Choice is the most powerful tool we have. We exist in an infinite number of possibilities, that we can shape only by continuously making choices. For this reason, we would think humans had mastered optimal decision-making skills by now. However, truth is, we are often not as good as we would like to be at making decisions.
The world we live in becomes everyday more complex and uncertain. We are constantly bombarded by an endless amount of information, and misinformation, that we don’t have the time, or the tools, to properly analyze, filter, and digest. Our natural response to it is to inertially repeat what we learned from experience, over and over, proceeding the same way and adopting numerous mental short-cuts wired on us by biology. However, while our world evolves and changes rapidly, our cognitive mechanisms do not update at the same pace and we are often left behind, unarmed, and incapable to safely navigate into this new world. The psychologist Gary A. Klein, father of the Naturalistic Decision Making framework and Pre-mortem method describes this in terms of intuition and insight: “Intuition is when we use our experience, and the patterns we have learned, to rapidly size up situations and know how to respond without going through deliberate analysis. Intuitions depend on the patterns we have acquired. Insight is about gaining new patterns.”
So how can gain insight? In order to gain insight, we need to be able to let go of the old mechanisms and adopt new tools. Cognitive scientists have worked on developing new tools to help people make better decisions; these new tools, based on visualization strategies, are key in developing awareness and critical thinking, which in turn will help us navigate the change and protect us from the information that overwhelms our brains. The good news is that most of these tools are already at our disposal, and we just need to master how to properly use them to our advantage. Just like Sandra bullock in the movie Gravity, we are all surrounded by tools that were designed for some purpose and we should now learn how to use them for a different purpose.
Iris Stammberger, Team Development and Operational Agility Consultant, and big fan of the movie Gravity, has dedicated great part of her life to learn about these tools, and to apply them with the teams and executives she works with, and to her own life. “The Tool Lady”, as Iris likes to call herself, can provide us with the practical steps we need to take in order to master new mind tools to build a better lifescape. These mind tools will help our brain to be a little bit less naked when walking out there, into the world.
We hope you are excited to join us on 10/6 for the webinar on Making Better Decisions with Iris Stammberger to obtain your new life tool-kit! Join us for our other upcoming events, including The Likeability Trap Book Club on 10/7, and Building Trust in Your Team on 10/14.