World After Mid-Night Vision Goggles
Eddie Obeng MBA, PhD, FAPM, PPL, Qubot
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I'm working on a new pentascope* on 'How to Glimpse Reality'.
It will help us reduce divisiveness, hear each other better and creatively collaborate in life outside the workplace. I'm inspired by the work of Kathryn Schulz
Can you tell me if I should push this or just let things be..?
. * a combination of PETs (Possibility Exploration Tools), Tips & 'How To's'
STORY:
For billions of years people thought the Sun went round the Earth.
Why?
No. Not because they were stupid but because it looks that way.
We know different. We know the Earth goes round the Sun.
Why? Because it looks that way.
But the real reason that we have night and day is because the Earth is rotating.
That also looks the same way.
Three explanations.
All fit the observation by eye from the ground - and if you go through traditional myths there are many more. My favourite is the one where the Sun and Moon are painted on the inside of a bowl that is painted half blue and half black and is turned by a giant hand!
So how can you know what is not true?
The advent of our new world where the pace of change outstrips the pace of learning has left us with a challenge - we either have to be curious and learn for ourselves or become wholly reliant and dependant on 'trusted sources' who navigate the complexity & volume of data and present us with a simple understanding.
But what if they don't know and get it wrong?
What if they are malign and provide us with misinformation? After all most 'trusted' sources will be influenced in some way, commercial, government pressure, licencing or trying to do 'the right thing'. We would make our rational decisions and build strategies that were condemned before beginning.
For me my active journey to pay attention and take personal ownership to 'glimpse the future' for myself began when 'trusted sources' told me that there was no chance of #Brexit and that Hilary Clinton had a 91% change of winning the White House.
Over the past six years listening and participating in hundreds of conversations about the state of the world, I've discovered that few people have studied #criticalthinking. Would you agree? (You can even if you are referring to yourself).
Often, they confuse deeply held opinions about the way things clearly look to them, with reality.
Worse they rely on their emotions for assessing the truth and decision making. Unfortunately with the massive advances in persuasion and influence science and the effective application of #AI to the big data from social media, the one thing you can no longer rely on is your gut instinct. It is easy to manipulate through digital & media.
Why would the weatherman lie to me?
Even more terrifying for them they are forced to rely on 'trusted sources' who are consistently wrong as I illustrated previously. And even when proven wrong the 'trusted' sources rarely ever confess and scoff down humble pie.
This is a dangerous state of affairs for critical thinking. Emotions are high and powerfully owned. The trusted sources are best friends you dare not impugn so if I was to suggest that what the weatherman was saying was incorrect the forceful and angry response would be assume you had bad intentions or were insane and to demand, "Why would the weatherman lie to me?" instead of just looking out of the window.
What I plan to provide is a pair of 'Night-vision goggles or scope for seeing reality in our World After Midnight.
Here we go with my first draft.
Is it helpful?
Dad. Change Agent. Facilitator. Strategist. Linkybrain PM @ Scottish Enterprise & Hon. Executive Fellow Uni@Aberdeen
2 年It's looking useful...please continue... What might help is a tool to help people acknowledge what they dont know to help people define what they need to know....either solo or for groups...or for different groups. Does that make sense? Mike Healy MBA, FCIPD, FICW what you think?
Facilitator, Executive Coach, Consultant
2 年What I like the most is your statement re how do I feel, that Being wrong feels the same as being right. I don’t think it’s actually possible to know or state the truth, as a core part of being human. Not having a feeling about being wrong is connected to attaching meaning to truth, which is a starting point for our human failing to know the truth. You know the discussion about the glass half full/half empty? This automatically destines us to see and consider less than what is really there, which is a glass of water and always more than a full half or empty half. So I think you’re heading on an important and narrow track. The paradigms that hold human truth are defining the answer and they are a starting point.
Making innovation better so it delivers the impact needed!
2 年Critical thinking is such a core skill - we need to take personal responsibility to do it, which means looking at all the voices not just the ones that we immediately "agree" with. I wonder if we don't do it because it could break our values which means we have to make new ones, which can be very hard. I like your first draft Eddie Obeng!
Helping you learn new ways to approach change | Putting people before process | Best selling author of the Change Ninja book series and the 4 Day Ninja Challenge.
2 年Funny as I tried to engage in a critical thinking discussion this week and it went down like a lead balloon - they thought I was mad to challenge the narrative that we all 'know' is correct. I tried talking about unintended consequences of past policies but they couldn't make the leap because they had the data from the misjudged policies which in hindsight seemed so obviously wrong Using Nightvision and exploring examples we already know that fit these could be a great way to start a session and shift thinking/test ideas as they emerge