How our decisions are framed

You won’t agree with everything that Levitt and Dubner present in Freakonomics (2009), but it will make you wonder if you are asking the right questions. [1] Levitt and Dubner appeal to the person in the street who doesn’t have time to read all of the research available on an area of interest or something significant that appears in a headline. They consider themselves ‘rogues’ because they don’t accept ‘conventional wisdom’. To do so, often draws loose, or shaky conclusions from research that are already based on a set of assumptions or firmly held beliefs. Levitt and Dubner draw upon numerous examples to demonstrate that ‘conventional wisdom is more about ‘convenient truth’, in that most people can’t be bothered really trying to find out what the problem might be; they settle for an explanation or interpretation from someone else, usually an ‘expert’ or ‘authority’ figure. In a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern what is ‘real’ news or ‘fake’ news, or where we are presented with just enough information to enable a ‘quick-win’ at work, asking the right questions is important. Levitt and Dubner’s method is not rocket science. They just don’t accept the status quo. They take a particular finding that supposedly explains the reason for its existence and then, rather than accepting it as truth, begin to explore if there is a better question that should have been asked. It’s a form of professional scepticism. Don’t believe it until you have absolutely discovered what is the right question to ask. What is the question that will take you to the core of the issue?   What’s the bottom-line? Learn to discern the best question to ask, in any situation. Don’t just accept the commonly held view, or what Levitt & Dubner call the ‘convenient truth.’ When you are tempted to be defensive about a position you have taken and don’t allow others to question or challenge your assumptions, your conclusion just might be more about you than it is about the outcome. Leaders ask questions. What are some questions that would help you resolve a difficult situation you are facing at work? What would enable you to take things to a whole new level of productivity or success? Practice the art of asking discerning questions and be ready when others do the same. [1] Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. (2009). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (New York, HarperPerennial.

In Margaret Wheatley’s book, Leadership and the New Science, she challenges traditional perspectives on achieving balance, or equilibrium. She shares the following story – The daily news is filled with powerful changes, and many of us feel buffeted by forces we cannot control… I listened one night to a radio interview with a geologist whose specialty was beaches and shorelines. The interview was being conducted as a huge hurricane was pounding the Outer Banks of the eastern United States… The interviewer asked: “What do you expect to find when you go out there?” Like the interviewer, I assumed he would present a litany of disasters – demolished homes, felled trees, eroded shoreline. But he surprised me. “I expect,” he said calmly, “to find a new beach (Wheatley, 2006, pp. 137) [i]. A life that is immune from chaos, disorder, disturbance and disequilibrium, says Wheatley, does not allow us to be recipients of new information that has the potential to foster growth and new life, thereby leaving us empty and one step closer to death. She challenges our pursuit of balance and comfort where we largely seek to minimise change, claiming that equilibrium has become a prized goal in adult life. She argues that to pursue such a state leaves us without the energy and drive to respond to change leaving us with no capacity to grow (Wheatley, 2006, pp. 75) [i]. Consequently, we feel it is sometimes easier to not forge ahead or take risks, but to return to a place of comfort.  This leads us to the importance of evaluating how we currently react to change; understanding that we can sometimes become so fixated on the one factor that is pressuring change, that we miss the whole. In a self-fulfilling way we see a disastrous, or unwanted result rather than potential growth from processing new information and the new relationships that may result from it. We can’t see the benefit beyond the immediate chaos and confusion. We don’t see a new beach. What’s the bottom-line? Whether we experience tragedy or chaos as a person, or find ourselves in a context where change is rampant or imminent, we can choose how we process change. We do this by asking what we want to learn from it and sometimes even appreciate why change might be necessary. The key is to embrace it, not avoid it or use all our energy trying to keep it at bay. There are many people (and businesses) in crisis. Not because they lack the resources or potential to change, but because they have become wearied by the energy it takes to preserve itself in that state where they lack the ability and capacity to look beyond the storm to the new beach. I find myself questioning whether I, too, am more comfortable with preserving my current context rather than seeing new challenges as opportunities for growth, new beginnings, and greater success. Perhaps it’s time for me to take a walk along a new beach!   [i] Wheatley, Margaret. (2006). Leadership and the New Science. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.