5. Invite opposing views. Leave the echo chambers.

When was the last time you recognized a LinkedIn post (or blog, or Tweet, or…) and its follow-up comments as representing the views of people living in an echo chamber? Echo chambers arise for many reasons, but the energy versus climate false dilemma has nurtured quite a few.

A Google search on the term will bring up this definition (via Oxford Languages):

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echo chamber

noun

2. an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.

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Echo chambers are very common in many social or news media settings. Communications in echo chambers can make participants believe their uncommon views are widely held. Echo chambers reinforce participants’ opinions and promote confirmation bias. As such echo chambers are known to lead to increased polarization of all political, social, and technical sorts. Ad hominem attacks on people with opposing views often reverberate loudly within echo chambers.

Collectively, it would be great if we could all develop the metacognitive skills to recognize echo chamber sand then have the courage and skills to dismantle them. Maybe the best we can do is just get out of them. As people, as a society, we can become stronger by hearing and really considering views that differ from ours.

I've snipped this quote from an Amazon.com summary of a book called “Think Again”, by Adam Grant:

“In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones.”

I recommend letting those words soak in for 5-10 minutes of self reflection. If we stop that way to think, and if we're honest with ourselves, many or probably even most of us will recognize ourselves in those words.

Now, go back and reread posts and comments by/about your fave energy versus climate spokesperson. Do the people involved welcome debate and discussion, or do they go on the attack against, or be dismissive of, people with opposing views?

Another way to look at unproductive discussions about climate, energy, or anything else is to frame those discussions in terms of Task Conflict versus Relationship Conflict. These two types of conflict often arise in workplaces where task conflict could involve disagreements about what the goals of a project are, or the best way to achieve those goals, and relationship conflicts arise because of differences in personality, cultural differences, pettiness, or other problems not associated with the tasks at hand. All too often, task conflict is mistaken for relationship conflict. Differences of opinion about tasks are taken as personal attacks, or perhaps they lead to personal (ad hominem) attacks.

“What do you mean you disagree with my technical assessment? People like you are always after people like me…”

Buy yourself an ice cream cone for every time you’ve seen something like that happen. I suspect you’ll put on weight.

Task conflict is absolutely to be encouraged. It makes for better technical decisions. It leads to personal growth. But it only works when everyone involved understand the rules, and Rule #1 is simple: It ain’t personal, and don't make it so.

Inviting criticism. Considering opposing views. Staying open to ideas. As an empiricist I've noted these aren't often the habits of people who get ahead, politically or socially. Absolute confidence in one's own opinions, and how to share them, seems to take the day.

It comes down to values. Do you want to grow personally? Do you want to grow technically? Do you want to help society? Do you want to help yourself? Do you want to climb career ladders? Do you want the adulation of followers? Do you think you can raise yourself up by putting others down?

The world needs more people who are willing to listen, not talk.

Recognizing our own challenges can be difficult. Recognizing the challenges of others can also be difficult. One of the good things about books like Adam Grant's, David McRaney's You are not so smart podcast, and similar books/podcasts is that they offer positive suggestions about how to win over others in a proactive and friendly way. Highly recommended.