Even
President Trump has had to admit that things are more complicated than he
initially thought! While this is no
surprise to most of us, many people don’t even notice that their brain is
massively simplifying the complexities of the world they live in just to make
some sense of it. What are you
over-simplifying?
The
Brexit arguments for the UK’s Leave campaigners were reduced to very simplistic
emotional statements that were easy to understand. The Remain campaign floundered with the
complexity of trying to articulate the impact of disentangling the UK economy
and legal system from 40 years of intense and very complicated
negotiations. They didn’t manage to
simplify the benefits of remaining part of the EU enough for people to
comprehend. This made it very tempting
to go with the argument that was easy to understand. For many, the alternative was just too
difficult to think about (and all the fearmongering didn’t help – surely it
couldn’t be that bad!).
Your Lazy Brain
Your
brain is very energy-hungry and fundamentally quite lazy. It needs just the right amount of glucose and
oxygen to function well. Our Prefrontal
Cortex, the very thin outer layer at the front of our brain, where we do all
our conscious thinking and decision making is particularly sensitive to any
drop in energy. In fact it will cease
all movement in the rest of the body in order to conserve energy for complex
thinking. You can check this out when
next walking with a friend. Just
spontaneously ask them to do a difficult calculation like multiplying 927 by 13. They will probably slow down or even stop
walking and look at you with a weird expression as their brain tries to make
sense of what was just asked of it.
Your
brain is always looking for the most energy-efficient way to manage its
thinking processes. This means
simplifying things because expending precious energy on complex thinking takes
a lot of effort and is mentally exhausting which has a direct impact on our
physical energy.
The
mechanisms the brain uses to simplify complex issues are referred to by
psychologists and neuroscientists as ‘Biases’. I like to call them Thinking
Traps and this is the second in a series of mini-articles about the SEEDS®
Model developed by David Rock. This
convenient model groups the dozens of biases that have been identified into
five categories. For a brief overview of
the model, click here.
E is for Expedience
The
first ‘E’ in the SEEDS model is for ‘Expedience’ – this bias is about the
availability of information and the ease with which we can confirm it.
While
this mechanism has had evolutionary benefits for us over the millennia of human
existence, it can be dangerous to over-simplify business or the leadership and
management of people. The global
financial crises was largely due to the over-simplification of extremely
complex financial products, which in the end no-one really understood at all.
It’s
interesting to see politicians use the predominance of this bias on our
thinking by creating a very simple slogan that gets repeated over and
over. It was taken advantage of in the
Brexit referendum by the Leave Campaign as mentioned above and was used to
devastating effect by Donald Trump in his Presidential Campaign. Firstly, Trump destroyed his Republican opponents
one by one by giving them a very simple and derogatory label for example: "Little
Marco" (Rubio) and “Lyin’ Ted (Cruz).
Once he had them out of the way he attacked the Democrat Candidates with
“Crazy Bernie” (Saunders) and “Crooked Hilary” (Clinton). When the FBI announced a few days before the
election that they were re-opening an investigation into Hilary Clinton’s
emails, for many people it quickly confirmed and crystallised the readily
available information (Crooked Hilary).
However,
using this tactic can backfire very badly when a simple message that is being
promoted is demonstrated not to be true.
Theresa May became rather robotic in her announcement of the need for
‘Strong and Stable’ leadership. However,
her U-turns on her Manifesto and a number of other mishaps created a new and
very damaging label for her; ‘Weak and Wobbly’.
As there seemed to be more evidence of this than the former she lost her
political majority and was left with a very weak and unstable government.
I’m
sure there were many other factors at play because we now live in a very
complex political environment, but the power of the Bias of Expedience is not
to be underestimated.
The
mess the US president got himself into with his early executive orders is proof
that some leaders blunder and stumble into exceptionally complex situations
just because they allowed their brains to over-simplify and use information
that was convenient. The UK government
is in danger of falling into this Thinking Trap with the Brexit negotiations.
The
bias of Expedience shows up a lot in management where managers form an opinion
of certain staff being good (having a halo) and others being bad (having
horns). Then they only see behaviour
that confirms their belief and ignore any examples that contradict it. It is also the case that many Leaders and
Managers are too busy to think. They are
continuously overloading their brains with ‘stuff to do’ and jumping to
expedient conclusions which can have serious consequences like making poor
decisions, losing their credibility and the power to be effective.
The Antidote
The
antidote to the bias of Expedience is to consider all the information available
and seek alternative perspectives even if it makes you feel uncomfortable. It is important to note that any discomfort
is often caused because your brain hates being wrong and will feel a drop in status if it has to admit that there are things it does not
know, or which it may have mistaken.
This produces a nasty shot of neurochemicals like adrenalin. A wise leader or manager will recognise that
the feelings of discomfort are not necessarily because the alternative
information itself is wrong, it’s just a normal brain-response to a drop in
status. The uncomfortable feelings can
be tempered by taking a few deep breaths and becoming more mindful. Once your brain has calmed down from its
reactive reflex to a drop in status you can remind yourself about how
alternative views can help you avoid even greater problems and achieve even
greater rewards.
So
when it comes to the bias of Expedience it is probably wise to consider the
following questions:
- Who is providing you with information? Is it balanced?
- How many assumptions are you making due to the information that happens to be readily available?
- How good are you at listening to the counter arguments to your position (even when it hurts)?
- How mindful are you being about the fact that you have the bias of Expedience?
All
the cutting edge Leadership literature is now discussing the need for greater
self-awareness. Recognising and taking
appropriate action to mitigate the bias of Expedience is an important
ingredient of success for any business in the 21st Century. So, avoid getting trapped by your thinking and
resist the temptation to over-simplify or use expedient information that may be
incomplete or even wrong!
If
you have any questions about any of the above or would like to know more about
developing strategies for raising the self-awareness of your Leaders and Managers
please get in touch.
With best regards,
David Klaasen
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