing’ which would suggest we’re at risk of tunnel vision) to take notice of what the answers are to look out for - to find out more check out #ThinkfullyHabit: Have second thoughts. Then if we come across information that should make us change our mind, we should at least be less likely to ignore it!