By | David Klaasen | Helping You Create Clarity, Inspire Your People & Drive Performance | Retain your best people | Changing Management Mindsets and Behaviour | Practical Behaviour Analytics
You are being limited by the experience of the people around you. Many Leadership teams fall into the Thinking Trap of Experience because they believe that once a subject or idea is discussed and debated by the team it is sufficient to make a good decision. Sadly, most Leadership teams are lacking the necessary diversity to fully consider the complexities of the current technological, political, social and volatile economic environments.
It is still a fact that too many Leaders recruit and promote in their own image and seek out people with similar experiences. In many ways this is totally understandable – we like people who are like us. However, in business it is increasingly a matter of survival to avoid the Thinking Trap of Experience.
Thinking Traps are the short-cuts your brain likes to take. They help to conserve energy and avoid the effort and discomfort of having to admit you may be wrong or don’t have all the answers at your disposal. This is the third article in a mini-series about the SEEDS® Model developed by David Rock. His convenient model groups the dozens of biases that have been identified into five categories. For a brief overview of the model, click here. For other articles in the series check out my blog.
E is for Experience
The second ‘E’ in the SEEDS model is for ‘Experience’ – this bias is about believing that “my perceptions are accurate”. While certainty can be a useful trait for a leader there is a danger that it can become unbalanced. In fact, sometimes our strongest traits can become a weakness because they create blind-spots. The more certain we are, the more likely we are to fall into the Thinking Trap of Experience. The complimentary and paradoxical trait for being certain is being open and reflective. For more on this paradox click here.
