What are ‘blink’ decisions costing you? Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, popularised the idea that people’s first judgement, their gut instinct, is the usually the best one.
He says that people are able to assimilate complex information almost instantly and draw meaningful conclusions.
Blink is a fascinating read, but, as Gladwell would put it, let’s examine the idea that we come up with our best judgements in the blink of an eye.
Yes we are able to make snap judgements about people and social situations, we have to, evolution has dictated that we need to be able to instantly assess whether a situation is safe or not.
But there is a good deal of research that demonstrates that most people are poor at making many types of judgements. At the top of that list are judgements about the likelihood of events, one’s own competence relative to others’, and about cause-and-effect relationships.
So if you’re looking to run your business on ‘blink’ decisions then expect to fall into the common traps that lead to costly mistakes.
Although the attraction of this approach is you don’t have to subject yourself to any real thinking and you can continue substituting popular slogans for insights.
Or if you are prepared to give up the excuse that gut instinct is the best way to run your business and you’re prepared to do the mental heavy lifting that sound strategy requires, then you might have a chance at real success.
In the words of Rudyard Kipling: “If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs…”
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight