CX Shortcomings Explained By Chesterton's Fence & Black Swans

Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I’ve been thinking this week about Chesterton’s fence, the idea that if you don’t know why someone put up a fence, you should be very hesitant to take it down.

This has gotten me thinking about unknowledge, what we don’t know, and how the fact that there are facts, bodies of information we don’t possess should make us much more humble and cautious about our confidence in what we do know.

For Each Of Us What We Don't Know Is Infinite Compared To What We Do Know

The reality of living in this modern world, with more information, more specialization and faster rates of changes than ever before is that we are, comparatively so, getting ever less knowledgeable.

There's just too much to know. Sadly, the modern world gives us the opposite impression: that we know, that we're on top of it all, that we're broadly intelligent. We're not.

As Marcelo Gleiser observed, the more we know - our island of knowledge - the more that knowledge interacts with other topics and questions that we don't know as much about. This is the paradox of knowledge, as you get more, you get more exposure to what you don't know.

As your island of knowledge grows, so to does your shoreline of ignorance.

Find Your Knowledge Shoreline & Let It Constrain Your CX Detective Work

So how do you know when you're approaching your shoreline of ignorance?

After all, the island is a metaphor, not literal, so you won't have a sandy beach to tell you you're getting to the edge of your knowledge.

Well, here's a thought exercise: Think about your area of knowledge or expertise that is deepest, and think about the last time you heard someone talk about that topic. Did you notice things they missed? Layers of complexity that they were likely not aware of?

Now imagine yourself talking about another topic that you know a little about, but are not an expert in. Assume you're missing a lot of the detail as well.

Remind yourself that topics you know a little bit about, are topics where someone else is the expert, not you.

Customer Experience Suffers From Expertise Delusions

Customer experience is deceptive, and lures many of our colleagues into the trap of expertise. Customer experience appears simple, but it is not. Unforunately that makes many think of themselves as experts in customer experience.

We’ve had people say it’s simply the Golden Rule. That’s wrong. If you do unto others as you would have them do unto you, well then you’re not providing them the best experience for them, are you.

We’ve had people say the customer is always right so give them what they want. That’s wrong. Humans hardly know themselves, and are constantly at war with themselves, the healthy meal we want to want to eat, or the unhealthy meal we actually want to eat, and don’t want ourselves to want to eat.

CX is not the golden rule, and it's not the customer is always right, but if you don't know, both of those maxims sound very reasonable.

Look For Your Own Knowledge Delusions

For CX teams, stay humble about what you don't know about how your organization works. This comes back to Chesterton’s fence. I have been guilty of going around the organization assuming that where I saw fences with seemingly no purpose, it meant they could just be taken down. In actuality, I didn’t understand the reason why they were put up. The lesson is to be endlessly curious to discover the layers of detail and complexity that exist.

And, when you interact with colleagues who see the value of the fence – the process, the rule – differently from you, don’t assume that because they disagree with you that they are wrong.

Don’t assume you are wrong either when someone disagrees with you, there are likely elements of truth in both of your perspectives. Indeed, as someone with less knowledge, sometimes your beginner’s mind takes you beyond their knowledge of why the fence was put up in the first place. It is possible the inefficient process has outlived its usefuleness. Posing that question isn’t the problem. Failing to pose that question is.

Find out why the fence was put up. Find out why the fence was the option chosen. The fence could be a process that seems inefficient but prevents catastrophic mistakes.