Ducks In A Row: Overcoming The 4 Barriers To 'Knowing'
by Miki Saxon
Yesterday I said, “…there’s a lot of latitude in what one chooses to know,” and listed four barriers; I also said that we’d talk about
I promised to offer up some ideas on how to hear past the four barriers to knowing, but you need to recognize that no matter how many tools you have, hearing is still a part of your MAP and you may find it necessary to modify your MAP in order to these or any other tool.
Barrier 1 Information disagrees with your ideology or world-view: Probably the best example of this barrier is found in the US Supreme Court. To perform their duties correctly the justices are supposed to interpret the US Constitution without reference to their personal philosophy. If you’ve ever followed the confirmation hearings you know how unlikely this is to happen.
To overcome it, or at least be aware of your prejudices, you need to take a step backwards and really listen to those around you. Seek out people whose ideologies are different than yours and get their interpretation. Yes, theirs will also be biased, but by putting all of them together you’ll start to see a full 360 degree view.
Barrier 2 Information is presented by the opposition, someone you dislike or with whom you disagree: Remember the common advice when someone says something mean to you? “Consider the source of the comment before you consider what was actually said.” Good advice, but dangerous to do unconsciously.
That’s the key to avoiding this barrier—banish unconscious and replace it with hyper-conscious, which is easier than you might think. Typically people know when someone meets any of these criteria, but in the interest of ‘getting along’ they bury the feeling and teach themselves to ignore it. The problem is that it doesn’t go away and continues to color any interactions. But if you embrace the feeling consciously and then separate it from the information received you are far more likely to be able to evaluate it objectively.
Barrier 3 Information conflicts with your personal agenda/goals: The most obvious example of this is the Wall Street meltdown. Business was driven strictly be a goal to raise profit thereby increasing bonuses; any information that derailed that was ignored.
On one level this one is easy; you need to be brutally honest with yourself regarding exactly what you’re after, although you don’t need to share the information with anyone else. Along with a brutally honest vision of your goal, you need to determine to what lengths you’ll go to achieve it. Finally, you need to decide whether all of that agrees with your ethical structure, the persona you want to project and the legacy you want to leave behind you.
Barrier 4 information is inconvenient or annoying: Remember the old saying, “don’t confuse me with facts?” When things are going well, or a decision has been made, it’s very tempting to ignore anything that might upset the applecart. In part, this is what happened in the sub prime fiasco.
Overcoming it means forcing yourself to keep an open mind, always accepting and evaluating new information as if the decision hasn’t yet been made and then integrating it into your model. If the result is substantially different from the prior result, then you need to look for additional information that either confirms or refutes the need for modification or outright change.
Cultivating these tool will prove useful in all parts of your life. They can even help you build a reputation for achieving where others fail.
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