Prepare to Embrace the Cold, Hard Truth
Matt and Terry paged through the report. “You were right,” said Terry, “we didn’t know what we didn’t know. I can’t believe he kept all those texts. It would have cost us thousands of dollars for a forensic expert to recover them, if it was possible at all. I thought I knew him, but this is fairly damning.”
Matt frowned, unconvinced. “Maybe someone borrowed his phone and sent them?”
“Boss,” Terry’s voice was matter of fact, “the phone’s geolocation data was on, and according to his testimony he was the only one in the house all week.”
“I want a second opinion,” said Matt, “I just can’t believe this is true.”
Bias is real and there is a natural human tendency to see what we want to see, rather than to see the world as it is. In a crisis, this negative tendency can be amplified. It takes real effort to set aside preconceived ideas, but nothing is more important in this stage of the process than an open mind.
If you made the first commitment, doing what it takes to get to a solid foundation of facts, but haven’t cleared your mind to receive those facts, you will selectively hear only what reinforces your biases, and filter out the facts that don’t fit. This is a common human impulse known as “confirmation bias.”
Sometimes the truth is actually better for us, and our organization, than our current perception, but it is a natural human tendency to find comfort in what is familiar, even when the familiar isn’t what is best. Why do we subconsciously deceive ourselves? Because it is hard work to readjust our mental framework, and we can feel like we are losing our bearings. Sometimes the cost of truth is that it takes us places we didn’t want to go. It kills the safety of our ideas and hopes, for a more gritty reality. But it is the only way to lead with integrity.
One of the benefits of bringing in a crisis manager to confidentially help you and your team is that they bring an outside perspective that is less prone to confirmation bias.
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