How to outsmart your biases - Valerie Arnold's keynote at ebbf's annual event

Outsmart your own biases

How to outsmart our limiting brain patterns to create a better future

KEYNOTE Valerie Arnold

OUTSMART YOUR OWN BIASESHow to outsmart our limiting brain patterns to create a better future

©VALERIE ARNOLD 2016


HONESTLY?

HAVE YOU EVER DISREGARDED

EVIDENCE THAT WENT AGAINST YOUR VIEWPOINT?

CONFIRMATION BIAS


Confirmation bias or Desire to confirm our opinions: once we form an opinion, we typically seek out information that supports it. And we ignore facts that challenge it.

GOOD INTENTIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH


COGNITIVE BIASES


Cognitive biases:Preconceived notions, such as overconfidence in our opinions, which can result in unwise decisions

WHAT DO YOU SEE?


How many of you see a black square in this picture?

PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS AT PLAY


Prior knowledge

PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS AT PLAY

New knowledge


HOW IT IMPACTS CONSULTATION

Reliance on familiar experiences and past successes: we tend to base our decisions on events and information that we’re familiar with and that have positive associations for us.


WHAT DO YOU SEE, NOW?


COGNITIVE DISSONANCE


Cognitive dissonance: the human need to possess an accurate view of things, aka to be right!

Human beings need to feel consistent (aligned thoughts, feelings and behaviours).We resolve the inconsistency either by changing our behaviour or, more often, bydistorting reality and changing what we tell ourselves about the situation (thoughts and beliefs).

COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS, OR BIASES


Cognitive distortions: psychological strategies that we use to distort reality, and thus protect our self-esteem from information that would hurt us.

Confirmation biasReliance on past experience

Loss aversion

Overconfidence in our opinions

Egocentrism

Emotional attachment

Overgeneralization

Groupthink

Aggressive advocacy

Excessive optimism

Anchoring

Insufficient adjustment

Sunk-cost fallacyControllability bias

Status quo bias

Present bias

GROUPTHINK & AGGRESSIVE ADVOCACY


Groupthink: when participant’s desire for agreement and maintaining relationships overrides their motivation to evaluate alternative options.

Aggressive advocacy: when group members champion their personal views rather than considering the needs of the group.

GROUPTHINK: 2 RELATED BIASES


Escalation of commitment: we invest additional resources in an apparently losing proposition / projects because of the effort, money, and time already invested.

Loss aversion: we feel losses more acutely than gains of the same amount, which makes us more (or less) risk-adverse than a rational calculation would recommend.

KNOWLEDGE: GAINING (SELF-)AWARENESS

Raising our self-awareness, through research, honest self-reflection, mentoring, etc..

We are not perfect, and it’s ok!


Being aware of our self-limiting beliefs, and consciously deciding to replace them by beliefs and behaviours which are resource

Gaining confidence in our abilities and judgement, even within highly uncertain VUCA environments

(Self-)awareness

Choice

Self-confidence

TRIPLE LOOP LEARNING TO CHALLENGE BIASES


Some tools:• Ask yourself: What would you do if you were certain you couldn’t fail?• Not “why do we want to hold a consultation?” but “what for?”• Challenge given truths by removing vital components: what would be a ski vacation without skis?• Do things differently: hold consultation meeting in an informal place, read authors you’d never considered

due to being “off topic”, include people you know are opponents, etc.• Seek information that contradicts your point of view

ON TO MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS

How do we stop trying to push round pegs into square holes, and detach from our personal opinion

to create a better future?..


VALÉRIE ARNOLD


Entrepreneur Leadership Educator Executive Master Coach

INSPIRIT


Website: www.inspirit.eu.comEmail: [email protected] Valerie Arnold

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How to outsmart your biases - Valerie Arnold's keynote at ebbf's annual event