The Danger of Echo Chambers
Mark Rapier CMAS, ALC
Trusted Guide | Author | Lifelong Learner | Corporate Diplomat | Certified M&A Specialist | Certified Life Coach
Today’s second topic also talks about Echo Chambers.?
Word Count: About 1,000, approximate reading time 4 to 6 minutes.?Please share your thoughts in the comments.?Please be kind and subscribe to my newsletter.
This article will provoke a negative reaction in some.?I ask that you read the entire piece and focus on the ideas, not just the examples.
Echo chambers form when we surround ourselves only with those to agree with us.?Over time and without our realizing it, what we hear in these chambers becomes distorted.?The original point is eventually replaced with a distorted version of what we once understood.?Recently, former Vice President Mike Pence stated in a TV interview, “Well, the radical left believes that the freedom of religion is the freedom from religion.”?The article’s headline is “Mike Pence declares that Americans have no right to “freedom from religion.”?That is not what Mr. Pence said, but he may have come close.?Others have made this statement.?Rep. Lauren Bobert said, “The church is supposed to direct the government. ?The government is not supposed to direct the church. ?That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”?The headline shows that the article’s editors live inside their own bubble.
The echo chamber distortion is causing many to lose sight of the true history.?Many of the earliest immigrants to America came to escape religious persecution.?Both my parents’ families came to the US in the early 1600s for this reason.?Less than 100 years after the formation of the Church of England, they departed for America.?The beginning of European religious reformation is generally tied to Martin Luther’s publication of the 95 Theses in 1517.?The Founding Fathers understood the dangers of state-sponsored religion by watching the pain and suffering it caused in Europe.?The same dangers exist today in Iran and Afghanistan.?We cannot allow our faith in God to let us forget that men and women lead religious organizations.?None of those leaders are divine.?The vast majority are good and decent people trying to do the right things.?But we always have to be on the lookout for false profits.
The danger of echo chambers in business is that we filter out information that does not align with what we already believe to be true.?When we do this, it is difficult to change our minds and change course.?It is hard to change our minds.?We must find ways to keep our minds open.?If we live too long in an echo chamber of our own making, we become intolerant.?Intolerance is a destroyer of leadership.
The Danger of Echo Chambers Exists on Both Sides
Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, during their 2020 campaigns, routinely railed against billionaires and the disparity of wealth in the US.?This is a common cause among many of their political peers.?
There is truth to the idea that wealth is concentrated among a few.?According to Forbes, there are about 725 billionaires in the US.?Their total wealth is greater than the more than the 150 million Americans in the bottom 50% of the wealth spectrum.?Elon Musk’s recently announced $50 billion pay package makes it easy to perpetuate this argument.?This makes it easy for their echo chamber to say that billionaires are the cause of wealth disparity.?I do not believe this is true, just as I do not believe executive compensation is an issue.?If a person hits their goals, they should be rewarded based on how the Board of Directors decides.
The real debate is not how much to pay executives but how to pay them in a way that drives a focus on long-term value creation rather than short-term returns.?We need to get away from the echo chambers that exist on CNBC and Fox Business, where people talk about what trades to make today or what options they purchased.?The focus should be on investing for value rather than timing market moves on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Echo chambers exist all around us.?The easiest place to see them is on 24-hour news, business, and sports channels.?All of them have the same panels of commentators.?They are often all on-air for 3 to 6 hours a day, talking to each other on multiple shows.?They feed on each other, and because they are rarely out of the studio, they don’t see anything different.
What I’m Up To
We just wrapped up a project with a large financial services firm.?They are in the process of integrating a significant acquisition.?Our team worked with them to derisk the integration effort and use the consolidation effort to strengthen their M&A capabilities.
Chips and Salsa: Snack-sized news and posts
I closed the first part of the newsletter with a reference to intolerance.?I wrote about this in a previous newsletter.
An interesting approach to considering risk.?We often fail to consider the cumulative effect of small risks.
Many comedy sketches play on the idea that people don’t understand modern art.?One of the tropes is that no one notices a picture is hanging upside down.?This one turns out to be true.
领英推荐
Two interesting articles on urban planning.?Considering both together reminds us that complex problems rarely have a single solution.
The greatest barriers to success are often self-imposed.
Employer ghosting is not as new as this article implies.?Many people believe that if you avoid a hard conversation, what you say cannot be held against you.?Silence can be held against you too.
Some people believe in the science of manifestation; I think it is misunderstood.?You cannot will something into being.?You can imagine being where you want to be in the future and look back at the journey to help you plan your actions.
Quotes
“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”
-????????Leonardo da Vinci
“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”
-????????Henry Ford
The Leader With A Thousand Faces is available on Amazon.
My goal is to make this newsletter as interesting and valuable as possible.?Please share your thoughts and suggestions for improvement.?If there are specific topics in leadership you would like me to focus on in future issues, please send them my way.