Full Spectrum Thinking

“Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It's something you have to find out for yourself.”-Noam Chomsky

In strategy we often talk about finding the truth about a consumer, a truth about the brand, culture, the product. We reduce this to its essence to articulate a strategy, after all strategy is a choice not a spectrum. But I would say in order to get to a great strategy you need to engage in full spectrum thinking vs a binary bias as Adam Grant calls it, and especially your own bias.?

Newsflash, you won’t ever fully escape your bias, because we simply don’t have that much free will. At least Robert Sapolsky thinks so, he could be biased.? After all we’re just meat sacks with chemicals walking through life with usable pockets. Yes I can hear the women in the audience say “speak for yourself”. I certainly haven’t escaped my bias, but have become much more aware of it and take steps to mitigate it, by consuming both viewpoints I disagree with as well as others more in line with my bias. I search for the truth, knowing I’ll most likely never find it.?

Let’s illustrate full spectrum with a classic debate between Chomsky and Foucault on naturally Canal + in 1971. Did you think this was going to come from the country that brought you drive-thrus and Jerry Springer??

Chomsky is more of an idealist arguing for a universal morality. Foucault believes that power renders morality relative. Both make excellent points, after all what would you expect from two of the world’s best intellectuals. For those keeping track at home, Chomsky did tell us to mind our own business when he got caught in the Jeffery Epstein cookie jar.?

The moral (not the morality) of the story is to look at the full spectrum, reach a more informed conclusion, and improve your strategy.?

The conclusion in this instance is that morality is indeed relative. As it even seemed to be for the person arguing against it. That was my bias, after all I was raised by my mother who often quoted Balzac saying that “behind every great fortune there is a great crime”. But I love Chomsky because I would like to be more of an idealist. I blame my mom (and myself), after all she’s partly responsible for the meat sack with chemicals.?

Happy full spectrum thinking, and bias mitigation. Even if resistance proves to be futile. It’s said better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.